h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

1 bus to Edmonton
3 to leamington Spa
Finally 3 Buses to Coventry, predictably all turn up at once. Board the first one, which is the last one to leave campus. Get to the train station with 10 minutes to spare.

If I have learned one Glorious and Universal Truth during my time here it is this:

Never, ever, ever entrust your timelines or abilty to reach a destination to Public Transport, it will only end in tears.

(Trying to condense reading a thread or two and making a sensible reply fit into the 15 minutes allowed for a morning tea break... still, this is healthier for me, I could be stood outside the front door smoking, so thank you dear employers for finally giving me an Inter net access at work!)

There are a lot of observations to be made about standing at bus stops in the morning.

Such as - the British being who they are, you have to allow up to two years of the same people waiting at the same bus stop for the same buses before these people, who recognise each other by sight, start saying hello or good morning to each other!

Even this can be fraught with peril. Because a couple of days ago, the attractive girl with the blonde pony-tail who waits for the no.43 asked me for a light for a cigarette, I considered this had broken the ice and entitled me to say "good morning!" to her. So I did, she said "good
morning!" back and even smiled, I put my bag down,rummaged in pocket for fags and lighter, I looked up again, and she'd hastily moved ten yards to the other side of the bus stop.

Hmmm, I thought, I must evidently have put my "swivel-eyed stalker" face on this morning!

Anyway, "bus-stop logic".

A variation on a theme is this. I change buses every day outside the Nat-West Bank in a quietish suburb of south-central Manchester.

There is usually twenty minutes or so between Bus 1 (42A) and bus 2 (41). This is a stop served by loads of buses, and routine being what it is, I find myself reflecting on the fact the bus service is regular and more-or-less on time nine times out of ten.

So I find myself passing the time not by my watch but by the sequence of buses. Get off 42A at Withington Lbrary, cross to the Nat-West for a connection. After this the sequence runs 42,42,42, 41X, 178, 42, 42, 43 (off goes blonde ponytail, with a last disbelieving look at the weirdo who said "good morning!" to her), 157, 42, 45A, 42, 42 and then my 41.

Most of the time this is unvarying, but when you're counting down the 42's in the sequence, knowing that there's one more 42 to come and then my bus arrives, just sometimes they get it wrong and the 41 bus is out of sequence.

If I'm not ready for this and the bloody thing goes sailing off down the street, this can muck up my morning almightily. Ah well, as the last correspondent said, "never rely on public transport".....

I use a kind of train logic, because I travel to/from w*rk by commuter train.

I know the departure times from the station where I get on the train in the morning, because I need to be at w*rk at a specific time...

...but I don't know the departure times in the other direction - because I don't need to (no appointments to keep on the way home, so it doesn't really matter at what time I get home)!

I leave w*rk roughly the same time each day, and then I walk for something around 15 minutes to the train station (varying on how fast I walk). I deliberately *don't* look at my watch on the way - I just trust that there will be a train leaving within shortly no matter what time I get to the station - and 9 times out of 10 it works!

Now, for some reason the 10th time seems to coincide with bad weather , leaving me waiting, standing in the rain or cold, barely having missed a train - that Murphy!

How appropriate.

I've just realised, looking back at my earlier posting, how essential the no. 42 bus is to my daily commute. (ie, counting off the 42 buses that pass and thinking "one more to go, then the bus I want is going to turn up)

Service 42: Stockport - Manchester, via Didsbury and Fallowfield, incidentally. This has to be said on this site - there must be a H2G2 devotee out there who has compiled the definitive list of 42 correspondences, so if they ain't got this one, here's another! The 42A just takes a slightly different route, btw.

I bet if I look, there is a 42 discussion going on somewhere here, if there isn't I'd be surprised!

Well, you could always try and make 42 out of your user number: A530560

A530560 = 42

The nearest I can get is:- 60 x 3 = 180.
180/5 = 36.
36 + 5 = 41.

If "A" is the alphanumeric equivalent of 1, 41+1 = 42.

This leaves a spare 0, which is neither here nor there!

Ah - sorry, I wasn't beeing quite clear, was I? That link is to an entry on 42, with examples - and the number to work with is your own user number...

(deep blushes, as befits a newby who's just got it wrong)

Thank you, Titania, for your wisdom and guidance. (and patience)

I've just realised my user number is in fact U538194 and A530560 is the title of the thread....

5 x 8 = 40
-3 = 37
+9 = 46
-4 = 42
42/1 = 42

There, that looks about right!

Thirty seconds, including proof-reading! Although this is getting us nowhere on the subject of "bus-stop logic", I have to admit.

A bus service which is totally beyond logic: the 22 Stockport - Bolton service. This is the total opposite of an express, as it takes the longest and most roundabout route between two points, stops everywhere it can (including the driver stopping up and hopping out at a handy newsagent for a packet of fags, a coke and a copy of the Daily Mirror. But why begrudge him?), and takes up to three hours to do the route.

ah well.

Ah, AgProv, but convention states that the numbers must be worked into the formula in the order that they appear in your user number.

For you, I get (5x3)-8-1+(9x4)=42. That seems to work.


Geggs

Apologies, I am too deeply tainted by Countdown and have contracted virulent Madely-Vorderman syndrome.

Can I be lazy and use your logic?

Thanks!

Of course you can.

Not like I could stop you even if I wanted to.


Geggs

Thank you Geggs!

Right, off to get my bus home. I've learnt my lesson re bus stop etiquette: just because I light a ciggie for somebody ONCE doesn't entitle me to be forward or presumptuous and say "good morning!" to her the day afterwards.

After all, dash it, we ARE British!

(Mind you, I didn't know whether to shrug it off, or feel vaguely affronted, or just a little bit sad, that she put a lot of space between us after the exchange of "good mornings").

Ah well......

To Clive, who said you should never trust timelines, I would add that I wrote a bit about this in my entry on Conceptual Tables, where I cover transportation time tables.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/brunel/A1304768

Hmm. I think a link to this entry might be well placed...

actually that was a typo, I meant timeliness. Still Good Point, well made.

Bus logic also seems to apply when one is on the bus--being optimistic that it will indeed take you where you want to go, that you haven't boarded the wrong one, that no one in a wheelchair will try to get on or off and thus make you late, etc...
I have a great deal of fun with the number 4 which runs down the street I normally take to work...there are four #4's. Two run down that road for a while and then turn and go out into the godawful nowhere and end up in two different places. One is the express, which never stops at whatever stop I am at, and will never stop at the stop where I need to be. And the last is the one I need. Unfortunately it turns several times in the course of its route, which inspires a great deal of anxiety when one is reading or snoozing and not paying attention, and suddenly the bus is turning--- *sudden panic* it's not going down the right street anymore! It's going somewhere else! We're in a residential area! Then I promptly get off the bus to find another, and realise that the one I exited was indeed going to my destination... and now I am in a residential street where no other busses will run for another hour. This requires an extremely hearty dose of bus logic, both to understand and to bear.

-Rivaine

Now you see, AgProv, I *always* try to say good morning to people I don't know. Makes life much nicer.
Good thing I live in the Mediterranean...

Cheers m'dear!