Commuting - Commuting: Bikes > Bus

Most of this is just my personal oppinions, so here goes. Why I think that it's better to bike than use a Bus.

1 - My commute is 9km, relatively short, with a Bike I get to the office faster than I would if I used a bus.
2 - No running to the bust stop when you see the bus comming.
3 - No waiting for the bus to get there
4 - No need to hunt for a place to sit
5 - No annoying people right up there in my personal space.
6 - It's still healthier to ride a bike than take the bus.

The only advantages I see the bus has over a bike are:

1 - Weather protection
2 - Long range and quick when using express buses.

I'll take a bike instead.

The only advantages I see the bus has over a bike are:

1 - Weather protection

If you are biking in your location of Mississauga, there really isn't much weather, in my experience there, to be protected from (barring a 2 or 3 bad days).

Most of this is just my personal oppinions, so here goes. Why I think that it's better to bike than use a Bus.

1 - My commute is 9km, relatively short, with a Bike I get to the office faster than I would if I used a bus.
2 - No running to the bust stop when you see the bus comming.
3 - No waiting for the bus to get there
4 - No need to hunt for a place to sit
5 - No annoying people right up there in my personal space.
6 - It's still healthier to ride a bike than take the bus.

The only advantages I see the bus has over a bike are:

1 - Weather protection
2 - Long range and quick when using express buses.

I'll take a bike instead.

to add to advantage bus is
accident with cage= more protection so like 1.
weather protection
collision protection
winter safety-snow ice(maybe like weather protection)...and icy collision with car, like befores collision proection

To borrow a friend's comment from the other day, I've never had my bike sail right past me because it was already full...

If I'm running late I can pedal faster on my bike. If I'm 2 minutes late to the bus stop I'm 20 minutes late for work.

to add to advantage bus is
accident with cage= more protection so like 1.
weather protection
collision protection
winter safety-snow ice(maybe like weather protection)...and icy collision with car, like befores collision proection

Doesn't have to be winter, I was once on a bus that got right hooked by someone trying to get by and make a right turn into a parking lot. :eek:

There is usually only one crazy person on my bike. The bus generally has more.

Funny, I never notice any crazy people on the bus...

oh lordy, that means it must be me!

If i am using public transit i need to go out of my house an hour and a half before my classes. With the bike i'm there in an hour max. Distance is 20km and i frequently pass busses either waiting at stops or lights.

There are buses in Mississauga?

-1 for taking buses...sanitary conditions. They are great reservoirs for making people sick.

I stopped taking the bus in winter because I got really cold waiting for it. On my bike, I just have to ride a bit faster and end up getting to work hot.

Oh, and the timetable is the other thing - I can't take the bus to work now, because I start half an hour before the first bus. Getting off work, I normally had to wait 10-15 minutes before the bus got there. Now, I can get home in 15minutes if I push it.

Oh, and today, walking would be faster than the bus. There's been an accident on the freeway (QEW to Niagara before the bridge) and the traffic has backed up 24km (14 miles) and all the traffic is coming off the freeways and blocking up all the roads around us. Love the bike... (even though I had a flat today :( )

Remembered another one - my bike is a perfume-free environment!

I've had asthma attacks on buses from people wearing too much cologne before. (Bus route goes past 2 high schools and a college). While I've also had asthma attacks from pushing too hard on my bike, it was a lot easier to stop and deal with that than it was teh pollution on the bus!

Most of this is just my personal oppinions, so here goes. Why I think that it's better to bike than use a Bus.

1 - My commute is 9km, relatively short, with a Bike I get to the office faster than I would if I used a bus.
2 - No running to the bust stop when you see the bus comming.
3 - No waiting for the bus to get there
4 - No need to hunt for a place to sit
5 - No annoying people right up there in my personal space.
6 - It's still healthier to ride a bike than take the bus.

The only advantages I see the bus has over a bike are:

1 - Weather protection
2 - Long range and quick when using express buses.

I'll take a bike instead.

It all depends. I'm pretty lucky that the bus route I use to get to/from work is pretty efficient. In the morning I'm only on the bus 25 minutes and about 30-35 minutes for the ride home. Add in a 3 minute trolley ride, some walking, and no more than 10 minute waiting for the trolley my commute is an hour in the morning and evening, which is at least 30 minutes faster than when I rode to work.

Now, on the bus there are rarely people that sit next to me and if there are it's usually towards the last leg of the bus ride so I really don't care (I'm always listening to my Ipod anyways and I must say...noise canceling headphones are a godsend), I always have a seat, and the most amount of time I spend waiting for the bus is 5 minutes. I've been taking public transportation for as long as I can remember and this is one of the better routes I've used.

The bus is good for rainy/stormy days, but I have had to ride it only once so far this year. It is never too cold here and we are in a long term drought. I feel sort of confined on the bus. Not claustrophobic, but just too insulated and out of touch. Time-wise, it is about 35 minutes for both rides, but being out in the air and in control is usually much better than being a passenger.

reason #1: it's a bus.
reason #2: it's not a bike.

5 - No annoying people right up there in my personal space. Except those cagers who sometimes like to get closer to you than fellow passengers on the bus! :D

Except those cagers who sometimes like to get closer to you than fellow passengers on the bus! :D
:mad: I love the wing mirrors on delivery vans pasing my head at 40mph:mad:

The biggest advantage I see of taking a bike instead of the bus is: We don't have buses.

Ain't no fare to ride a bike!

No headwind on a bus though :(

Relevant to Calgary as of this morning: Bikes don't go on strike....

My bike does not require exact change.

Ain't no fare to ride a bike!
Yeah! $4 a day? Pfft, I could buy a bunch of bagles instead!

On my 20km commute, it takes 60-90 minutes by bus, and about 45-50 minutes by bike. Yesteday, I saw a bus off in the distance and said, "Aha, you're mine sucker!" Passed it with decent ease. On the way home (5km out), a bus pulled right behind me. Idiotically, I yelled, "You'll never take me alive!" and pedalled like a madman. I beat the bus by about 4 minutes. :)

I took the bus/light rail today. Rail was okay, but the bus smelled bad. This was the first time I'd used either in months, and I used to bus every day. How did I stand it?

Actually, instead of "bike > bus," I say "bike + bus." My commute is about 22 miles each way, so I'll often take the bus for 14 of it, with my bike. Nice option.

Have to admit, I do really like having the option to bring my bike on the LRT (in off peak hours). Very few of the buses here have bike racks and I'm a bit afraid to try them anyway, but the train is easy peasy. It extends the range for pleasure riding quite a ways since I can access some of the trails at the edge of the city without tiring myself out pedalling across town to get there :)

I had to take the bus to work this past Monday. It took twice as long as by bike, it cost $2.25 to go a measly 5k, AND I still had to walk 3 blocks on top of it. There were no creepy people on the bus though, just ordinary folks keeping to themselves.

I've calculated it would be 5 to 10 minutes longer getting to work if I used the bus, plus it costs money, and I have to put my bike on a rack and worry about it the whole way in. Not to mention the aggravation of, you know, other passengers. :)

Off topic peeve: Explain to me why someone asks for a stop that's 100 yards down the road from the stop the bus just made? Are people that lazy?

I took the bus/light rail today. Rail was okay, but the bus smelled bad. This was the first time I'd used either in months, and I used to bus every day. How did I stand it?

I'm with you here, I used to take transit every day, now when I do I'm really starting to dislike it. Feels as though I'm making little progress (even though the subway is comparable/perhaps faster) and I also love having my own transportation-space. :) Biking has made me impatient to be on the move, I hate waiting even 2 minutes for a streetcar/bus ;)

Off topic peeve: Explain to me why someone asks for a stop that's 100 yards down the road from the stop the bus just made? Are people that lazy?

+1 They must be that lazy, man that pisses me off too.

I also vote for the combination.

The bus allows me to go downtown 10 miles away and still arrive at my destination looking fresh and unruffled. Having my bike allows me freedom from the bus's limited hours. So I can return home when I want.

I've noticed that even when I pass a bus stop and the bus is just pulling up I will still beat it to my destination which is a good 8 miles or so from where I usually pass the first bus stop on my commute.

I believe statistically a bus is safer from an accident perspective vs. bike, car, motorcycle or pedestrian. Of course one needs to walk/ride to the bus too, so that needs to be factored in. This should not be read to suggest that walking and/or cycling have unreasonable risk vs. bus.

Another advantage of bus is you can do other stuff while riding, study, work, read, daydream... but you can't really exercise.

Al

I'll join the chorus for the bus/bike combination. The racks on our Metrobusses make it easy to travel about 11 miles door to door, at rush hour, in about 35 minutes. The bus route goes right out Interstate 395, a road where cycling is prohibited and which interrupts the local road grid. It's hard for me to imagine ever using a bus witghout the ability to attach a bike -- the stops are a miles from my origin/destination points.

Paul

Another advantage of bus is you can do other stuff while riding, study, work, read, daydream... but you can't really exercise.


This is true. I used to get quite a lot of reading and knitting in on the bus, but lately I've been finding myself too unfocused for that, so I end up just staring out the window and wishing I could move faster :) (I've been having trouble with my eyes, too, so sometimes I am literally unfocused! I can't read when there is vibration anymore - it never used to bother me).

I do a lot of writing in my job and I've actually written some of my best stuff on the bike. When I get to work, it's a rush to get to my desk to write it down.

Another advantage of bus is you can do other stuff while riding, study, work, read, daydream... but you can't really exercise.
Al

Basically... you can be a ****** on the bus.