On The Special Bus

A special greeting to all Soylentils which is probably all of you as Soylent News is the only public place where I've announced this link!

Just left home - what do I see in the distance? Robobus! Of course, I missed them.	Here the lead one returns, for this part of the journey running where the old tram route used to be, avoiding any traffic, but coping with a lamppost.
Cars, busses, bikes, and pedestrians do cross its path	For example, here at Insineri
Getting on at Mere Puistee. It's a crampt cab, 6 seats, one reserved for staff, and space for a couple of foot passengers.	More navigating past posts.
The most complext junction on Mere Puistee as it crosses Ahtri, and we stop following the tram tracks.	Yes, we're travelling towards on-coming traffic as we pull up to our destination at Linnahall
There's no turning around - we literally shuttle back and forth, so both have to be in lock-step	Which is odd, as there is space to swap the two busses over at the Mere Pst. end
Depressingly, I walked between the end-points in those two photos above, and did it at a faster speed than the bus did
So there you have it - the future of public transportation in Tallinn!	No, you silly boy, not that - this!

One thing I've not covered is what the member of staff does. That's because (a) I didn't want to photograph him at work without prior permission, and no photo means no caption; and (b) he doesn't really appear to do anything at all, or even be capable of doing much at all. While I was on the bus all he needed to do was wave at some pedestrians to inform them that they could in fact cross in front of the bus at the pedestrian crossing where they were waiting - quite a common occurance, pedestrians were either way too polite, or too scared! There were no conventional vehicle controls for him either. There was a keyboard but no form of display that I could see, that's all.

Photos are shitty as my fish-eye lens is 100% manual, and every time I chimped, I'd moved and the lighting was different. I should have exposure-bracketted, I guess, but my battery was running flat.

Published under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.