Catching up on a life in transit

Happy car-free day! Please don't hit the schoolgirl.

Well, well, much to catch up on in this busy city. Happy car free day, everyone! It was Wednesday. Oh, did you miss it? So did pretty much the whole city, so don't feel bad! I looked for obvious signs of this: I spotted the street advertisements (A+!), heard that Rea Vaya and Gautrain buses were free (hello, Metrobus?!?) and even heard John Robbie briefly talk about it on 702. But pretty much, it was a wash. Apparently some city officials were planning to take public transport for the whole day, bless 'em, but seems like just a drop in the bucket without the involvement of corporations, civic organizations and all arms of government.

My side

The other side

My own personal car-free experience continues unabated and with quite a big shift. Helen Joseph is out for a while and Witkoppen Clinic (Fourways) is in. For 6 weeks there I was loving doing hard-core statistical coding everyday, even starting to dream in SAS code (when I coded my life, the covariates were binary...should I worry?). But after making the switch from data geek to working in the clinic, I'm completely loving the other side of the job, which is the rugged, unpredictable and rewarding one. Working in Fourways is kinda a mind fuck. Clearly my clinic is on the wrong side of the Nicol, in that stark dichotomy that South Africa seems to have perfected. Across the street is a Checkers Hyper, car dealerships, new housing developments, and everything that comes with the gleaming ever-expanding geography of upmarket Jo'burg. On our side, though, we've got dirt paths, school girls jumping rope, women with big boiling pots over open fires, men selling fat cakes, and lots and lots of HIV and TB patients. If you know me, you know I'll take my side any day.

Fat cakes!

And Metrobus hasn't let me down. I now take just one bus, where Helen Joseph required a transfer in Braamfontein. The bus back in the afternoon is an experience, for sure. Walking to the Fourways Mall, I'm friendly with the dudes selling sun hats, pirated DVDs, wallets, oh, you name it. In the mall parking lot, you sometimes get the odd entrepreneur selling seriously random things. I think seeing two dudes selling R10 Parmalat yogurt 6-packs out of the back of their car takes the cake. And the guy selling eggs. Hmm, yogurt and eggs...could there even be anything more perishable to be selling in the open sunlight?! And the return trip on the bus is such a festive social scene of working people of all ages and races. Everyone knows everyone's name. Ladies sell frozen popsicles and bags of chips for R2 or R3 as soon as the wheels start rolling. Times like these make me smile, but also a bit sad when I think about how many people miss out and just don't get it with the bus. The idea that the bus is a dangerous haven for crime is just plain wrong. If anything, it's one of the most integrated, harmonious environments that I encounter regularly, and all it's missing is more white South Africans to make it even more fully representative. What say you, folks? Won't you you step aboard?