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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)

#51

Post by btashton »

Zanni wrote: post #44
btashton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a firm believer that we need to get the private busses out of the express lanes. In Seattle it is really bad, all of the Microsoft and Amazon busses crossing east west have destroyed demand for quality public transportation across that corridor. Every day going to work I drive the same route as a Microsoft bus, the current alternative is three busses for 90min best case. This is also the only HOV Lane in the stat…

Why? Private buses are solving the same problem as public buses--taking cars off the road and reducing traffic. You could make them unpalatable, but I'm guessing most Microsoft and Amazon employees will revert to cars before public buses, which makes traffic worse for everyone, including you.

And incur the extra 15-20min of drive time each way? I doubt that.

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

#52

Post by TylerE »

perl4ever wrote: post #28
perl4ever wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Of course, that begs the question of: If you can do your job on a train on your laptop, why the hell are you traveling to an office in the first place?

The best car alternative is not going anywhere.

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

#53

Post by tengbretson »

iso1337 wrote: post #45
btashton wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a firm believer that we need to get the private busses out of the express lanes. In Seattle it is really bad, all of the Microsoft and Amazon busses crossing east west have destroyed demand for quality public transportation across that corridor. Every day going to work I drive the same route as a Microsoft bus, the current alternative is three busses for 90min best case. This is also the only HOV Lane in the stat…

You do realize that if you get rid of those busses then the traffic will be even worse right? Even if all of those people end up carpooling, they'll occupy way more space in the HOV lane. The real solution should be to expand the number of HOV lanes.

> The real solution should be to expand the number of HOV lanes.

Haven't you heard that increasing the number of lanes makes traffic worse?

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

#54

Post by rayiner »

momokoko wrote: post #34
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…

If you are not aware, this type of comment is fairly common on HN when discussing public transit. > Make the bus an experience that at least doesn't make want people want to vomit and then people may start to take the bus again. Please do not take personal offense to this, but this type of comment leads me to believe that you have very derogatory views of people that have chosen or have ended up in different life pat…

Contrary to what some people believe, the “general population” follows rules and decorum and doesn’t like people blaring music on the bus, or aggressive pan handlers, or people talking to themselves any more than OP does. If they had a bit more money they’d be driving instead to get away from the troublemakers just like OP. And they are the ones who suffer most when elitists insist that public transit (and public schools, etc.) should be forced to deal with troubled or anti-social people, be de facto homeless shelters, etc.

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

#55

Post by peterwwillis »

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…

> 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

This sounds like every subway I've ridden in the states.

(Although most subways have since upgraded to digital payments, the card-filling stations never seem to work, and the attendants aren't always there, so you can't even use exact change. At the same time, most metropolitan buses now use tap-to-pay)

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

#56

Post by triodan »

Ayesh wrote: post #7

The author completely forgets there is a whole world outside the US, where public transportation is efficient, preferred, and often makes good profts too. - Singapore has a very good bus+ metro system and people actually prefer it. Cars are heavily taxed which contributed to it, but their well planning has helped too. Airport served by metro, so is the Malaysia border, and every neighborhood has at least two nearby m…

As a Jakarta resident I can confirm that the bus transit system (TransJakarta) have massively helped mobility amongst the populace. With a flat fare of 2 cents you can get from one end of the city to the other; it's an amazing system.

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

#57

Post by tathougies »

perl4ever wrote: post #16
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." 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…

I took the bus to work from marin to san Francisco. I did so even though driving is faster because (a) in the morning, i could do work the moment i got on the bus (free WiFi) instead of shouting at the driver in front of me, (b) because i started work earlier, I could leave earlier and (c) in the evening i could browse the internet and watch Netflix on my way home. The extra 15 minutes i spent because I took the bus instead of drive was spent in luxury essentially.

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

#58

Post by inferiorhuman »

nradov wrote: post #46

The HN demographic skews young and male, so I think many of us fail to appreciate that older people and women often feel unsafe — or at least uncomfortable — on public transit. Increased law enforcement presence and enforcement of decent behavior would do a lot to make people love the bus.

Honestly I feel unsafe much of the time on BART these days. Unfortunately BART PD presence is part of the problem.

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

#59

Post by fyfy18 »

oakesm9 wrote: post #19
privateSFacct wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This - enforce carpool lanes and give buses priority access. Immediate positive. Secondly and more importantly for me (and I know unpopular) - kick off the drunk / other rule-breakers and anyone who threatens people even if its just a result of mental illness. No one wants to start their day next to someone yelling - "I'll f * you up... etc" on a crowded bus. At least where I am the bus drivers don't do anything from…

Some of this is down to the driver being the only staff member on the bus. They should be fully focused on driving as a bus hitting anything is bad news. Stopping to kick people off just delays everyone on the bus getting where they need to go. If there was a conductor on the bus then they could deal with inappropriate behaviour, but no bus company wants to pay two members of staff when they can get away with one.

Why not rotate conductors throughout different busses? A conductor gets on at one stop, checks everyone's tickets (so they may end up covering a lot of their cost initially in fines), then get off a few stops later and catch a bus going the other way.

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

#60

Post by jakecopp »

bigger_cheese wrote: post #31
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…

Do buses run to Sydney airport? I usually take the train to the airport and I hate it. For whatever reason the airport line is privatized and they absolutely gouge you on ticket price. It costs me $22 to get train to the airport (it's around $17 from central station to airport). I can get a flight to Melbourne for ~$70 it shouldn't cost 1/3 of my plane ticket. If there are two people traveling in a group taxi is chea…

Yep the 400 bus does! It goes via Mascot Station and then via UNSW and Randwick to Bondi Junction.

A good hack is getting off the train at Mascot, walking across the road and catching the 400 one stop. They come every few minutes and you save the airport train station fee!

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