Bus systems A poll

In My Humble Opinion
41

[QUOTE=According to Pliny]
I did once live in a town with a good bus system. Escondido Cal.
Not sure if it’s changed, as that was 20 years ago.
Their secret was they actually went where you wanted to go, not just vaguely near it. They let you out right in front of the cineplex, not at the far corner of the parking lot.
They dropped you at the door to the library, the grocery, the school, the restaurant row, the local business cluster.
And they had mid-size busses. No huge busses that only work a couple hours a day, for commute traffic and then run empty the rest of the day. The mid-size were perfect for the whole middle of the day. They were used by the school system and for seniors.
And because they had mid=size busses they didn’t feel the pressure to fill them by making pickup times far apart. 15 minutes was the longest wait any time of day or evening.
When the busses go where you want, when you want, people use them.
[/QUOTE]
See, I think our town would benefit far more from a system like this, with more frequent and smaller buses. What was/is the population there?
As for me, I do take the bus [boring personal note] :smiley: my truck broke down about 10 months ago, and even before that I took the bus frequently to save on gas etc. The work that needs to be done is rather expensive, I had about half of it done and am saving up to finish the rest[/BPN].

The morning is fine, and I luckily live on the same route as stops by my job and the parking lot where we keep our field truck. It is the timing of the routes, the limited hours it runs on weekends and the attitude by the Muni that seems to say “well, these are all (or mostly) trashy vagrant types anyway, so why should we make it a business-like or pleasant experience”.

This is partly true. As I said, the moring ride in to work is fine, riders are all workerbees. It is during the day and afternoon that it becomes exceedingly unpleasant. No effort is made by either the drivers or other employees of the bus company (such as security guards) for instance to keep obviously drunken people off of the bus or out of the main bus stations.

Therefore we get unpleasant experiences like drunken passed-out people falling into the aisles when the bus goes around a corner, or having loud drunken arguments with people who aren’t there. I don’t remember seeing things like that when I’ve used mass transit in other cities.

We’re not a huge city, only about 275K but we’re not some teensy one stoplight town either. My main goal was to see what type of service (and treatment) riders from other cities got from their bus systems.

42

For more info TheBus has most service concentrated in Honolulu proper which has a population of about 400,000. Another 500,000 live in the outlying areas where TheBus also goes in addition to about 100,000 tourists. Currently they report 71 million passenger rides a year. I don’t know whether that number was higher before a strike that occurred in 2001 (if I remember correctly).

A fare is $2 and a monthly adult pass is $40. There are almost 100 routes so many people live near at least one. Nine go by only a few blocks from my place. The places that would have the hardest time using the bus would be the people in the back of valleys and top of ridges. Some have at least one routes but others don’t. Thankfully I would say the shape of Honolulu, flattened as forced by the mountains, makes it well suited to a bus system. Whereas a city shaped like Tucsan,
like a large pancake, would be difficult to get good coverage in.
Also of interest is the fact that we only keep our buses for about 10 years then we sell them out of the country. I understand it’s not uncommon to see TheBus buses driving around places like South America and the like.

43

**Do you use it? **

Constantly. I do not have a car.

What are the downfalls of your bus system?

No obvious ones that I can think of.

The good points?

  • Reasonably cheap (certainly a hell of a lot cheaper than running a car). I pay $33 for a weekly ticket that gives me unlimited use of all buses and trains
  • Frequent services
  • Routes that service most of the places that I want to go to
  • Most of the buses are air-conditioned

The service is run by Sydney Buses

44

Just as an addendum to my answers above, Canberra has about 300K people so we’re about the same population size as Anchorage. We are very geographically sprawly, though, and thus have 4 major bus interchanges within the city and a number of smaller terminals or hubs.

Good luck with shaping up your city’s bus systems! One of the more interesting things our bus service has implemented recently is the concept of “Flexibuses” - these buses run in the evenings and on weekends only, and replace the normal suburb bus routes after 7pm. You can phone the bus company and say where you are and that you’d like to be picked up, and where you want to go, and they will tell you which Flexibus to take. They will then route the driver so that he knows to pick you up and you can tell him where to drop you off.

The city is divided up into geographical regions and each region is served by a few of these buses, so there are very few people who live off the Flexibus path. Each flexibus is also anchored at a major interchange at one end of its trip so at the very least you can get to the major interchange nearest you and then ride one of the interchange-to-interchange buses (which come every 15 minutes) to get where you want to go. It actually works very well; although each Flexibus route only runs once an hour, they are staggered so that you have no more than 30 minutes to wait for a Flexibus in your area.

45

I’ve lived in Honolulu, Seattle, and Los Angeles, and have used the bus systems of all three cities.

Do you use it? Why or why not? I used to, but since my workplace moved to about a mile from my apartment, I no longer use the bus for anything. I walk anywhere I need to go. Before that, I used the bus all the time-- to get to and from school, work, shopping, etc.

What are the downfalls of your bus system? All three transit systems lacked decent nighttime circulation. I understood why they couldn’t maintain the same number of drivers at 1-2am, when I finished work when I worked nights, but I wish they could have maintained their daytime frequency to 8-9pm.

The system here in Los Angeles consists of a dozen or so transit companies. If you’re traveling, say, within Santa Monica, you’re fine, but if you’re going to Long Beach or downtown, you’ll probably have to take another bus company’s bus, which adds to the research you’ll need to do to figure out how to get to your destination.

The nighttime crowd is noticeably creepier in LA.

In Hawaii, I wish the system didn’t distiguish between senior citizen and other adult riders. Generally, senior citizens pay 15-50% of what everyone else pays, depending on the type of pass or fare you look at. It never felt fair to me that a senior citizen who doesn’t travel as frequently and predictibly as a student or office worker does got such a discount. I remember thinking many times that instead of raising the fares for everyone, they would be better off doing away with the senior citizen discounts and treating everyone equally.

The good points? Nothing outstanding. They got me where I needed to go, sometimes on time, sometimes late. I liked being able to read or sleep and letting someone else do the driving, but that’s about it.

46

[QUOTE=CanvasShoes]
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!!!
[/QUOTE]

For all the good Begich has done for Anchorage after 12 years (or more) of oppressive and regressive government, he has a blind spot when it comes to public transit. He was quite proud of the million dollars he managed to squeeze out for bus service, but it was a token and he knew it. While he is quite keen on gentrifying Mountain View, he’s unwilling to upgrade transit from that area. This town (and state) is in serious need of a tax base, or at least somebody with the balls to loosen the state purse strings. I sincerely wish you luck in your battle, but you will need a thick skin and the patience of Job.

47

**Do you use it? **

All the time.

Why or why not?

I am a college student in the city of Pittsburgh and our school incorporates a Port Authority charge into our tuition. This allows us to utilize the city transportation system as much as we want to for no extra charge. It all works out nicely since I do not have a car.

What are the downfalls of your bus system?

We have a city system that allows you to get from virtually anywhere in the county to downtown but it is nearly impossible to travel between these outlying areas without going downtown first.

Our bus system is virtually nonexistent after 10pm, even on weekends. Many freshmen still find themselves stranded at the Waterfront (movies, shopping, food) because even early movies let out after the last bus to campus leaves.

Additionally, our city is having serious financial difficulties and they have been in the process of cutting service for several years now.

The good points?

The airport flyer, which is in danger of cancellation, travels between the campuses of CMU, Pitt, Carlow, Robert Morris and Duquesne Universities and the airport. The bus also goes downtown. It provides one of the best airport services that I have ever seen and it only cost about $2 and change. Unfortunately, they are in the process of terminating this service entirely.