The Park and Ride Needs More Men! by Michael Pinsky(21/04/2005) |
Day one of Michael's investigations on Oxford's Park and Ride. The artist has been struggling to work on the fine range of buses which make up the fleet of the Oxford Bus Company. Initially encouraged by the availability of plug sockets on the Oxford Express service, whist travelling up from London, he endeavoured to work on the bus with his laptop, but by the time he reached Oxford he felt violently travel sick. His eyeballs were unable to accommodate the constant vibrations on board. Somehow, after his journey, the idea of getting back on a local bus to study the Park & Ride schemes no longer seemed as attractive as it had originally appeared. So, in an attempt to avoid the inevitable, he visited Oxford Brookes University and talked to experts in bus statistics. The ensuing four-hour discussion resulted in one conclusion - the P&R needs more men! (68% of users are women, which leads to huge opportunites for singles clubs held on the move). Later, when the artist could face it, he took the number 300 out to Pear Tree, where he found no pear trees. He had a plan to follow the picturesque route that conjoins this favoured car park with the more beautiful, but lesser known, Water Eaton car park. The first obstacle on his way was a rail line, so he followed the side of a dual carriageway with no pavement, in the gentle reassuring slipstream of passing juggernauts. On his way he found an elegant lake, accessible only through the back gardens of suburban dwellings, a playground, a cemetery, a business park and a golf course. Luckily, the artist found various holes in walls, bushes and fences that allowed him to traverse the terrain off piste. Unluckily, on finally finding Water Eaton, the artist was intercepted by security guards for taking photographs that could fall into the wrong hands. The artist found this slightly perturbing since the carpark was empty, he had heard of thieves stealing cars but not carparks. So what still awaits the artist? Well... he is excited about the prospect of his first bus driving lesson, he will study the bus company's new GPS control centre, he will eavesdrop on conversations, but he will not use his laptop on the bus again. |