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America’s Buses Need Our Love More Than Ever (2018)

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Re: America’s Buses Need Our Love More Than Ever (2018)

#21

Post by m3jia »

vidarh wrote: post #18
perl4ever wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The thing I hate about buses in many cities is that they take longer than driving to get somewhere." In my experience they take within a few minutes of walking somewhere, and perhaps three times as long as bicycling, never mind driving. Perhaps someone will say that this indicates my local bus system is terrible, but I don't see what could be improved about it. If they want to serve the people who actually ride the…

Buses are most viable when combined with a well developed rail system. Then it's worthwhile as an alternative to dealing with parking at the train stations and because you won't have your car on the other end of that rail journey.

Buses i most US cities just aren't viable. A lot of cities really don't work well if you don't own a car at all, and if you own one a bus will never win driving and parking in the big lot.

In NYC, buses work, and people take them because they have to. They could be better but the alternative is hundreds of dollars in parking if you think about owning a car.

Re: America’s Buses Need Our Love More Than Ever (2018)

#22

Post by askafriend »

johnmarcus wrote: post #17

you can't just tell people to "love the bus", the bus has to actually be loveable. No one is avoiding the bus because 'climate change is cool man, fuck the bus'. People don't ride the bus because it's jam packed shoulder to shoulder, can smell like puke and piss, subsidezed homeless travel while the rest of us need to pay a dumb fare, requires exact change in world ruled by tap-to-pay devices. And then yeah, traffic…

Nailed it. I'd love to use the bus but it's just not a realistic option given the state of bus systems in most US cities.

Re: America’s Buses Need Our Love More Than Ever (2018)

#23

Post by drdeadringer »

Thorentis wrote: post #2

The thing I hate about buses in many cities is that they take longer than driving to get somewhere. I think if this can be changed, more people will use them. Cities like Sydney get it right, by having dedicated express lanes on many highways for buses (and taxis). When it becomes faster to catch the bus in peak hour because they can drive in lanes that bypass the gridlock, there is an incentive to leave your car at…

> The thing I hate about buses in many cities is that they take longer than driving to get somewhere.

I've found the same with walking in some cases.

Re: America’s Buses Need Our Love More Than Ever (2018)

#24

Post by perl4ever »

vidarh wrote: post #18
perl4ever wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The thing I hate about buses in many cities is that they take longer than driving to get somewhere." In my experience they take within a few minutes of walking somewhere, and perhaps three times as long as bicycling, never mind driving. Perhaps someone will say that this indicates my local bus system is terrible, but I don't see what could be improved about it. If they want to serve the people who actually ride the…

Buses are most viable when combined with a well developed rail system. Then it's worthwhile as an alternative to dealing with parking at the train stations and because you won't have your car on the other end of that rail journey.

I don't understand what you mean at all.

If I didn't have a car, of course I would ride the bus to the train station. And I have in the past taken a fairly long distance bus to get to an airport hub.

But this doesn't seem to have any relationship to daily life where I am, or similar places, because train or plane rides are for going on long trips, say over 200km.

Indeed, to travel to NYC from where I live by train would be the same time as driving, and considerably quicker than a bus. But no way would I ever spend about 2.5 hours daily going back and forth, so it's all unrelated to my normal transportation needs.

Maybe by a "well developed rail system" you mean a subway, but it doesn't seem realistic for an area with a million or two people to support one. With infinite resources, you could run infinite free buses too, rather than indirectly trying to create some sort of synergy.

Re: America’s Buses Need Our Love More Than Ever (2018)

#25

Post by perl4ever »

m3jia wrote: post #21
vidarh wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buses are most viable when combined with a well developed rail system. Then it's worthwhile as an alternative to dealing with parking at the train stations and because you won't have your car on the other end of that rail journey.

Buses i most US cities just aren't viable. A lot of cities really don't work well if you don't own a car at all, and if you own one a bus will never win driving and parking in the big lot. In NYC, buses work, and people take them because they have to. They could be better but the alternative is hundreds of dollars in parking if you think about owning a car.

You have to at some point accept that the vast majority of people, while they don't live in nowheresville, Montana, also don't live in the very largest cities. A million or two people within say 10-15 miles is the sort of place a large portion of the country lives, and changing that on a national scale seems very far fetched to me. 85% of the country by population is outside the metro areas of NYC, LA, Chicago, and Dallas. Regarding them as a small group of people many miles away from civilization is not reasonable, but it's also not reasonable to assume the resources exist for infrastructure like the largest cities.

Re: America’s Buses Need Our Love More Than Ever (2018)

#26

Post by mung »

Busses have to be one of the worst modern mass-transit options. Auckland NZ has bus lanes, so that is fine. But they are diesel. So they are noisy and polluting. Get two or three busses in a row and you cannot see past them. They block entire roads, and really, the have a low head count for the amount of space they take up. I'm not even speaking as a driver, I'm speaking as a pedestrian. Busses really suck.

Re: America’s Buses Need Our Love More Than Ever (2018)

#27

Post by CaliforniaKarl »

smileysteve wrote: post #6

The school bus system is an interesting microcosm of transportation to look at; Over the last 30 years, bus use has dropped while [privileged] parents drive their children to school, wait in a carpool lane; Interesting concepts - Time Wasted in the pickup lane (and often the drop off lane) - Traffic in the pickup and drop-off lanes - High School parking lot size - Use during inclement weather In Snowpocalypse in Atla…

Sometimes chains aren’t even needed.

While I was an undergrad at The Ohio State University, I was a part-time bus driver for the campus bus system (which used 35- and 40-foot city-type buses).

During my time there, we had one snow day, and I was on-shift that day. That was when I learned that the bus had traction control. Once I learned that, I was able to adjust my driving such that climbing the hill to the Freshman remote parking lot was no problem.

Re: America’s Buses Need Our Love More Than Ever (2018)

#28

Post by perl4ever »

perl4ever wrote: post #24
vidarh wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Buses are most viable when combined with a well developed rail system. Then it's worthwhile as an alternative to dealing with parking at the train stations and because you won't have your car on the other end of that rail journey.

I don't understand what you mean at all. If I didn't have a car, of course I would ride the bus to the train station. And I have in the past taken a fairly long distance bus to get to an airport hub. But this doesn't seem to have any relationship to daily life where I am, or similar places, because train or plane rides are for going on long trips, say over 200km. Indeed, to travel to NYC from where I live by train wo…

In the process/after writing the above comment, I was looking at Amtrak's schedules, and thinking about the concept of commuting to NYC from Albany. It occurred to me after a minute, to imagine a job where, instead of trying to get to the city in time for work, I got on the train more like 8-9 AM, and was considered to be "at work" on my laptop for the next couple of hours, and the same coming home. Perhaps there are people who do that, and it might be an interesting way to live.

Re: America’s Buses Need Our Love More Than Ever (2018)

#29

Post by et-al »

mung wrote: post #26

Busses have to be one of the worst modern mass-transit options. Auckland NZ has bus lanes, so that is fine. But they are diesel. So they are noisy and polluting. Get two or three busses in a row and you cannot see past them. They block entire roads, and really, the have a low head count for the amount of space they take up. I'm not even speaking as a driver, I'm speaking as a pedestrian. Busses really suck.

It seems like your compliant should be directed more specifically towards diesel vehicles than actual busses. There are low-emission busses out there.

Re: America’s Buses Need Our Love More Than Ever (2018)

#30

Post by microcolonel »

My city's buses often take longer than walking, and I have to stand on them because the suspension is not sufficient on our roads, it's probably not even safe to sit sometimes. The HVAC and rattling/flapping noises are extremely loud.

I ride the bus here when absolutely necessary, I usuallly walk the 3km to/from the regional train station to avoid it. Often it's not even an option, since all of the routes close down at about 1:30, and at that point come every couple hours.

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