What else could a student do in the time it takes to wait for the Buff Bus?
It is 12:30 p.m. and I already know I’m going to be late for class.
The Buff Bus has been my most readily available transportation to campus for the past four years. I lived in Williams Village my freshman year and (have resided) at Bear Creek every year since. I am fully aware that being a senior on the Buff Bus is as embarrassing as taking the school bus in high school, but its reliability, convenience and speed has always justified the less-than-cool option for me.
Then the route changed this year.
Now all I do is wait. Transportation Services staff said the new routes (now there are two instead of one) make the bus more available to more students. Unfortunately, this newfound availability came with a price.
My time.
Sometimes I’m waiting for the bus for 20 minutes or more, even during peak class times in the middle of the day. Adding in the time it takes to get to the bus stop in the first place and the time it takes to get to class from the new inconveniently-placed bus drop-offs, my daily commute can take anywhere between 40 and 50 minutes.
For the sake of a fair complaint, let’s say my total commute takes an average of 35 minutes, one way, a day. What else could I do with all that time I wait as the bus “reaches” all those students who are apparently hanging out at the construction zone behind Hallett Hall?
I could:
- take a nap.
- cook about four hamburgers on a George Foreman Grill.
- eat at least three of those hamburgers.
- take three showers.
- drive to Lakewood.
- clean my bedroom.
- brush my teeth 15 times.
- do a load of laundry.
- get an oil change.
- play three rounds of “Halo 3” on Xbox Live.
- do homework.
- watch almost two full episodes of “The Office” online.
- read about 40 pages of a book.
- wash my car.
- build a small Web page.
- get a haircut.
- go to work and earn enough money to support a starving child in a third-world country.
- rotate my tires.
- exercise.
- get on a RTD bus and commute to LoDo.
- learn a new recipe.
- order a pizza from Domino’s, and have it delivered.
- drive to Target, buy a bike and stop complaining about the bus.
- write this article.
Contact Editor-in-Chief Cameron Naish at naish@colorado.edu.
