The Bus Experiment

Today, we had a good opportunity to conduct the ‘bus experiment’. Heather had a full day Buddhist retreat in Annapolis Royal. With early morning temperatures of -20C, she walked from our house on Hwy#201 in Paradise to the CRIA gas station in Lawrencetown. She caught the 3W bus to Bridgetown. In Bridgetown, she changed to the 4W bus, and continued on to Annapolis Royal. This evening, she will catch the 4E bus at the Annapolis Royal Fire Department at 5:31 pm, I will pick her up at CRIA around 6:11 pm.

The purpose of the experiment is to see the world through a different lens. Not from a car, bicycle or on foot, but rather through public transit.

In my conversations with Edward Wedler, this relates back to the time when we decided to walk from Yarmouth to Georgetown, PEI, as part of our Road to Georgetown Trek. Many things have changed since those days.

Later, talking to Ed Symons at COGS, as part of his community mapping research, he is producing Kings Transit maps. Think of the value of adding the senior (citizen) experience to these maps. Ed’s students are working on a number of other sectors: food, forestry, culture, First Nations, community services and climate change. All of them can benefit from community (citizen) input.

At COGS, there has been a migration of staff from AGRG Middleton to Lawrencetown. From the outside, this appears to be a recognition of project-based learning. It will be interesting to see whether this corporate directive is reflected in the business plan for the new Innovation Hub (read this blog post). Rather than driven by business needs, the hub could be driven by the needs of the rural community and then to develop a geographic technology-related solution for these communities. The solutions can be transferred, and scaled, to other non-urban geographies. Use the intelligence of rural citizens in these communities to drive the design process right from project inception.

I hope on our return from Iqaluit (end of April) we will be able to review a business plan for the Innovation Hub, which reflects both our geographic reality and our citizens. Meanwhile, until we head North, we shall continue to ‘ride the buses’.

Today, I received a second book from my brother Peter. It is called ‘Maureen’ and is a collection of historic photographs, commemorating the life of my younger sister; thus, indirectly, our lives too.

Acknowledgements

Heather for her enthusiastic embrace of the bus fieldwork. Edward for fond memories of the Road to Georgetown. David Colville and Ed Symons for conversations on community mapping at COGS. Peter for another treasure from our common past.

References
Peter Maher. 2020. Maureen. Self-published.