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The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

nytimes.com

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Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#21

Post by BubRoss »

lenepp wrote: post #20

It's kind of incredible the article doesn't mention it, but the typical city bus makes sounds at a decibel level that is harmful to the human body (anything above 85 dB is harmful). There's a scene in Mad Men that I always like to bring up when it comes to things like this, where the Drapers are having a picnic in a bucolic park, and then they just get up and walk away, leaving their trash behind. It looks crazy and…

You think people don't ride buses because they are loud to the people around them? A bus is still going to be there if they ride it or not.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#22

Post by ganzuul »

lenepp wrote: post #20

It's kind of incredible the article doesn't mention it, but the typical city bus makes sounds at a decibel level that is harmful to the human body (anything above 85 dB is harmful). There's a scene in Mad Men that I always like to bring up when it comes to things like this, where the Drapers are having a picnic in a bucolic park, and then they just get up and walk away, leaving their trash behind. It looks crazy and…

Bus companies are investing in EVs since it is likely fossil fuels will be banned in city centers pretty soon.

Perhaps the culture really is that diffrent in the U.S., that I never expected someone to prefer personal vehicles to public transit for environmental reasons.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#23

Post by fmajid »

Nearly every comment on the NYT site makes the same point: buses are unreliable, and filled with homeless, mentally unstable or drugged people who make them a terrifying experience. What is the response of cities? Kneecap the alternatives like Uber/Lyft, or spend taxpayers' money not on fixing those two problems but on ridiculous ideas like paying people to take the bus. Almost as if the people are here to serve the bus and not the other way around.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#24

Post by gmmeyer »

Busses are great in NYC. I take them regularly. They are nice and clean and fairly quick. They're not always as fast as Uber but they're much cheaper, so you have a tradeoff. And, sometimes they are faster than Uber, since they have their own lane in some places!

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#25

Post by prophesi »

BubRoss wrote: post #21
lenepp wrote: post #20

It's kind of incredible the article doesn't mention it, but the typical city bus makes sounds at a decibel level that is harmful to the human body (anything above 85 dB is harmful). There's a scene in Mad Men that I always like to bring up when it comes to things like this, where the Drapers are having a picnic in a bucolic park, and then they just get up and walk away, leaving their trash behind. It looks crazy and…

You think people don't ride buses because they are loud to the people around them? A bus is still going to be there if they ride it or not.

And the popular alternative of taking the subway is definitely not an improvement in terms of hearing loss.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#26

Post by freepor »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #18
carapace wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped riding the bus mainly due to social reasons: there was always somebody on every trip watching TV on their phone without headphones. And people stopped waiting for others to disembark before boarding. That's the weirdest thing: the bus stops, the doors open, and the people waiting to board just start piling in before the people coming off have left. Maybe that's only in SF. And then there's this: > In Gavin…

It is the stacking social ills problem. If SF had an effective set of homeless policies/programs then they wouldn't misuse the bus. While it is true that people respect "free" services less than paid ones, I have yet to read any reports from places that have implemented free bus service that suggested general damage/misuse due to a lack of respect. The bus service in Logan UT for example is pretty awesome.

SF has the most effective set of homeless policies in the United States, so effective that it has drawn a vast number of homeless to the city who overwhelm even the overwhelming resources the city devotes to homelessness. The comparison to Logan Utah is moronic beyond the bounds of imagination.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#27

Post by et-al »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #18
carapace wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped riding the bus mainly due to social reasons: there was always somebody on every trip watching TV on their phone without headphones. And people stopped waiting for others to disembark before boarding. That's the weirdest thing: the bus stops, the doors open, and the people waiting to board just start piling in before the people coming off have left. Maybe that's only in SF. And then there's this: > In Gavin…

It is the stacking social ills problem. If SF had an effective set of homeless policies/programs then they wouldn't misuse the bus. While it is true that people respect "free" services less than paid ones, I have yet to read any reports from places that have implemented free bus service that suggested general damage/misuse due to a lack of respect. The bus service in Logan UT for example is pretty awesome.

I suspect the venn diagram of cities implementing free public transit and cities with tough homeless issues are not overlapping.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#28

Post by nkrisc »

ArtDev wrote: post #12

Can't we just "check in" to a bus stop on an app, then have the bus create a route based on that? How about a button at each stop, with a live estimate when the bus will arrive? Currently, the bus system is like a newspaper. Inconvenient, messy and smells bad.

Chicago buses have an estimated arrival at most stops along the major routes. Every single but stop also has a unique number on the sign that you can text to a service and get estimates back by text. It makes using buses so much easier and less of a hassle because there's less guessing involved. I had my usual stop numbers memorized so I could text ahead of time and see when to leave, or maybe decide to just walk the route instead of waiting if it was going to be a while. They have that info on a website but texting was faster.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#29

Post by linuxftw »

fmajid wrote: post #23

Nearly every comment on the NYT site makes the same point: buses are unreliable, and filled with homeless, mentally unstable or drugged people who make them a terrifying experience. What is the response of cities? Kneecap the alternatives like Uber/Lyft, or spend taxpayers' money not on fixing those two problems but on ridiculous ideas like paying people to take the bus. Almost as if the people are here to serve the…

Wait until these people are running your healthcare. It's gonna be epic.

Re: The Mystery of the Missing Bus Riders

#30

Post by treis »

irrational wrote: post #6

Just too inconvenient. I was tired of driving my teenager 15 minutes to her job, so I looked up the bus route. From our house it is basically straight down a single major road to her job. But to get there on the bus meant transferring two times and would take her an hour and a half. Insane.

I live in one of the cities in the article about a mile away from the city center and this is 100% the problem. It's 3-4 times as slow as driving and comparable to a brisk walk. And that's assuming that a bus isn't behind or I just miss one and the next one isn't for 30 minutes. For example, there's a popular restaurant/bar area 2.5 miles away from my house. Driving is 10 minutes, bus is 50 with a transfer, and walking is 50.
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