Ex Bibliotheca

The life and times of Zack Weinberg.

Saturday, 14 December 2002

# 11:25 PM

water water everywhere

The rainy season has begun, only two months late for this locale. Been raining more or less continuously since Thursday. Which leads to a rant, on the subject of public transportation.

I've been having to go to Alameda for on-site consulting for the past week-anna-bit. I can drive there in fifteen minutes when it's dry, if I avoid rush hour; when it's raining it takes a bit longer, but still less than half an hour.

There is also a bus which goes from right near my house to within bicycle distance of $CLIENT's office. This is an order of magnitude less stressful than driving myself. However, it takes between an hour and two hours, depending on traffic and weather. The time eaten more than compensates for the stress reduction. And driving myself is not terribly stressful to begin with.

And people wonder why public transport in the Bay Area doesn't work. Clue phone: Successful public transportation systems tend to be called "rapid transit" systems, and the "rapid" is there for a reason. BART, for instance, is not only less hassle than driving to San Francisco, it's faster than driving to San Francisco, especially when one considers time wasted trying to find parking. Not to mention time wasted getting lost in the city's maze of incompatible street grids. Unfortunately, BART only helps if one is going to or from San Francisco.