I spent the entire Monday driving between the Dutch side and French side. I was constantly stuck in terrible traffic, due to the pre-St. Martin Day frenzy - what was it all about? where were all these people suddently so eager to get to? It was a beautiful day with what rarely occurs 4 islands being visible of the South coast: Saba, St. Eustasius, St Kitts and Nevis. As much as I dislike traffic I had beautiful views to admire on my way so I was fine:)
I also noticed new buses on the roads; much higher and longer then the minivans that I used to see. Plus with an almost uniform look, the top 4/5 were white and the bottom section would be painted either purple, orange, yellow, etc. They really looked like proper public transport service buses, where inside one can stand, walk, sit in individual seats, additionally they had a regular door. I was amazed. Have they been on the roads long?
Orient Bay does not have a proper bus stop, plus it's never a destination of any of the buses, so I take them rarely as it's just very inconvenient to be standing on the side of a road with no sidewalk, praying not to get driven over by one of the maniacs, and hoping to distingush the bus minivans from just regular minivans in time to wave-stop them.
For everyone not familiar with the bus system on the island, there are no numbers or letters or names of buses, the minivans which can only be distinguished as a bus by their licence plate have a destination card placed somewhere on the front windshield. The letters are medium size, so if the minivan is going slow and your eyesight is good, you read it fairly easily, but it's still far from user friendly. They do not have a common colour, or size, are not the same make, the drivers wear their private clothes rather than a uniform. Honestly to anyone not famiar with such solutions, the local buses are not an easy thing to spot.
As the principle road on the island is basically a circle, with only a few side roads, theoretically whereever you are going you can get to by taking a bus going whatever direction, as the bus's trayectory will be some section of the circle and most likely you will have to get off anyway and take a second minivan as no bus (that I know of) does the full circle. Very confusing system whichever way you look at it. Does not give you a sense of being public, yet not really private. The prices are nowhere explained, I'm never really sure whether the bus driver cares if he gets dollars or Euros, and how come I sometimes pay 1 (usd or Euro) sometimes 2. It's a whole different concept for public transport than anything I have ever seen and I'm saying this after having taken buses in plenty of countries, each with their own rules. As diverse as the systems I saw may have been, they had something in common - I was never in doubt which vehicle was a bus.
So I was very happy to see these new uniformily looking buses on the roads. Now all I have to wait for is that they start going by Orient Bay and maybe a bus stop is created:)
I also noticed new buses on the roads; much higher and longer then the minivans that I used to see. Plus with an almost uniform look, the top 4/5 were white and the bottom section would be painted either purple, orange, yellow, etc. They really looked like proper public transport service buses, where inside one can stand, walk, sit in individual seats, additionally they had a regular door. I was amazed. Have they been on the roads long?
Orient Bay does not have a proper bus stop, plus it's never a destination of any of the buses, so I take them rarely as it's just very inconvenient to be standing on the side of a road with no sidewalk, praying not to get driven over by one of the maniacs, and hoping to distingush the bus minivans from just regular minivans in time to wave-stop them.
For everyone not familiar with the bus system on the island, there are no numbers or letters or names of buses, the minivans which can only be distinguished as a bus by their licence plate have a destination card placed somewhere on the front windshield. The letters are medium size, so if the minivan is going slow and your eyesight is good, you read it fairly easily, but it's still far from user friendly. They do not have a common colour, or size, are not the same make, the drivers wear their private clothes rather than a uniform. Honestly to anyone not famiar with such solutions, the local buses are not an easy thing to spot.
As the principle road on the island is basically a circle, with only a few side roads, theoretically whereever you are going you can get to by taking a bus going whatever direction, as the bus's trayectory will be some section of the circle and most likely you will have to get off anyway and take a second minivan as no bus (that I know of) does the full circle. Very confusing system whichever way you look at it. Does not give you a sense of being public, yet not really private. The prices are nowhere explained, I'm never really sure whether the bus driver cares if he gets dollars or Euros, and how come I sometimes pay 1 (usd or Euro) sometimes 2. It's a whole different concept for public transport than anything I have ever seen and I'm saying this after having taken buses in plenty of countries, each with their own rules. As diverse as the systems I saw may have been, they had something in common - I was never in doubt which vehicle was a bus.
So I was very happy to see these new uniformily looking buses on the roads. Now all I have to wait for is that they start going by Orient Bay and maybe a bus stop is created:)
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