Lucky Dip Buses

Anyone who's ever taken a Brisbane bus can verify that it's like playing lucky dip. If you want to get from one location to another, you can find several buses that travel between the two locations that all leave within 15 minutes of each other, but how do you work out which bus is quicker and will take you the closest to your destination? Let me tell you a story that illustrates this.

I work near Mount Gravatt, and last Monday I had a dentists appointment in the Queen St Mall. Rather than trying to drive in during the storms and find a park somewhere close by, I figured it would be quicker and easier to take a bus, as they would travel up the busway thereby avoiding the traffic, and deposit me right at the mall. I was so, so wrong!

Before I left work, I looked up the transinfo website to determine the best bus and bus stop to use, and although confusing I struggled through and found what I thought was a workable plan. Now, according to the website there are two bus stops at Garden City shopping centre - an upper and lower one. However, the Garden City centre map shows only the upper level bus stop. The buses that stop at the lower level were the quickest, and I knew that there was a bus stop out the front of garden city on logan rd, so thought that might be the lower level one - wrong again. I parked near the bus stop and ran over to see if it was indeed the stop number listed on the map. It wasn't but while I was waiting, a City bus pulled up. I asked the driver if it was the best bus to take to the city and with his reassurance, jumped on, purchased a ticket and settled back for a relaxing ride.

All was fine until I realised that I had been on the bus for almost half an hour and we were still driving around Greenslopes and hadn't ventured anywhere near the busway. With only 15 minutes until my dentist appointment, I started to get agitated. By the time we got to Southbank, my appointment time had passed, I was feeling ill and after spending an hour on the bus, I desparately needed to go to the bathroom. I ran off the bus and over to the train station to use the amenities, and then hopped on the next train to the city. I arrived at my dentist appointment half an hour late, but luckily they were running later (maybe they had also caught a bus to the city).

After my appointment (and a quick lunch) I went to a bus stop to find a bus back to work. But it's not as simple as going to any inner city bus stop - I had to walk down a long stretch of adelaide st looking for a bus stop where a south-bound bus might stop at mount gravatt. For some reason, instead of one bus stop which all buses can stop at, there is several different stops for several different routes. This is particularly confusing for those who don't travel on buses every day. I've been known to get off the bus several stops early with the fear that this is the only stop in the city the particular bus I'm on might stop at, because there's no way to know for sure. Anyway, I eventually found a bus that got me back after another harrowing 1-hour journey. My supposed hour and a half absence from work turned into half a day thanks to the wonderful Brisbane public transport system.

I lost lucky dip that day, but it left me thinking, surely I'm not the only one who comes across this confusion while trying to use the public transport system. I'm not exactly unintelligent, and managed to negotiate the Gold Coast's bus system quite easily while living there so forgive me for thinking the problem lies with the bus company. Perhaps they need to look at their information systems with the objective eye of someone who has never caught a Brisbane bus, instead of assuming everyone has their intricate knowledge of bus stops.

I, for one, have decided to avoid playing lucky dips in future, and will forgo the extra couple of parking dollars for the sake of efficiency and calmness. These days, it's a safer investment than the share market (or a savings account).

Oh, by the way, sorry for the gap between posts again... This one's been trying to find it's way to the internet via public transport.