The hard thing about writing comedy is that it all too often loses its punch by becoming reality. A few weeks ago, I joked that governments could make money by running real-time auctions among cars approaching an intersection, the highest bidder getting the green light.

In the current issue of Forbes is an article about a new technology being installed in Calgary's city bus fleet that allows those buses to trigger approaching lights to green. The result is public transportation that moves more quickly through city traffic than individual vehicles, saving the system a huge amount of fuel (2,000 gallons per bus per year) and a similar reduction in CO2 emissions.

Calgary is only the latest of 98 cities that have installed these 'signal preemption' systems, totaling 30,000 plus intersections. The transmitters were originally designed for emergency responders. The original systems, using infrared, were soon hacked, allowing those with a hacked unit to sail through town without stopping. Encoding has, at the moment, kept the new systems free from interlopers.

Word comes via the Los Angeles Times about a new program for those who like to save money/headaches on long-distance trips by bypassing the airport in favor of the old reliable Greyhound bus system. Taking a page out of Southwest Airline's book, the Grey Dog is testing a priority seating program. On selected routes, passengers may pay $5 to upgrade to the seat of their choice. The program is only available in the terminal in advance of boarding, though.

I think this program could be even more alluring though, with a slight change; rather than allowing me to choose my seat, I'd like to be allowed to choose those who I don't want to sit beside. A brief tour of the terminal would allow me to rule out the smokers whose clothes reek of Camels, the obsessive talkers ("and my eleventh grandchild was voted most likely to be release on his own recognizance"), those who seldom visit the laundromat, the muttering, seething-with-anger ex-cons, and the cell-phone addicted with no sense of shame or privacy.

Put me in a different row from them, and there aren't any bad seats on a Greyhound, imho.

Thanks to Gadling for the tip