The Fate of All rests in the balance

I got word yesterday and saw an article in our local news that the local Sun Tran bus workers may go on strike next week.

It seems that public transportation here has never quite lived up to it's ideals and expectations. I know that there are places where the public transit is well used and often a preferable way of commuting than jumping in your own car. This is how it is designed to be, I think. If we have more buses, in theory, fewer people should be driving on the roads. Less pollution, less traffic, fewer accidents and numerous other benefits.

In practice, around here, it seems to be the people who wouldn't go anywhere in a car that hop on a bus to scoot around town. So, instead of alleviating traffic, it just throws in some behemoths that stop in front of everyone else, every block or so, making cars and bicycles furiously jockey around them. They also cruise straight through the turn lanes and act as if they have the right of way in all situations.

Don't misunderstand, I really do think it would be handy if we could find some reliable way to get people to their destination without having so may cars on the road, but this bus system does not seem to be the answer to that problem. And, I am not opposed to people being able to travel around on the bus if they have no other way to get from here to there. I have done it myself on occasion.

But, I don't plan on being sad if the drivers all strike and the buses are out of the way for a while.