When it comes to problem-solving, you can’t just look for the obvious answer and stop there.

You can’t jack up the car without a spare tire to fix the flat. You can’t go to the moon without a way to get back. You can’t put a cast on a broken bone without a plan to get it off later.

Real problem-solving is all about what comes next to avoid trading today’s issue for tomorrow’s complication.

We can see that with the covid-19 vaccine. Admittedly, that was — and is — a big problem. It required tons of effort by thousands of people to study the virus and invent the vaccine — or rather three vaccines and counting in the United States.

After the high fives for creating the vaccine started, it didn’t take long to realize there wasn’t a great plan in place to distribute the vials of it. Availability alone was not going to solve the problem of reducing susceptibility to the illness.

So delivery became the priority, which took more effort from more people to create vaccination clinics and set up ways for people to get shots at their doctors’ offices or local pharmacies.

But kudos to Westmoreland County Transit for doing what transportation should do best — looking down the road to see what is about to jump out of the bushes.

The new problem could be that exactly those most at risk from the coronavirus pandemic — the elderly or those with illnesses or disabilities — often also have transportation problems. The transit authority recognized that potential pothole and swerved around it by offering free rides to vaccine clinics.

“We wanted to eliminate a barrier for people,” said authority Executive Director Alan Blahovec.

That is just good service. Making connections and getting people where they need to go is the authority’s job.

But it’s also good problem-solving, and during a global health crisis, that’s something everyone needs to be doing.

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