I got to ride on one of the new buses yesterday. It was cool - literally.

The city/transit system has restructured the routes, and bought some new buses. The bus that I used to take directly downtown via 8th street is no longer in existence. Now, I take a “Dart” bus that detours through the university. End result is about 10 minutes on my day in the morning, and in theory a savings of a couple of minutes after work.

I say in theory, because yesterday, the bus arrived at the terminal near my house 15 minutes late. We were late getting out of downtown, then slowed more by foot traffic at the university. Then, to top it all off, as some people were getting off the bus at a stop, the bus was rear-ended. It didn’t feel like much, because the bus is so massive I guess, but that just added to the lateness. On the plus side, it was an air conditioned bus. Something I never thought I’d see. Apparently they’ve also purchased one or more diesel electric hybrid buses, which is cool. It looks like the Dart routes get all the new buses, so in a few years I expect that most of my summer riding will be done in style (the new buses also have more substantial seating with better legroom - more akin to a greyhound than a typical city bus.)

I’m such a geek for even caring, but really, I spend around an hour a day on the bus, so it’s significant thing to me. I can’t imagine sitting there in a hot sweaty bus waiting for the driver to exchange details with the bozo that ran into us. As it was, I was more amused by the situation than anything.

Simpson’s quote of the day: “Curse you, magic beans!” - Homer