wishing for better public transit

Today is Sunday, yesterday I managed to get a bunch of my running around completed. Something that I very much appreciate a recently I had to get my car repaired.

On Monday after work I stopped off at the library to pick up and return a few books. When I returned to my car, all I got was rrrrrrrrhhhhhh, rrrrrrhhhhh. You know that feeling...not now, I've got too much, I cannot afford this, argh. And then the begging begins...please, please start, just one more time. Finally there is resignation. When I finally reached the resignation, I walked home, taking me over 90 minutes. This is not exactly my idea of a great time given that not only was I walking but I was also carrying a number of heavy bags (my purse - light, my work bag- heavy because I had brought a number of things home to review, and my bag of books from the library- heavy because, well it was filled with books).

Thankfully I have absolutely wonderful friends, until I was able to get my car fixed, my friends brought me to and from work, to my book club meeting and finally to rescue and fix my car. Being car less, I noticed the absolutely dreadful state of public transit where I live. I have no issues with taking public transit and when I lived in Vancouver, that and walking were my preferred methods. However, even though I live downtown in my community, there really is no public transit. If I wish to take the bus to work, in addition to having to walk a very considerable distance from the nearest bus stop, the earliest the bus stops at this stop is 8:30am. Which is at least a half an hour before I am supposed to be at my desk working away. No way around it, I'd be late for work.

Even if I were to rely upon a work mate who works the same hours as me for a ride to and from work, I found I was still faced with how I was going to get where I needed to go. I belong to a book club. Once a month we meet to discuss the book. These meetings take place at each of the members' houses. I found that none of the bus routes came even close to my book club members' houses. This past month I lucked out as one of the members graciously picked me up and drove me home after the meeting. Unfortunately I cannot always rely upon this.

I guess all of this ranting is to say that I wish my local government would take a greater interest in public transit and improve the service. I have always maintained that I would give up my car if I could at least rely upon public transit for the majority of my activities. In the past 6 months I have greatly curtailed my use of the car, but I have found that as much as I wish it were different, for now at least I am tied to the car.