A few years ago my uncle observed that suburbanites do not like busses; they tend to use public transit only when it involves trains.
I was riding the the El in Chicago a month or two ago. I had gotten off at Howard Street, and was preparing to transfer for points north, when the idea of getting on a bus occurred to the person I was with. She said it might be faster. But another passenger advised us against doing so, saying “Yeah, but then you’ve gotta take a bus.”
What is it about busses that turns people off? I would even go further than my uncle, and say that even folks who live in cities and use mass transit for purposes other than commuting to and from work would rather take a train.
Trains are usually faster because they’re not subject to the vagaries of traffic.
I’m turned off by my city’s bus system because most of the people that ride it are crazy (the scary kind), and the busses only run once an hour. With the way the routes are set up, I could waste an entire day running a few errands that would take me 2 hours, tops, to do if I drove.
When I didn’t have a car, I had three choices for getting to school.
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NJ Transit Train: station is a mile and a half away, roundtrip fare is $1.50, trains come twice an hour during work week, and the ride takes 10 minutes. Requires a half mile walk through a seedy area, but it’s all good.
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Bike: school is five miles away, through mostly ghetto hood. Morning trip is downhill, afternoon trip is uphill. Endorphin high throughout day, but fatigue and charlie horses at night.
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NJ Transit Bus: bus stop is a block away and bus arrives once an hour. Fare is $1.55 one way. Bus smells like old furniture and armpits, and the seats are skimpy. Bus stops at every block. Morning trip takes 45 minutes, but afternoon is hellish because the bus is always packed, which means an even longer commute. Like two hours.
What I ended up doing was biking to the train station. Only rarely would I take the bus.
There is a huge class differential between train and bus passengers. Big-time businessmen and women take the former…with their cups of Starbucks and PDAs and NY Times. Almost 100% of them work in NYC and live in the quaint bedroom communities of NJ.
On the other hand, most of the bus-riders work locally, using the bus to take them a few miles down the road. The train would be no help to them since they don’t make as many local stops. Because of this reality, most train-riders use automobiles to get themselves to the train station. Poor people riding the bus don’t have this luxury.
It’s kinda funny, though. It’s cheaper taking the train if you’re traveling locally (i.e. not into the city) because you get a roundtrip discount. Plus, trains come equipped with bathrooms and you can consume food and beverages. These are priviledges not found on buses.
Where I live, most of the train passengers are white. Bus riders are almost always black. In addition to the class issues, I bet this is a reason why some people don’t ride the bus. But they would never say so, of course.
How many folk songs have been written about busses? How many “Great Bus Journeys of the World” lavish TV productions?
Trains are cool. Trains are romantic and sexy. Trains are powerful, high tech and interesting.
Busses, on the other hand, are more about contorting yourself so that, when that standing drunk bloke’s arse moves into your face every time the bus goes around a corner, you touch neither it, nor the smelly cat lady seated next to you.
-TLD, Railfan (now I’m off to hit the MS-TrainSim)
You might have to stand in the rain waiting for a bus. Busses tend to be much less “on schedule”. Bus routes can be confusing.
I kind of like them. I suppose you could get a nasty lip virus, though.
I concure with other posts.
I did a lot of traveling this summer and took as many different forms of transportation as possible (including a MagLev! Yay!)
I was only trains for roughly 8 hours total and a bus for 2 hours. All I can say about the bus was the seats were nice, and they had a conventient foot rest. And luckily it wasn’t overly crowded so I was comfortable. The train was more crowded but it had a different vibe. I was on time, it had a bathroom and a girl came by every few stops with concession. Luxuries not afforded on a bus. It was more roomy and designed to keep a person comforatble for long trips. It was also cool to be on a train and see the road less traveled moving at high speeds.
I certainly prefer taking trains, however, I have no problems with busses. I live in a “University city” and the bus system here is excellent. On my particular route the busses come every 10 minutes. I can get one whenever I need one. If its busy (ie, during class hours) they’ll send MULTIPLE busses! Of course, the majority of riders are other students so the sketchy population is kept to a minimum.
There are those of us who would see a glaring oxymoron contained in that statement! 
Another college student checking in. I take the bus to college because I really don’t have much other choice. Luckily, the Santa Cruz public transport is excellent.
Wow, sounds like Anchorage.
Not only are the passengers (what few there are) mostly drunks or weirdos, the bus routes are completely useless.
Unless you live on the same route where your place of employment, your school, etc are also located, you’re looking at at least 2 or 3 hours round trip just for one errand.
The bus system up here drives me nuts, the proof that it’s a useless system shows up in the number of riders. For buses having room for 30-40 passengers, usually one sees, at the most, 10.
But more normally 2 or 3.
Buses and trains share that “sardine element” and I don’t like it, I can take a bus if I really have to but I try not to. I pray to God that I won’t ever have to get on a train again, they’re dark, desperate and most probably one of the tools of the Dark Lord himself.
Thankfully I can walk pretty much everywhere I need to go, one of the priviliges of living in a “city” of 150.000…
Buses are fine for really local transport, but terrible for mid- or long- distances. I’ll gladly take a bus between home and UCLA, or between home and Venice, because it’s a short, quick trip. But I wouldn’t take a bus to downtown L.A. unless I absolutely had to. It would involve about 14 miles of heavy traffic and take over an hour, and I’d probably have to stand throughout.
I suppose if I got to be a “regular” on a bus route that would be one thing but in general I dislike taking the bus because I never know where the next stop is, or where the precise stop I want to get off at is. It’s confusing. Newer buses have a display at the front and an electronic voice that will tell you which stop is next, but if I’m on an older bus (more usual) I end up having to guess about whether my stop is approaching.
When I ride the bus, I am reminded of being a small child, sitting in the school bus, riding to the bad side of town to go to elementary school. Trains don’t give me that memory. My personal car is even better, but it is far from PC.
Interesting opionions in here. I personally hate cars. If I could avoid ever having to drive anywhere again, I’d be so much happier. I’ll take public transport over driving anyday.
Busses aren’t difficult to ride. You just look out the window and when the you see the place you want off, pull the thing. The bus may stop a bit before it or a bit after it, but next time you’ll know.
That sounds a lot like my university city… Ottawa.
Ottawa has an all-star bus system, with a railway-like trunk line of buses on a dedicated cross-city road called the Transitway. The Transitway has never let me down. It’s quick, it’s clean, it’s fun. At peak hours, they send an extra bus right behind the scheduled one, and many routes, including the Transitway routes, have service on one-minute intervals at some times during the day.
OC Transpo is super-great.
They’ve got a Light Rail Pilot Project on right now, but I haven’t ridden the O-Train yet, since it doesn’t go where I want to go. But I think I might just take a city-wide transit tour on one of my days off this week.
Hmm… plans route
This takes some getting used to. I’m a bus rider for commuting purposes and every now and again for other transportation needs. Bussing to unfamiliar places takes more planning - especially if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Many busdrivers are helpful and will tell you where to get off - but there are an unfortunate few that can’t be bothered. Trains (and limited stop / express busses) have fixed stops and can make for much less hassle.
Bus travel that involves transfers can also be a real headache. I’ve found that it doesn’t matter how well you plan it, you’ll see your next bus pulling away as you get off. Our public transit (Minneapolis / St Paul) is working on this - introducing central transit stops and trying to better time busses. They’re really trying to make a lot of the busses be more train like, and have the local bus routes feed into a train-like ‘rapid bus system’. Check back in, oh, ten years to see how it works.
Ah! Another person who likes busses! I like how they feel on my cheeks, my neck, my back, etc.