better to travel (hopefully) than to arriva

Not only do we have to contend with CCMS and the proliferation of 'traffic calming' speed bumps (buy one, get ten free) but it has become obvious I simply live on the wrong bus route.
If I didn't, surely I wouldn't be left standing at the bus stop? And standing. And standing.
During the day it isn't too bad.
But after dark it's decidedly hit and miss.
Last night was a case in point.
Coming out of FACT shortly after quarter to eight I arrived at the stop outside the bombed out church to pick up an 82. There were already several people there who seemed to have been waiting some time.
The timetables, which should be entered in the Orange prize for fiction, confidently predicted a bus at 7.52pm.
They also confidently predicted an 82A shortly after that, and another bus at 8.03.
Still, while we waited, we did 'enjoy' some street entertainment.
Unfortunately it was the incessant droan of a jammed bollards machine in Wood Street ('caution, bollards in motion' it repeated ad nauseum - only, like us, they weren't in motion at all)
Finally an 82A arrived....and sped straight past, presumably because the driver thought he'd got quite enough passengers on it already. Or maybe he wanted to get home like the rest of us.
In the meantime, we'd seen several almost empty double-deckers heading up Leece Street on the 86 route which is ridiculously well served.
When, after the best part of half-an-hour, an 82 hove into view, I almost threw myself in front of it in gratitude.
The moral of the story?
Take the car. Because it's better to travel (hopefully) than to Arriva.....even through the big dig.