I took the 809 bus to Gyeongsan City this afternoon so I could go see the 6:40PM showing of "Gravity." (I'll review the film soon; it was quite good.) I got out a little after 8PM and wandered across the street to the nearby Home Plus. Saw one of my students working there; we talked for a few minutes, then I went out to the 809 bus stop for Hayang. It was about 9:30PM. I waited for the 809. And waited.
And waited.
Like an idiot, I waited for over an hour before I finally gave in and hailed a cab. The fare turned out to be cheaper than I thought: instead of the anticipated W17,000 or W18,000, it was only W13,300. Not too bad for a 15-kilometer ride.
So I'm left to wonder whether the 809 bus simply stops its service sometime after 9PM. There may be some sort of online traffic resource that provides that sort of information. We teachers were warned that Hayang/Gyeongsan buses generally stopped their service around 11PM, which is why I'd thought I still had a chance at catching the 809. No dice, as it turned out.
Next time, if I find myself in a similar situation, I won't take a cab back to Hayang: if it's before 10PM, I'll take the subway to Anshim Station, then grab a bus from there. Much faster, and much cheaper, than waiting an hour for a bus and then grabbing a taxi.
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Saturday, October 19, 2013
the 809 lets me down
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Don't know what it's like out in that hick town of yours, but is there a bus route sign at the stop? In Seoul, at least, these signs have the times for when the first and last buses run, and even roughly how long you can expect to wait for the bus at certain times of day.
ReplyDeleteI know that bus stops out in the countryside don't have anything like that, but I have no idea what sort of city Gyeongsan is.
The bus-stop route signs in Hayang aren't nearly that detailed; I wish they were. Also, the 809 stop I talked about above didn't even have one of those nifty screens that shows what buses are coming next, which buses have just departed previous stops, how long it'll be until the next bus, etc. So I was pretty much blind to the 809 situation. Yeah, a "mak-cha" (or whatever you call it for buses) indication would've been nice.
ReplyDeleteDoes Daegu have a bus phone app?
ReplyDeleteI know Daejeon has one and the buses are also equipped with gps transponders so you can track them. Well, according to my students they are. I've never ridden the bus, or taken a taxi, as I bike everywhere. It's a severe pain in the winter, but it keeps me in semi-decent shape and I can still outrun my kids up a steep incline near our school--it helps having longer legs.