Thursday, November 18, 2010

A creme de loop de loop。

The 313 and 635 bus routes run in opposite directions on a portion of European Street in Wuxi, China**.  Their routes then diverge at an intersection where the 313 continues straight through and at where the 635 makes a turn.  I have to take the 313 before I can transfer to the 635.  It was not good to see the 635 bus while I was on the 313 bus because it meant that I would have to wait 30 minutes for the next 635 (which would get me home).

But I then learned some more about the two routes and how they actually ran together on many roads in Wuxi.  So more recently, after seeing the 635 from the 313, I decided to take the 313 a little further in hopes of it getting to a certain stop before the 635.  What I then knew was that the 635 after making the turn at the intersection quickly made another turn after a block, so that it ran parrallel and in the same direction as the 313 -- there was a one block separation.  So the 635 and 313 routes would ran parrallel and then converge as both routes made turns in the same direction, but only a block apart.  The first stop after this convergence was where I got off in hopes that the 313 bus, I was on,got there before the 635.

And so I waited....

And a minute later, my gamble paid off.  I was on a 635 and had saved myself 30 minutes of waiting.






**It is more accurate to say that the 313 route runs in both directions along European Street while the 635 only runs in one.  But this detail will complicate the story.

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