I recieved an email from Rebecca Cefai here in Malta — she read the post about the bus shelters and had some nice user experience to recount, which sounds a lot like the complaints levelled against Toronto’s glass shelters:
I just thought you would like to know that the Maltese text on the bus shelters is a poem by Oliver Friggieri called “Jekk” (“If”) and it basically says that if you do all there is to be done in this life, then you destroy it, because “Life is a question gathered in a thousand whys/and becomes for you a poem if you give it no replies”.
I like the poem a lot, and whiled away some time spent waiting for buses by memorising it. Full text available here.
Incidentally, the bus shelters are very impractical – they don’t provide nearly enough shade in summer (and their roofs block UV rays but not heat, and are too tall to actually shelter the seat), the gaps let in the wind and rain in winter, the depression in the seat collects puddles of rainwater and dew, and the front provides no protection against being splashed by dirty rainwater in the road when cars go by at speed. The poem is pretty much their only redeeming feature.
Regarding the buses, the old ones may pollute but they’re a lot better for commuters in the summer than the new buses. The new ones were designed for long-haul trips in other countries, not short trips in a hot climate, so their windows don’t open like they do on the old buses. The REALLY new buses have air conditioning, but you have to hope that the driver will switch it on.
I’ll admit I’m not using the bus system, instead driving my dad’s Toyota around. It’s a from-Japan-used model, and for some reason their radio stations aren’t compatible with Malta’s, so only a handful of stations come in, and all of them seem to play Elvis (1970s ballad Elvis at that). The one tape my dad has is a mix of Billy Joel’s Glass Houses and Bob Segar’s Nine Tonight, a live album. I sort of really like this tape. Also, driving here is just wild — everything seems to work, though I’m not sure how. It’s organized-anarchy, if there is such a thing.