Here Bussy Bussy Bussy!

Given the limited size of J-town (725000 people), the bus system is not so bad. The buses are usually on time and the ones we use regularly come every 20-30 minutes. The routes can be a little confusing though and for some bizarre reason the bus company doesn't print or have available route maps. (Perhaps they think that if there are no maps, suicide bombers won't be able to find the buses.) The only way to find out where a bus goes is a somewhat sparse wikipedia page which lists the streets the buses go on. But figuring that out takes a good map, a computer, a prior knowledge of Jerusalem geography and some serious patience. And now that I have mastered the online Hebrew bus schedule, things go a lot more smoothly.

The bus company, Egged, has almost a monopoly on all the city bus systems and the intercity buses throughout the country. Despite the monopoly and the legislation to provide service to almost every obscure little town, I have to give them props; the bus between cities is really cheap, reliable and not too slow. On top of that, they run almost like a city bus, where people can and do get off and on at all these little along-the-road stops. These guys put Ontario Northlands to shame.

The stops on the side of the road make me laugh. If you are lucky, they have a bench with a covering curiously shaped like a question mark. I think this must be an ironic joke by a civil engineer. It makes me think of the questions all waiting bus passengers are asking themselves. "Where is the bus?" "Is it going to come?" "Did I miss the bus?"

If you are unlucky, the bus stop only has the tell-tale yellow sign marked with the bus route number. On our recent trip the the Negev, we saw what we consider possibly the worst bus stop in the world. It was so bad, I had to take a picture. Imagine the poor sucker waiting out here. (And the other side of the road didn't look any better.) I'll let you be the judge: