I'd made the call the night before, feeling slightly dirty and scabrous. Er, yeah, I need a ride tomorrow, please. Er, that's right, to BT (nobody round here calls it Adastral). About how much will that be? Wow, er, OK, see you then.
Looked out of the window at five to eight and there he was, cruising down the road. Feeling a tad guilty about not biking and the planet in general, out we go, into the belly of the beast. He apologises for being early but he wanted to be sure of a parking spot, my road setting the benchmark for parallel parking. No problem, I say, and we're off up Valley Road.
Go out to BT much, I ask? Not as much as I used to, he says. They're clamping down, apparently, encouraging people to take the ****ing bus and all. And although it hasn't affected him much, his pals at the station rank aren't happy campers. See, they've got this ****ing shuttle service going straight out there these days. Subsidised, innit. Not even sure that's legal.
It's a bit like that County Council bus that goes round town. That was free for people working for 'em. Turned out that they had to make it available to the general public, not that they advertise it.
They used to have a bus from the station to BT years back, but that died a death. Let's see how this one goes. And that 66 is full of (comment deleted).
Joe The Taxi opts for a surprisingly straightforward route out of town, via Colchester Road and onto the A1214 through Kesgrave. 30mph limit? ****ing stupid. It's 40mph by the hospital and the ring road, so why here?
Not many cars here today, he says, nodding to the visitors' car park. Mind you, there's a mass exodus at 4pm, isn't that right?
Pulling up outside reception, I look at the meter: £13.20. Gulp. I convince myself that I've easily saved this amount and lots more besides by biking nearly every day for the last x years. But it still hurts to hand over the cash.
Cost - £13.20, and that's with no tip!
Duration - 15 mins (07:55-08:10): he had a good run
Pros - works around you and you alone; quick
Cons - cost; environmental impact; smalltalk
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