I vowed never to take the 22 bus from Palo Alto again after my first and last ride a year or so ago. It felt like criminal neglect; like an evil plot to destroy public transportation; like nothing ever to be encountered in the milieu of modern democracies. I wrote to Joe Simitian and copied the VTA and any other area official with a reason to care, but to no avail.

My bike, on the rack in front of the bus, nearly fell off! I had not pulled the clamp for the front wheel all the way back. Fortunately, the driver saw the situation evolving and pulled over to allow me to lock in the mechanism.

I felt sorry for the driver … and for the mechanics whose job it was to keep these vehicles in running order. It would have been a nightmare had I not been awake and seeing familiar landmarks on the way to and from Whole Foods in Mountain View … a far better-supplied store than the one on Homer, by the way.