Mass Transit and Biking

As I've mentioned before I can get to work in a couple of ways; by bike, by car, or by bike/bus/bike (some call this intermodal, I like b/b/b better!). The only problem is that the bus only runs during the school year. Since it is primarily shuttling people between colleges and the busses are driven by college students, I can't fault them for shutting down my route during the summer.

My route and the bus route are identical sans the zig zaging through campuses the bus does. When I rode the bus last fall and spring I had the bus routine down pretty well and could easily ride a ways and meet a bus at a stop of my choosing. If I were tired, or it was dark, or even if the weather was getting bad I knew the stop times well enough that I could pick a spot and catch a bus.

Today was a bit different. Due to a nagging head cold, I took the bus in the morning but left work late and couldn't remember the later times for the bus ride home (plus I lost my copy of the schedule). I didn't see the bus at the "mall" stop and figured it was in front of me already. Not quite. It flew past me just before the small town green and I saw it do a quick stop (like a quick step in dancing only with a bus) at that stop and tear off down the road. When it stopped at the church I passed it as it was trying to get back into traffic.

By this point I was feeling good and figured I could get to the 3rd college on the route and then decide if I wanted to ride it. How you ask? The bus is supposed to stop at the 3rd college and wait for transfers from another bus and let time pass to get back on schedule. The route time between the 2nd and 3rd stops is padded to allow for the traffic back ups that occur at that time of day. Those same back ups allow me to shoot ahead of the bus and get to the 3rd college just as the bus is getting there. Usually.

The bus flew past me, literally, just before the 3rd campus. Now I'm thinking "I don't want this bus passing me as I climb the notch, it's to much of a speed demon. I'll catch it at Atkins since he's probably going to quick stop the in-campus stops, blow off the wait time, and take a long break at the 4th college"

So I waited at Atkins...for 10 minutes...no bus. "Damn he must have shot though campus and beaten me here. There's no traffic and it could take the left turns with ease." I was getting cold and decided to ride up the notch anyway.

DOH! Guess who passed me halfway up the hill? Creeping slowly past as if to haunt my impatience.

I guess I need to learn my schedules again.
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