Bus systems A poll

In My Humble Opinion
21

I live in the same area as Giles. I ride the bus to work every day (and have for 16 1/2 years). No worry about driving downtown, finding a place to park, wear and tear on my car. It works well for me because I live in a community that’s near downtown and I work downtown. I live between two routes, so it’s quite convenient for me. There’s a nice group of regular riders that I’ve gotten to know, so there’s usually someone to chat with.

Downfalls: they don’t seem to worry about what riders want when they plan service changes. They cut one of the routes that I ride in a pretty ridiculous way last year. As Giles mentioned, there aren’t many crosstown or suburban routes. Many routes don’t run on weekends. They haven’t capitalized on high gas prices as much as they could have. I think their ridership could have increased a lot if they’d made a little bit of an effort. Instead, it actually went down slightly in the past year.

Good points: reasonable fares ($1.50 with free transfers for local buses; $2 for express buses; the monthly pass I buy is $45 and gives me unlimited travel on local buses; also OSU students pay a quarterly fee and ride free), downtown coverage is good. In the past, they’ve worked pretty well with large employers to extend and create routes. Pretty good Web site.

Not sure what else to add.

GT

22

**Do you use it? **
All the time.

Why or why not?
I don’t have a car, and it’s really the only way to get around. There is the El (the Chicago subway) but the Red line is a bit sketchy and you have to take a bus to get there anyway.

I used to use the bus only for downtown outings, but after the weather dropped below zero I’ve been using it to get to school as well.

What are the downfalls of your bus system?
Well, the buses aren’t always on time. Those that go to campus are usually punctual, but if you’re unlucky the bus will be too packed to let anyone else on by the time it gets to your stop. In the mornings the buses run every 6 minutes but in the afternoons they only run every half hour.

The campus buses are usually clean, but the ones that run downtown can be filthy at times.

The good points?
It’s warm. More or less reliable. And the campus buses are free for students with ID.

(Um, maybe I should clarify that when I say campus buses I don’t mean buses run by our school. The buses are run by the city but their route includes our campus.)

23

I’m in a small suburb off the island of Montreal. The bus service here connects us with the subway system (Metro), and a couple of buses take us across the river to the big city.

Do you use it? Why or why not?

I use the local bus system and Montreal’s bus/metro system pretty much daily, because I don’t have a car yet. And even if I did have a car, it would take me just as long to get to work, because of traffic. Using the two transit systems, I can be in the downtown core within 45 minutes at rush hour. And if I’m going into town for shopping or dinner, the parking fees have gotten so ridiculous (3$ an hour for the meters) that it’s just too expensive.
**
What are the downfalls of your bus system?**

There’s no night bus service at all - the last bus passes my place around 1am. Montreal has some night buses, but most of the bus lines, and the Metro, stop running around 1am as well. When I go out dancing or drinking, I’m usually out till 3am, closing time, and so I end up needing to take a cab home.

There’s almost no bus service to the heavily populated “West Island” area of the city, which is where most of my friends live, so making plans with them can be a pain, and getting to their places takes forever and I usually need a lift partway.
**
The good points?**

Buses are on time, and security is pretty decent in the Metro. There are tons of bus routes, so chances are you can get pretty much anywhere you need to by bus, although it will take you a while in some cases. The cost of a monthly pass covering all of Montreal and most of its South and North Shore suburbs is only about a hundred bucks. While it seems expensive to me sometimes, I’ve seen how much it costs in other cities and I think we’re getting off easy. They also have tourist passes in Montreal, good for a few days’ unlimited travel. Paying in cash, though, is insane: $3.25 for the south shore bus, then $2.50 for the Montreal buses and Metro. And you can’t use a transfer between the two systems.

24

My location is my profile.

We don’t have buses. It is good that we don’t I suppose because I might get pressured to take one sometime and I don’t do buses. I didn’t have to ride a bus to school when I was growing up and I have only been on some charter buses and shuttles for the most part. To me, buses represent instant, packaged poverty. It doesn’t matter how much money you have because when you are on a city bus, you are slumming it with the best of them. I don’t have much against other forms of mass transit like commuter rail, light rail, monorail, subways, and street cars but there is just something about buses that has that serious ick factor.

***The above represents my personal preferences and I respect the rights of men, women, and children across the land to make their own hard choices about buses.

25

Don’t you live here in Anchorage? Good luck. My wife tilted at that windmill for several years, creating a grass-roots organization in the process that applied pressure to the Weurch administration to expand bus service. She was able to nearly single-handedly keep weekend bus service in commission when that asshole wanted to cut it out because, as he put it, “but nobody works on the weekend”. :rolleyes:

She was then appointed to the PTAB by Begich, but they are all about lip service and politics, with very little action taken. She ended up resigning from the board, which put her on Begich’s shit list. Mind you, what she was able to accomplish was done while the Assembly was actually composed of progressive members like Doug Van Etten. Now it’s a bunch of tight-assed pubbies who think buses are for black people and drunken Natives.

Sorry for the rant. If you’re not in Anchorage, never mind. If you would like to talk to my wife about contacts and what she did so you don’t have to cover new ground, let me know.

26

Do you use it? Occasionally, maybe once a month, to go either downtown or to the airport. But are direct rides from my neighborhood.

Why or why not? I’ll take it downtown becasue there’s no train from my neighborhood to downtown, and parking isn’t easy downtown. I try to avoid taking it if I’m coming back at night. My neighborhood isn’t the safest, and to get back from downtown I either have to walk 3/4 mile or wait for a transfer and walk 1/2 a block. Muggings are a pretty regular occurance around here, nothing has happened to me so far and I want to keep it that way.

What are the downfalls of your bus system? None, really, but its almost always easier for me to drive. If I know there will be parking within 1/2 mile of where I’m going, then I’ll just take my car.

The good points? Runs frequently and all day, and accepts paper dollar bills.

27

Appreciating **Shagnasty’s ** viewpoints, I was thinking about this topic on my way home (on a bus, after posting my response upthread). I wonder how many other people who *could * take buses to work don’t because of these perceptions. Again, I’m not saying that Shagnasty’s perspective is unwarranted – as I implied earlier, there are some bus routes in Denver that give a glimpse into the Other Side of Life, as it were. But, there are routes in Denver (and I assume, other cities) on which all or most of the other commuters are obviously professional people.

I work in a very, very small office, and many of my colleagues could take the bus (not light rail, which is the only other mass transit alternative in Denver) to work – I think they’re just under the impression that buses are stinky and slow and never on time, and that they need to have their own vehicle at work. Some of that is true some of the time, but it’s hardly true all of the time.

One of my routes home is a little iffy – there are definitely some scuzzy people on my bus sometimes. Last week, I sat near an elderly gentleman, not well-dressed but not sloppily attired either, who was talking to himself. No big deal, thought I to myself, not the first unhinged person I’ve seen on mass transit – then a few minutes later, he happened to turn his head while I was looking his direction. Dude was on a Bluetooth.

28

Please note I am in Australia where public transport is far more common and extensive than in the US; I used to live in a city with the same population as Canberra, but in Indiana, and there was no public bus system to speak of beyond school buses there.

Extensively. Neither I nor my partner own a car or have a licence (I had a US licence but it is now expired), so we use buses to get around to nearly everything we do. He often arranges lifts with his friends to go to evening sports activities, and I do get a lift with his parents to my weekly orchestra rehearsals (too hard to take a cello on the bus).

The bus system here is run by the local government, so budget cuts in government directly affect the bus system. Recently, budget cuts have required around a 10-20% reduction in the suburban services.

Sometimes there are smelly or crazy people riding the bus. Smelly is the worst, because some buses don’t have opening windows (they’re air conditioned instead); crazy people often result in amusing “Bus Stories” I can share with others.

On the rare occasion that I have to go from my suburb on the south side of the city to a suburb on the far north side of the city it can take about 1.5 hours to make the trip. This usually includes a long wait at one of the main bus interchanges. But since the bus interchanges are very near to shopping centres and cafe strips, it’s not a problem - I just plan to do a bit of shopping or have lunch on my way.

Environmental awareness is high amongst the population here (and parking in the city is ridiculously expensive) so many people of varying socioeconomic classes ride the buses. In the mornings I share the bus with a boatload of local politicians and businesspeople in suits, all reading their newspapers - it feels very safe, very quiet, and there is no stigma attached to riding the bus like Shagnasty mentioned.

Specifically to me, although I live in a suburb far removed from the city centre, I live right across the street from a local bus ‘hub’, so although many people have been inconvenienced by the recent bus budget cuts, our area has actually benefitted from it greatly. There are 10 bus services that leave from the small shopping area across the street from me, or within a 5-minute walk.

I work in two different locations in the city: one trip takes me 30 minutes by bus (and would take 20 by car); the other trip takes me 45 minutes by bus (and would take 25 by car). Even late at night I never have to wait more than 15 minutes between bus services that will drop me off right at my door half an hour later. I recognise that others in the city are far less fortunate with the late-night bus routing.

I often use the time spent on the bus to read materials that I will use during the day, to catch up on leisure reading, to plan my day’s research, to write lectures, to mark papers, etc. I have a small enough laptop that I can even use it on the bus if there is someone sharing the bench seat with me, so I am never bored on the bus and the “wasted” time does not bother me. After all, I couldn’t do these things if I were driving!

Because I have a full-time student card (although I am no longer a full-time student, the card does not expire for a few months and I feel it is valid to use it until it expires) I have unlimited bus travel during school days for $55 per school term (2 terms to a semester). On weekends or public holidays I only pay $1.50 for a trip with a free 90-minute transfer; or $3.30 to ride the entire day.

Once my full-time student card expires I will pay $80 a month for unlimited travel, days and weekends. When you compare this against $6/day parking in the city, a lack of parking spots at one place I visit daily, and the price of petrol, car payments, and exorbitant (in my American view) car registration fees, it actually works out to be incredibly cost-effective. Add in the benefit to the environment, the special bus-only lanes that mean we never get caught in traffic, and the great location I live in, and I find little incentive to owning a car. I do plan to have my licence by the end of next year, but even then I will probably just borrow my partner’s parents’ car whenever I need to haul something big around, until I have a full-time paying job. Once we have two incomes going then we will look at owning a car - but we will probably only use it on weekends or evenings, and still ride the buses to work. I love the bus system here and only rarely feel that it is an inconvenience.

29

Do you use it?
Yes, almost exclusively my mode of transport around the Auckland region. Other methods are train (sometimes), taxis, and rides from friends.

Why or why not?
I use buses because there are stops near where I live, and very close to where I work. They run frequently from my home suburb into the city, and I save more money with a monthly bus pass (which pays for itself after about 2 weeks).

What are the downfalls of your bus system?
The main one is the lack of a truly integrated system. Here, there are a number of companies all plying different routes, and each one has their own ticketing system. There is no overall weekly or monthly pass that covers all the companies.

The good points?
Even with the multi-company structure – once you know where you want to go, it is relatively easy for a pedestrian like me to get from A to B. My work covers the whole of the Auckland isthmus area, the range of a city, so good public transport is vital for me to stay in business. Coupled with the coverage is a fairly good online bus directory website, which helps to find how to get to the odd nooks and crannies in Auckland.

Anything at all you can tell me.
What Aucklanders have been expressing in increasing numbers of late is that there is a need for a centralised administration for our public transport system, not just some pack of local regional politicians spouting guffy ideas they probably dreamed up over a morning’s latte. We used to have a degree of regionalisation to the bus system in years gone by. Right now, though, companies put in bids for routes, and grab the councils by the short and curlies if they don’t feel their profit margin is quite high enough, and so raise the fares. And the politicians pontificate.

Hope you get a lot more sense up your way, CanvasShoes.

30

We have light rail transit aka the C-train. Runs above ground on tracks, pretty quiet and one road downtown is dedicated to the trains/buses/emergency vehicles. :stuck_out_tongue: :wink:

Just habit to call it the train.

31

Do you use it? Almost never.

Why or why not? I don’t know who our bus system caters to. I guess some people who commute during classical work hours may be able to use it. Those who do use it are poor or pro-environment diehards.

What are the downfalls of your bus system? They don’t run at reasonable frequencies nor routes that are convenient enough. This is not a failure of our transportation district, it is the reality of not having sufficient bus density due to the fact that we are a lazy time limited car commuting culture. When it becomes too expensive to drive an individual vehicle, we will see an improvement in the bus system.

Our bus system pretty much shuts off at 6PM. I was trying to catch a bus from the main drag in the adjacent town (really the same city). It was 6:15PM and then I managed to somehow figure out that I had already missed the last bus.

On Superbowl Sunday I was thinking that I would catch a bus to go to my friend’s Superbowl party, as I figured I’d be drinking to excess. As far as I can tell, we do not have bus service on Sunday.

I’ve always said that public transportation by bus is awesome so long as you don’t have to transfer. If you have to transfer, the lack of reliability and infrequent frequency of buses makes it extremely challenging to take this form of transportation. Plus, you are standing there praying that a bus will show up without any real guarantee that it will actually come. Subways always have another train showing up in 15 minutes.

32

**Do you use it?**No

**Why or why not?**I live in the burbs. It would be silly to drive to the city, find a place to park and then take a bus to where I wanted to go.

**What are the downfalls of your bus system?
**It doesn’t come to the burbs? I dunno.
**The good points?
**I dunno.

33

Here is the public transport of Dallas, TX. I don’t use it often. I work way out in north Fort Worth where the is absolutely no public transport. I guess I’d use it to go to concerts or sporting events downtown, but haven’t been to any in a while.

34

Toronto has a very good public transport system, in spite of how much we complain about it. When it’s not running, practically the whole downtown core shuts off.

I used the streetcar four times today. I generally take transit (bus, streetcar, subway) twice or so a week. If I worked farther than I can walk it would be every day. Most of Toronto (all different levels of income) uses transit at least occasionally.

It is underfunded, but you can get across the city in about an hour and a half, when it takes an hour to drive, if you’re lucky. That’s pretty good. The subway shuts off at one thirty and starts again at seven. All night streetcar service, and several main-route 24 hour buses.

Pretty good.

35

TheBus in Honolulu, HI

Do you use it? Yes

Why or why not? It’s easy and way cheaper then a car

What are the downfalls of your bus system? Lots of tourists use it making it a pain to go places they go in numbers. And I live in Waikiki so every now and then a full bus of them will just drive right by me. Although that occasionally happens at quitting time too.

The good points? ** It goes everywhere and runs quite ofter. Especially considering where I live and where I work. Things might get even better when they finish the rail system although the traffic caused by construction will be awful.**

Anything at all you can tell me.
(I’m looking to do battle with our bus system and would like to see how ours compares with other cities).

~~Ours really cheapened up after 2001. Bus fares doubled and transfers which used to be good for hours and multiple uses and now good for only one use. They’ve also shrunk the seats so that I now can sit in only a few of the seats on the bus, the rest being too small. Every bus has wheelchair ramps and bike racks which can fit up to 3 bikes. Most kids use the bus to get too and from school so that can be a bothersome time to ride. Although college students ride too. If you’re the type of person that can talk to strangers it’s not hard to find extremely good looking people to chat up on a bus ride. Unless it’s 10am when all the elderly go shopping.

We’ve also created several express routes over heavily used routes and only make heavily used stops. So if you’re going far it might be better to let the 2 bus go by and wait for the B as it will probably pass the 2 before it gets downtown.

36

I currently only use the local Light Rail trains, which are quite nice. They’re limos compared to the busses I used to take years ago. (It helps that my employer pays for the yearly passes.)

37

Do you use it?

Yes, VERY often. To work and back every day, which involves transferring to the buses in another city, plus numerous errands and occasionally for visiting family.

Why or why not?

Well, because I like public transit in general, I like being able to work or relax while getting somewhere instead of having to concentrate on getting myself there. And it’ll get me most of the places I do want to go well.

What are the downfalls of your bus system?

Not many I can think of. A bit slow sometimes, but that’s probably in common with most bus systems. No connected train system, and the only express line is an east-west one running certain hours on weekdays, so I don’t get much use out of it. Also, some routes, including the main north-south one I ride quite often, doesn’t run very often, only twice an hour even at peak periods.

And this is probably more of a pet peeve of mine than a bad point of this particular system… people who talk loudly while they’re on the bus. There aren’t many of them really, but enough to annoy me sometimes.

The good points?

Well, the buses are clean, safe, generally run on time, and have pretty good schedules. A lot of the routes were rearranged more than ten years ago, and though I miss some of the old routes, I think that they did a good job of matching the available buses up to the public need, and the balance is holding pretty well now.

Anything at all you can tell me.

I think we were one of the first cities to incorporate automated fare machines that would could coins that you dropped into the slot, with magnetic card readers for the bus passes. :slight_smile:

38

**Do you use it? **

Not often, maybe about once every three or four months if my car is in the shop.

Why or why not?

It is not a comfortable choice for getting to work. I have to take two buses that have routes that do not match up nicely. I only live 10 miles from work, but it can take as long as 2 hours to get to work via public transit.

What are the downfalls of your bus system?

It’s kind of annoying, but I blame myself more than the system. For instance, my closest bus stop is accomodated by two kinds of buses: an express bus and a regular bus. The express bus runs frequently, but costs more and does not accept or give rail or bus transfers. It’s a pain to watch express bus after express bus pass you at the bus stop while you’re waiting for the regular bus. The few times that I’ve gotten on the express bus, I’ve been embarrassed by not having enough money, since fares are not posted anywhere.

I have more beef with the train system than the bus system, though.

The good points?

The buses go a lot more places, much more than the trains do. The buses are generally clean and not too crowded, and I don’t think the fare is unreasonable.

Anything at all you can tell me.

39

For a city it’s size I think that Santa Fe has a decent bus system.

Do I use it: Not terribly often, maybe two times a month on average. That’s because I live sort of on the outskirts of town, so we get one bus an hour, and it stops at 7 PM. The other routes are better.

Downfalls: Well, personally I wish that there was greater service to the area I’m in, but there’s pretty much my tiny school and that’s it out here. And buses are never on time. I think that’s more of a Santa Fe thing (‘punctuality? What’s that?’), but buses ought to leave the central station when they say so. Additionally, there’s a substantial number of odd/creepy homeless drunks that hang out on buses.

Good points: The buses are the one thing in Santa Fe that are affordable - $2.00 gets you a day pass. If you’re not in a rush they’ll get you most places in town. And the drivers tend to be A) very friendly, B) decent conversationalists, and C) people I can practice my Spanish with.

40

I forgot to ask the size of your city. I know that Chefguy’s wife has already made some great strides in improving our bus system. It IS vastly improved since I was a teen in the 70s. We are a fairly well off city, there is no reason that our bus system can’t be improved to the point that it’s a much more usable system, and therefore starts getting enough of a ridership to pay more of its own way.

The “Muni” is constantly airing whiny-assed ads “Take the People Mover, it’s SOO wonderfully convenient, save our air”. BS. The routes need serious engineering thrown into them, I’m quite sure that a cageful of chimpanzees gets to decide the timetables and routes.

I realize that it’s a challenge for them to increase value to the riders before getting more riders to assist in paying for the improvements, but this is very much a “chicken or egg” case, and Alaskans are NOT going to fall in line for something that’s not worth it.

The Muni, if they want to increase ridership is going to HAVE to provide “the egg” by improving service and frankly aesthetics (such as taking a hard line regarding smelly drunken passed out vagrants being allowed to ride) and getting rid of the gangs of unruly truants horsing it up at the main bus centers.

Thanks for all of your input so far!!!