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America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

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Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#51

Post by dzhiurgis »

Reason077 wrote: post #4
bdndndndbve wrote: post #2

It's amazing how something that should be a public utility has been carved up by private equity and sold to a foreign company. Greyhound has completely stopped operating in Canada and the impact has been tremendous.

It's interesting how airports, especially regional airports, are often heavily subsidised in the US. But bus terminals, apparantely, are something that the private sector should provide without government support. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Buses already rely on private car drivers subsidising them via road damage. Bus can do 10,000-20,000 times more damage. Extrapolate that and it’s actually cheaper to be in a taxi.

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#52

Post by searealist »

sevensor wrote: post #50
searealist wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect you are not aligned with me. I am saying that lower-class people, on average, have behavior that middle-class people don't want to be exposed to. Look at some of the stories in this thread.

I’ve been my share of 15 hour bus rides. Greyhound. Megabus. Changing buses downtown at midnight. Mostly it’s just people trying to get around. Worst that ever happened is I got scammed out of $20 when I was a kid and I’d never heard “I’m trying to get back to Virginia but I’m $31 short” before. I mean sure, there might be a junkie taking way too long in the bathroom, but people intent on doing you actual harm are pr…

> Mostly it’s just people trying to get around

That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it.

Moreover, you come across as someone driven by ideology rather than honesty. You jumped straight into a cliched talking point about how the man is maliciously trying to keep poor people down.

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#53

Post by amy-petrik-214 »

edm0nd wrote: post #8
searealist wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People don't use greyhound because of the other people who use greyhound. Making this a public utility only worsens this problem.

This so much. Anyone who has ever spent time having to be stuck at a Greyhound terminal in the south knows what true hell looks like. They are full of the sketchiest people of every city. Not great places unless you are into smoking crack with homeless people and getting threatened or stabbed by them.

This so much. Anyone who has ever spent time having to be stuck at a Greyhound terminal in the south knows what true hell looks like. They are full of the sketchiest people of every city.

It's not the worst (i.e. a southern bus station), some parts of Chicago are the worst. It's just a god awful shitshow. I had a blast when I did it, yes there were crackheads, but you can make new friends with crackheads. There was a 'hood lady I made friends with and a sweet old foreigner grandma type visiting her kid... who didn't speak english.. so I helped her get there what with the 8 hour bus delay, which might be related to stations shutting down

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#54

Post by bmsan »

dzhiurgis wrote: post #51
Reason077 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting how airports, especially regional airports, are often heavily subsidised in the US. But bus terminals, apparantely, are something that the private sector should provide without government support. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Buses already rely on private car drivers subsidising them via road damage. Bus can do 10,000-20,000 times more damage. Extrapolate that and it’s actually cheaper to be in a taxi.

I wonder if that's true. With the volume of taxis necessary to replace busses, you have to think about the increased fuel and maintenance costs, the increased costs related directly to traffic, and indirectly in the form of losses from accidents, etc.

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#55

Post by sevensor »

searealist wrote: post #52
sevensor wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been my share of 15 hour bus rides. Greyhound. Megabus. Changing buses downtown at midnight. Mostly it’s just people trying to get around. Worst that ever happened is I got scammed out of $20 when I was a kid and I’d never heard “I’m trying to get back to Virginia but I’m $31 short” before. I mean sure, there might be a junkie taking way too long in the bathroom, but people intent on doing you actual harm are pr…

> Mostly it’s just people trying to get around That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it. Moreover, you come across as someone driven by ideology rather than honesty. You jumped straight into a cliched talking point about how the man is maliciously trying to keep poor people down.

> That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it.

That’s a pretty high standard considering the behavior of highway drivers. How do you get around, friend?

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#56

Post by searealist »

sevensor wrote: post #55
searealist wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mostly it’s just people trying to get around That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it. Moreover, you come across as someone driven by ideology rather than honesty. You jumped straight into a cliched talking point about how the man is maliciously trying to keep poor people down.

> That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it. That’s a pretty high standard considering the behavior of highway drivers. How do you get around, friend?

It's the standard I meet by flying any airline except Frontier or Spirit.

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#57

Post by tivert »

searealist wrote: post #52
sevensor wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been my share of 15 hour bus rides. Greyhound. Megabus. Changing buses downtown at midnight. Mostly it’s just people trying to get around. Worst that ever happened is I got scammed out of $20 when I was a kid and I’d never heard “I’m trying to get back to Virginia but I’m $31 short” before. I mean sure, there might be a junkie taking way too long in the bathroom, but people intent on doing you actual harm are pr…

> Mostly it’s just people trying to get around That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it. Moreover, you come across as someone driven by ideology rather than honesty. You jumped straight into a cliched talking point about how the man is maliciously trying to keep poor people down.

> Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it.

A lot of them sound like: "Ick, I saw poor people, never again will I subject myself to that. I now restrict myself to modes of transport too expensive for those poors to use."

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#58

Post by searealist »

tivert wrote: post #57
searealist wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mostly it’s just people trying to get around That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it. Moreover, you come across as someone driven by ideology rather than honesty. You jumped straight into a cliched talking point about how the man is maliciously trying to keep poor people down.

> Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it. A lot of them sound like: "Ick, I saw poor people, never again will I subject myself to that. I now restrict myself to modes of transport too expensive for those poors to use."

blasting music, smoking drugs, feeling unsafe...

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#59

Post by tim333 »

tehjoker wrote: post #19
Reason077 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's interesting how airports, especially regional airports, are often heavily subsidised in the US. But bus terminals, apparantely, are something that the private sector should provide without government support. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Yes, but also airlines will completely fail without government support. The only aspect of aviation that is private is the buying a ticket and purchasing and operating planes, creating a thin fiction of a free market. Everything else is supported. The airports, the airline manufacturers (that also make expensive weapon systems via govt. contracts), the fuel system (supported by endless diplomacy, monetary policy, and…

The airline industry seems to work everywhere in the world regardless of the subsidy situation so I doubt it'd fail without support. A lot of subsidies seem to come from regions competing with each other eg. subsidise Boeing so the jobs don't move to Airbus/Europe, expand London airports so they don't switch to Paris etc.

Re: America's Greyhound bus stations are disappearing

#60

Post by tehjoker »

Marsymars wrote: post #27
tehjoker wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but also airlines will completely fail without government support. The only aspect of aviation that is private is the buying a ticket and purchasing and operating planes, creating a thin fiction of a free market. Everything else is supported. The airports, the airline manufacturers (that also make expensive weapon systems via govt. contracts), the fuel system (supported by endless diplomacy, monetary policy, and…

> The airlines are critical to a big country like the US when our passenger rail networks are so slow, so the government supports it. How does this follow? If they're critical and highly subsidized, that implies the value that people get out of tickets is much higher than what they're paying, so people should be willing to pay much higher prices if subsidies are ended.

Airline tickets are already cost sensitive, it doesn't follow that people can pay more individually just because the societal benefit is very high.
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