public transport
Again, a lament about the sorry state of public transport in this city. The train rules but doesn’t run enough or to many places. Busses are pretty much unusable in this city because of our insane traffic issue. People DRIVE all the time, and therein lies the catch 22.
I love public transport - I really do. I happily take the train to and from work when I am going straight to work or coming home straight from work. However, if I am to deviate from this route, trouble starts.
Case in point: this morning I needed to go from Kingsland to Birkenhead to visit my dentist. The reason I go to Birkenhead is that this dentist is the only one I have been to who doesn’t have me quaking in fear and unable to sleep the night before - and it’s hardly even off the motorway. The drive is 10-15 minutes with little traffic.
However, I spent over an hour in the car driving to and from a 30 minute appointment. HOW IS THAT RIGHT? Why can’t I take a train from Britomart to Birkenhead and back again? If I was to take public transport from home I would have to train to Britomart, catch a bus from town and then a bus back to the city again. This would take me over the hour I spent in traffic and probably make me even MORE angsty and even MORE late for work (don’t get me started on how you can never see a real dentist after hours/weekends - I know I am lucky to have a very accepting work).
Someone needs to do something about it. People need to focus less on carbon footprints and recylcled bags (those things are so dime a dozen now are we killing things by producing so many?) and more on making public transport that doesn’t suck.