Bus blues

Belfast is one of the most congested cities in the UK. This becomes even more pronounced at Christmas, when hordes from around Northern Ireland descend on the province’s largest city to do their shopping. Traffic grinds to a halt and the buses are packed. There are dedicated bus lanes meant to facilitate bus travel but they don’t seem to help much. One of the things that drives my efficiency loving brain bonkers is that there is only one door to get on and off the bus. At every stop, you wait for people to pour out of the doors and for more to pour in. And each person getting on needs to pay the poor driver the fare and the driver makes change and prints a paper ticket. Madness. This should all be electronic. The driver should only drive. Imagine 30-40 people waiting at city hall to get on a double decker, the case today, and each having to buy a ticket and wait for a receipt to be printed.

This is a long winded way of saying it took about 45 minutes each way to go three miles. I had planned to see Ann at 2 pm today after going downtown and then David and Stuart at 3 pm. I got a later start than expected because a neighbour called in. I headed into town at 1 pm to have a quick lunch and buy two presents. I made it to David and Stuart’s at 4pm and to Ann’s at 5:30 pm. It was a very tiring day but hard not to be in the Christmas spirit when everyone everywhere is in a festive mood.

Here’s an internet photo of the continental market at Belfast City Hall:

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