I don't know why, but I seem to have an uncanny knack of just missing the bus. Today, for instance, I missed no fewer than 4 buses on my local travels.
When I say missed, I don't mean that I got to the bus stop and saw on the time table that they had already gone, but that I was within sight of a bus that had either just gone past a stop or was about to leave one.
Another aspect is not really knowing the various bus stops along a route, which can be a problem for short journeys. I often end up back tracking from a bus stop to my destination on a longer walk than the one I would've faced had I simply walked in the first place.
The problem is the sheer variety and amount of buses during the day. At any given stop, there are 3 or 4 different buses going to slightly different destinations, so sometimes you chance it. It wouldn't be a problem if the maps they have at the bus stops actually showed the destinations, as opposed to the immediate surroundings. I still haven't understood why this is the case. Why on earth would there be a map of the area around the bus stop your getting a bus from ?
One nifty thing they do have at various bus stops is an electronic display of the next three or four buses, their estimated arrival time, number and destination.
These are not entirely accurate but are usually within a minute or five.
Arriving from a city with no safe and efficient public transport, I can still marvel at the amazing service they have here and so far have never got angry or irritated. Truth is, most people are incredibly patient and polite, willing to queue, stand, give up their seat to old or disabled people and generally exhibit that wonderfully naff and comfy British sensibility - I suppose it's done out of neccessity.
To get angry and show it really isn't done. Just mind your nose and get on with it. If you wait for more than 10 minutes for a bus during the day, that's a long time, which can't be bad.
Still, I wish missing the bus for me wasn't quite so dramatically demonstrated by buses just leaving before I can get onto them - four times in one day is certainly bad luck.
I often just walk - if a bus is along in 7 minutes, I'll walk the 10 minutes to the B&B - it's good exercise.
