Buses in Brooklyn.

Taking the bus in Brooklyn is always interesting. Since getting from North to South in Brooklyn is rather difficult by subway, Joel and I have been forced to take the bus if we want to go to say, Prospect Park or the Brooklyn Museum.

Most the time buses stop traffic when they stop to pick up passengers because there is never enough room for them to pull over, due to all the parked cars parked in front of the bus stop. There are sometimes bus lanes (in downtown Brooklyn) but these are completely blocked by parked cars and therefore completely useless. Most of the time we find ourselves boarding the bus in the middle of the street. Very safe. This ain't no OC Transpo.

And since Brooklynites are rather fond of parking anywhere they damn well please, this causes problems for Brooklyn bus drivers. Last week, Joel and I took the bus to Prospect Park and along the way our bus came to a sudden halt. As we leaned forward we saw that the reason the bus had stopped was because there was a double-parked car in the middle of the road. The bus driver honked repeatedly but the car didn't move. Finally, the bus driver got out of the bus and went up the steps of an apartment building and yelled at an old man sitting there. The bus driver then returned to the bus and about five minutes later a guy came waltzing leisurely out of the building to the double-parked car, put some things in the trunk like he was in no hurry at all, and proceeded to move his car.

Today, again, we experienced a car completely blocking the path of the bus, but there was no getting out of the bus, just menacing honking from the bus driver and the car eventually moved.

Frankly, I think Brooklyn could profit from one of these buses:

Just get right over those double-parked cars!