Buses Waiting

Imagine you need to catch a bus and you're about thirty seconds away from the bus stop. You see the bus waiting there, but you can't tell if it's going to leave in five seconds or five minutes. Do you sprint towards the bus and potentially waste a bunch of energy and dignity, or do you take the thirty second walk and risk getting left behind?

This often happens to me, and the nature of Atlanta's public transportation system raises the stakes: most of the time, the bus I need only arrives once every half hour or longer. My solution is to walk quickly and try and catch the driver's eye in a side mirror or something.

On the other side of things, sitting in a bus that's waiting at a bus stop is very relaxing. Once I'm safely on a bus, I don't have to worry; my only responsibility is to sit quietly and wait.