Veteran riders of the Clemency Coach, people who have doubled and tripled up on their public embarrassments, say the autumn ride is the best. There are the stunning colors, the crisp snap in the air, a sense of being in the very best place there is at this time of year.

So the passengers are assembling for their much-needed getaway on the Coach, which for years has provided the chance to leave troubles behind and find fresh perspective and renewed purpose on the road.

It has been no easy time for the very small staff of the Clemency Coach these past few months. The demand for seats has run way ahead of capacity and the standby list is growing by the day. It is never easy to decide who the neediest people are. Staff members have sometimes cried and sometimes screamed and pounded hard surfaces while reviewing the roster of potential passengers.

Those who have boarding passes have earned them. They have exhibited clear and pressing need for a change of scene.

The passenger list for autumn ’09:

• Frank Williams, Keven McKenna, Jeremiah Jeremiah: Sure, Williams, former Supreme Court chief justice, left himself open for public embarrassment with that truly strange arrangement at the home of his former driver, but the Family Court session in which it was all dragged out in the open had subplot upon subplot. No one looked good on this one.

• Rep. Arthur Corvese: An informed public? We don’t need no stinkin’ informed public. Corvese, House Labor Committee chairman, made a very strange decision recently not to televise a contentious debate on binding arbitration on Capitol TV. He said he wanted to avoid the circus atmosphere the cameras might create. Circus atmosphere? You’re at the State House.

• The East Providence City Council and School Committee: For behaving badly.

• Two people dressed as pizzas who represent the thousands who start decorating for Halloween on Oct. 1.

• Bill Murphy: Any chance of getting an advance copy of that retirement speech listing the high points of your time as speaker of the House?

• Nathan Hannon: There have been few instances in the long and hallowed history of the Clemency Coach in which one small corner of Rhode Island has contributed a solid block of passengers. But the Central Landfill and its tenders have proven such a vibrant source of sharp-smelling behavior that a section of seats — marked off by discarded wood palettes from the landfill — has been reserved for them. And Hannon leads the way. He was education coordinator for the Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, which meant he spent a lot of time on the road making presentations to school kids and others about recycling. At least he was supposed to. It seems he didn’t show up at some of the places where he said he did show up. He got fired.

Then there are all those people who spilled out of an audit of the landfill operation which seemed to indicate that money was being tossed around like seagull droppings in the bad old days. A personal favorite is the New Hampshire golf course architect who never actually came to the landfill but was paid $4,990 several years ago for a conceptual design of an 18-hole course and driving range next to the landfill. Could have meant new meaning for the words “that drive was a real stinker.”

As often happens, boarding has to be temporarily suspended at this point to allow passengers to be escorted to the section of the coach enclosed in chicken wire and designated for those who have claimed space on the police log by being criminal in really dumb ways:

• Michael Brooks and Friends: Spitting at the mall? Is that what makes for a big night out these days? Is that the new idea of being bad? Brooks is 18 and he and some true juveniles are charged with standing on the top level of Providence Place three weeks ago, spitting on people below, then coming down the escalators and threatening a man who was there with his wife and child. There were boys and girls on a romp at their downtown playground. And they were caught when they ran. Brooks faces disorderly conduct charges. Three of the juveniles were referred to juvenile court.

• Joseph McCarthy: The casual litterer turns criminal. According to police, McCarthy admitted that he had dropped two beer bottles from his fourth-floor window on Fulton Street in Providence because he was annoyed by the noise being made by people below. A woman was struck in the head by one of the bottles, the police said. She was not seriously hurt, but she could have been. McCarthy was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. He’s dumb lucky it wasn’t something more serious.

• While not available for this trip, special thanks go out from the Clemency Coach crew to those zany bank robbers in Fall River last seen heading down the street with the smoke from exploding dye packets billowing from the getaway car. Those who saw it won’t forget it.

Now back to regular boarding for some people from across a state line or two

• Glen Davis: You’re young, coming off a good season with the Celtics and making some serious bucks. And you get in a fight with a friend at 4 in the morning and break your thumb? And get suspended? Repeat after me the words of golfer Roberto De Vicenzo, who blew a shot at winning the 1968 Masters when he signed an incorrect scorecard: “What a stupid I am.”

• Sean Hannity: That roster of Great Americans is a hoot. There’s a guy named John Celona you might want to check out.

The Clemency Coach is full. May it roll in peace and in mutual respect for the personal agony of others.

bkerr@projo.com