Experiment Three: Bus, Bus

The third installment in the series.

Today’s trip to and from Stars for Life was on the bus in both directions: I caught the 3:45 p.m. Route № 2 bus in front of the Polyclinic and rode out to the corner of Maypoint Road and Beach Grove Road, picked up Oliver, and then we rode back downtown on the 4:28 pm. Route № 3 bus.

Statistics

• Bus Fares: $6.00
• Bus Distance: 11 km
• Total Time: 60 minutes

Pros

• Convenient bus connection, almost door-to-door in both directions.
• Bus shelter on Beach Grove Road, in the shade, made for a pleasant place to wait.

Cons

• Watching almost every single vehicle turning right from Beach Grove Road onto Maypoint Road roll right through the stop sign without even touching the brakes was disquieting.
• A 4:15 p.m. bus back on Route № 3 would have shaved 15 minutes off the trip and made it essentially identical, time-wise, to taking the car.
• The bus back was crowded, so the only place for us to sit, with Ethan the Dog, was in the three seats at the front, meaning that the only place for Ethan was in the aisle, blocking everyone who got off and on the bus during the trip (we were able to move back to more self-contained rear seats about halfway through the trip as the crowd thinned out).

Short of a more robust cycling solution that might present itself in the future, this experiment is the clear winner so far.

Because we beta-tested this routing last month with [[Olle]], we call this “The Olle Routing.”