I can’t help counting the bus passengers as we cross the bridge.
The way I figure it:
The bus is about three cars in length,
and probably equal to or just less than the total metal, glass, and fiberglass tonnage of three cars.
(I can’t count emissions, because at this point cars and busses alike are a confused amalgam of petroleum and electric. One must be comfortable with trusting official data in such cases.)
Therefore three passengers must cross the bridge in a bus,
or the bus is creating more traffic and tonnage on the bridge than it’s reducing.
Each passenger above the third is one less car crossing the bridge.
Each multiple of three passengers above the first three is one less bus crossing the bridge:
so six passengers is one less bus crossing the bridge,
nine passengers is two less busses, and so forth.
I do not count the driver, because they would not be there if the bus was not crossing the bridge.
Nor would the driver be crossing the bridge in their own car, as I cannot assume they would have a different job on the other side of the bridge. They could have a job in a different part of the city
(or a different city).
Ideally, we want to reduce the number of vehicles crossing the bridge
without sending too many busses over it as well.
I find that typically 4-6 passengers ride my route over the bridge.
However, often only I and one or two others cross the bridge by bus.
I have not yet observed more than 8 passengers riding the bus crossing the bridge.
I do not ride the bus every day. In fact, I ride it infrequently.
The bus has to be running at the time I’m ready to leave for work, otherwise I take a train.
(I can’t math in my head how trains compare ridership- and tonnage-wise compared to busses or cars, in reference to this particular bridge. One must be comfortable with trusting official data in such cases.)
Thus, when I am the third or fourth passenger, I feel happier that I make the bus route worth it.
On the other hand, that situation raises the question of whether I must ride the bus more often to maintain the route’s value,
if indeed I am the passenger tipping the bus route into equal to or one car more efficient than drivers.
However, if the bus route was not there, the other riders would likely take the train, rather than the car.
I cannot see into their lives, I do not know if they live in a place that would require a car if they did not have the bus.
Considering this particular bus route, no one who has access to this bus is prohibitively far enough away from a train to be incapacitated from crossing the bridge should the bus route end.
Besides, the bus and the train cost the same fare, whereas a car is far more expensive.
Thus, if traffic and resource usage is the concern with the bus, the bus itself probably shouldn’t be crossing the bridge, as the train could easily handle 3-8 more passengers at that particular commute time.
(Besides, why should I concern myself with the efficiency of traffic? That responsibility belongs to the city, in higher orders than this particular bus with these particular riders crossing this particular bridge. One must be comfortable with trusting official data in such cases.)
However, I ride the bus instead of the train because it has more pleasurable views, and gives me more time to read.
Of course if traffic and resource usage were truly the concern, if I actually meant it, then of course the solution would be not only to not have the bus, nor even the cars,
but to not need the bridge.
What’s on the other side of the bridge anyway? Office buildings.
So clearly it doesn’t really matter how many cars or busses, or passengers in those cars and busses, are crossing the bridge. The first order that matters is that I get to work, the second order that matters is that I enjoy the commute.
Yet I can’t help counting the bus passengers as we cross the bridge.
This prosy poem is presented for the Soaring Twenties Social Club (STSC) Symposium. The STSC is a small, exclusive online speakeasy where a dauntless band of raconteurs, writers, artists, philosophers, flaneurs, musicians, idlers, and bohemians share ideas and companionship. Each month STSC members create something around a set theme. This cycle, the theme was “Connections.”
If you are a writer or filmmaker, you should consider joining us.
To experience my previous STSC Symposium submissions:
Read my previous poems:
Venmo Tip Jar!:
