So, a very talented friend of mine is having an exhibition of her art at a small town close to where I live. Its a 30 minute drive, but 2 hours on public transport, with 2 buses, one train, and a long walk under the summer sun on the way. Whatever, I’ll sleep/read on the way, right?
so I show up at the bus station 10 minutes before the bus takes off, the bus arrives, and the driver gets off and turns off the bus. I think he’s just going to the bathroom, to take a break, smoke a cigarette, whatever. Nope. He never returns.
I’ve now been standing at the bus station for an hour after the scheduled departure time, staring at the switched off bus, and fuming about how I have just lost 20 bucks because I missed all the other buses and trai (i had to buy the tickets beforehand), how now I can’t get to the exhibition without being late for work, how I will have let down my friend by not showing up and supporting her, and how this wouldn’t have happened if I just had a fucking car and wasn’t a depressed mess who can’t find energy to do anything until the very last moment, letting down everyone around me.
I don’t normally get angry, but this whole thing has made me very upset.
I’ve lived over a decade without a car because I’m fortunate to live in one of the few cities in the States where that’s feasible. But even today, I have to figure out how to get out to the suburbs because my child’s friend out there is having a birthday and there’s just no good way to do it. 12 miles away, but public transit will take almost two hours because of a train transfer and a half an hour walk at the tail end of it. Like you, I could probably do that if I was solo, but with a child that’s basically a no go.
And that’s when everything is working correctly. Who knows if it will be because our train system basically has to threaten to shut down entire stations to get local municipalities to give the paltry funding to the system they do.