Living Car Free - How bad is the bus?

The bus situation in my town is not that great but they do have excellent light rail service. As for bus service, it's excellant during rush hour but be prepared to wait during the weekends, night and holiday service. I like the fact that my bike allows me to go places that have poor or non-existant bus service.

What people don't understand is that bus service is often determined by how much money the town is willing to subsidize the private company. If your town does not care or want bus service, the private companies or the state are not going to provide servic. It's that simple. My town pays dearly (to the private bus companies) to provide bus service even though some lines run half full.

We have a bus that runs on Saturday and stops at the supermarket and actually allows you to bring your shopping car inside the cabin! The bus driver actually gets out and carries your carriage inside. Now that's service!

I don't understand why people worry so much because they see a bus that's "only halfway full". Most roads that we pay MILLIONS of dollars for are nowhere NEAR half full, and are EMPTY most of the day. Buses are like roads, if you don't have them, people won't use them. If you have lots of them, people will use them a lot.

I *do* live where it gets to -5F, it also snows

I ride down to -10F or so, depending on how far and where.
When there is snow around, about 2 miles of the pathway I use
is unplowed and this, plus the fact the studded tires are slower,
mean that 10F is the practical limit for commuting at the moment,
below that I can't keep my feet warm enough. I'm working on better footwear.

The buses take about as long as the bike, generally a little more,
When the weather gets appalling, maybe half dozen times a
year, the service sucks and wait times start getting out of hand,
I've had a few times when I would have been better off (warmer)
using the bike. Recently, using the bus resulted in all connections
being near perfect and got in about 15 minutes faster than the
bike would have done in *good* weather! Fluke!
The risks of picking up illness from your fellow passengers is
not a small consideration either, I had an awfull cold this year,
not sure if it came from the bus or a cow-irker.

I would like to see some city try out a Personal Rapid Transit system
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit
http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/prtquick.htm

In my mind, this is the ideal partner to an extensive bike friendly
city layout. Its not likely to happen in North America because
of the political and legal situation here.

Just imagine that you lived in a land with a lot of ice and snow, with temps down to -5F

Whoa :eek:

I probably wouldn't ride in weather that cold, so the bus may be an option, no matter how bad it was, if I needed to get from a to b.

Last winter there were two separate occasions where it was -5F when I was going to work... both times I rode down to the Park 'n Ride, and the bike rack on the bus was frozen solid... So I just rode 12.5 miles to work both days. :D

Beats walking, that's for sure!

In Winnipeg, bus service can vary widely. When I was living at home and attending university, I nearly had door to door service with very little walking or waiting time. The ride took approximately 30 minutes. I've now moved to a different part of town and although the distance I need to travel is half my old route, it would take me 45 minutes on the bus to travel 5 km, involving 1 or 2 transfers. I've managed to walk to work in 55 minutes and can generally cycle there in 20-25 minutes or less, so that tells you the average speed of bus travel on a poor route.

As far as winter cycling here goes, I'm now on my second winter. There are generally 2 extremes one can encounter during a Winnipeg winter: clear, sunny skies with temperatures often hitting near -40 C with the windchill, or mild, cloudy days with lots of snow. Of course, most days fall somewhere in the middle. To be honest, I'd rather have cold, dry streets than warmer, snow filled streets. At least one can dress for the cold. Riding in deep snow is one hell of a workout. I need a Pugsley...:)

Whoa :eek:

I probably wouldn't ride in weather that cold, so the bus may be an option, no matter how bad it was, if I needed to get from a to b.

To me, there's NOTHING colder than standing on the curb waiting for a bus. I'm much warmer pedaling my bike or walking.

I live in a small rural northern Michigan county. Our largest "City" is 1000 and we started a bus system Jan of 2007. It is door to door for $2, $1 for seniors, kids, and handicapped. We started with 4 buses and 5 days a week . 1 year later we have 13 buses 6 days a week and to 10pm. Bikes can go on no problem. I love to ride but when it is snowing and dark that bus is sure a nice way to get home.

Well, the OP is in Iowa. Brrr in winter Brrrrrrrrr.

We have similar weather here. I see folks standing at the bus stops in winter kicking their toes and hopping about waiting for the busses that are either so late that they are early or visa-versa, but never arrive at the scheduled times. I don't think buses in many USA cities actually try to keep a schedule. They just keep going round and round on their routes arriving and departing as traffic permits. It is inspiring to read some of the posts here from folks who live in cities with good bus transportation. That makes me hopeful. Still, here buses run late and that is torture when you are standing outside in 15 F degree weather with the wind biting you. In cold winter climates, standing still outside even for five minutes is torture, so when you have a bus that arrives an unpredictable 20 minutes on either side of the scheduled time, bus riding really isn't an option - not for me anyway. I ride a bicycle to most places in less time than it takes to wait for the bus and it just seems a lot less painful bicycling than standing still waiting.

Some locations have three-sided waiting booths as a wind break, but bums usually smoke in them so the non-smokers stand outside in the cold wind.

If buses ran on time and you didn't have to stand outside in the cold waiting for them, I would say that bus riding would be a reasonable transport method.

As for me, I ride my bike past the bus commuters and feel sorry for them. Perhaps they look at me riding through the ice and slush on a bicycle with a similar feeling of pity.

I live in a small rural northern Michigan county. Our largest "City" is 1000 and we started a bus system Jan of 2007. It is door to door for $2, $1 for seniors, kids, and handicapped. We started with 4 buses and 5 days a week . 1 year later we have 13 buses 6 days a week and to 10pm. Bikes can go on no problem. I love to ride but when it is snowing and dark that bus is sure a nice way to get home.

Hey, cmcanulty, tell us more about this door-to-door service. Do the buses bring you right to your destination or do they just stay on a specific route like most bus services?

This is a little off topic of transit buses but I just checked the Greyhound Canada site the other day for fare information. If I book 14 days in advance, I can go to Vancouver and back for $60 and if I don't book, the fare is around $123. If I drive there and back, my fuel costs are just shy of $130. For trips within the Okanagan, Greyhound is a pricey way to get around but for longer distances, it's quite practical.

I live in a small rural northern Michigan county. Our largest "City" is 1000 and we started a bus system Jan of 2007. It is door to door for $2, $1 for seniors, kids, and handicapped. We started with 4 buses and 5 days a week . 1 year later we have 13 buses 6 days a week and to 10pm. Bikes can go on no problem. I love to ride but when it is snowing and dark that bus is sure a nice way to get home.

Hey it's great having another Michigander on the board! :)
What county are you in, if you don't mind saying?
I'm in Traverse City at the moment, but I live in Lansing. We've been having some great "up north" weather this week.

I was told a couple months ago that every county in Michigan had bus service, but I was misinformed, as you say yours just started a year ago. I lived in Charlotte (Eaton Co.) for a while, so I know about that small town door-to-door bus service. I thought it worked well as long as you were traveling within the town. But I worked in Lansing, about 25 miles away and in the next county. I had to leave home 3 hours before work, and it was literally impossible to get home after my shift ended. I got out of there as quick as I could! Like I said before, Lansing has good bus service, with room for improvement. It sounds like your service is doing well. I couldn't believe how busy the rural service in Eaton County was.

Some locations have three-sided waiting booths as a wind break, but bums usually smoke in them so the non-smokers stand outside in the cold wind.

If buses ran on time and you didn't have to stand outside in the cold waiting for them, I would say that bus riding would be a reasonable transport method.

Actually... the buses here run pretty much on time. Although there was one day when I was stuck out at the bus stop for 40 minutes during a near blizzard. There are no wind breaks, but , if I arrive at a stop early, I try to walk to the next stop just to keep warm. It appears that no amount of clothes will keep you even remotely warm when you are stopped outside in 10F weather.

There's no way of telling when my bus is going to arrive, or if it will arrive at all. There's tons of places that have gps technology in their buses and have timers at the bus stops telling you how long you'll wait for your bus. It would be great to be able to punch that info up on a smartphone to track my bus before I even leave the house, or have it automatically send me a text message if the bus has broken down, or needs to be re-routed due to the weather. As it is now, you just wait and wait some more until you just give up wondering wtf happened to your bus.
When I lived in Winnipeg in the 1980s, the transit system had taken care of this. By dialing a telephone number and an extension, you could find out when the next two or three buses would reach your stop. This was especially useful when the roads were bad and traffic was slowing down. This system, called Telebus, is still in place today.

When I lived in Winnipeg in the 1980s, the transit system had taken care of this. By dialing a telephone number and an extension, you could find out when the next two or three buses would reach your stop. This was especially useful when the roads were bad and traffic was slowing down. This system, called Telebus, is still in place today.

We have a similar system, but as with most of these systems, it's not live. It is tied to a database containing the schedule, if they can't keep to the schedule........when the bus is due, is little more than a guess. :mad:

We have a similar system, but as with most of these systems, it's not live. It is tied to a database containing the schedule, if they can't keep to the schedule........when the bus is due, is little more than a guess. :mad:

I have seen a bus service somewhere Chicago? Boston? Raleigh? that has GPS on the buses and you can track them in real time on your computer. You could check to see the status of your bus prior to leaving the house and see it if is running on time or what.

Aaron:)

I have seen a bus service somewhere Chicago? Boston? Raleigh? that has GPS on the buses and you can track them in real time on your computer. You could check to see the status of your bus prior to leaving the house and see it if is running on time or what.

Aaron:)

I think San Fransisco has it, we certainly don't, unfortunately. :(

I love public transportation. I am from N.Y.C. so I will get on public transportation in a heartbeat. My first form of transportation is always commuting by bike. My second form of transportation is public transportation. Unfortunately, I live in the Motor City. Motor City does not believe in public transportation, the bus system is a major joke and we do not have a train system. The bus drivers hate their passengers and would prefer to not to pick them up. We got the bike racks two years ago and the ridership increased the bus drivers hated it.

Gas, the price of a can of beans.

The bus here in Northern California is awful. It costs $2.20 to go anywhere, only leaves once every hour (if that) and doesn't go where (or when) I need to go.

It's a shock coming here from Oahu where the bus service was better in every way. It came every 5-12 minutes, cost less and went everywhere I could possibly want to go.

Come to San Francisco and watch the bus driver come late, then let that homeless guy on the bus for free and then watch said homeless person piss in the back of the bus and have a free seat to drink and ruin everybody's trip -and take note that police officers never do walk ons to give a little order to the bus, listen to the children scream and brag of sexual acts they know nothing about -sometimes this is done just to say f*ck you to anyone who has a problem with what they're saying. Remember -when crossing the street on foot make sure the bus driver is aware of you because they will run you over. I've seen three homeless people piss on the bus I know two people that have been hit by the reckless bus drivers and I've never seen a cop on those buses -people I don't even live in that city-I'm just a frequent visitor with friends and family. The schedules and routes are excellent -the service and passivity of drivers and law enforcement are atrocious and inhumane, truly an shameful embarrassment. In the Business district it's actually nice.

Houston's bus service is pretty good. There are occasional delays due to bus breakdowns, accidents, etc. All the things that can't be anticipated. But overall about 98% good. Bike racks on the buses make it a plus as well. The only problems I have encountered is not with the bus service itself but with the people who ride the bus. Saw a couple of guys getting ready to "throw down" on the bus over the weekend before the driver intervened. A few months ago on a bus here a passenger shot and killed another passenger. Scary! Add to that the homeless asking for spare change at stops and it can make for an entertaining experience.

Maybe cities get the bus systems they deserve. All of the problems mentioned here--unreliability, inconvenient times and routes, poor security, etc.--are pretty easily solved once a community decides that it wants good bus service.

Just imagine that you lived in a land with a lot of ice and snow, with temps down to -5F in the nights? You don't have an inclination to ride your bike, so how would you get to work, shopping, movies?

Would you take the bus? Yep. But I am in Toronto. While the bus service provided by the Toronto Transit Commission is far far far from perfect, it is a reasonable transportational alternative used by a lot of people. Though I would much much rather take the subway - for greater reliability and higher speed. But then the main reason I live in the heart of a big city is so that I could walk to just about anything I might need.

Maybe cities get the bus systems they deserve. All of the problems mentioned here--unreliability, inconvenient times and routes, poor security, etc.--are pretty easily solved once a community decides that it wants good bus service.

Agreed. All SF has to do is prompt law enforcement to do patrols on the buses and for the most part not give free passes to people who are going to just sit and ride all day. I've seen the some western European transit and the excellent condition is actually a product of civic pride-awe jeez -we've got a long way to go. But it's worth it.

Donnamb summed up the Portland bus system and climate quite well. I would add that 98% of stops have no shelter. It's great that the buses all have bike-racks and Trimet also removed the need to have a special pass to use the racks. I've never personally used the racks, but they seem popular with many others.

Downtown Portland has an area called Fareless Square (http://trimet.org/fares/fareless.htm) this is great if you are leaving your office for lunch and need to quickly go a few blocks to the other side of downtown, on the other hand, its really bad because of all the bums.

I've been car and tv free for many years and have used public transport in many countries. The problems are pretty much the same everywhere. From a comfort perspective one should not have to feel the need to use the back of ones hand to check for a dry seat. On a Trimet bus I once had the bad luck of sitting on a seat soaked with beer. I guess in this day and age, it is better to have camouflage seat patterns that hide the dirt, than something that indicates urine, beer, vomit or diarrhea!

One last pet peeve, and I know this makes me a "fatist", but if the seats are only 15 inches wide then the door should match, yeah yeah, wheel chairs, baby strollers and push chairs, fat people could stand, whatever.

People that stink (too much perfume can be worse than BO), are intoxicated, insane, rotund, too loud and inane on their cell phone, etc. - should not be allowed on buses. Isn't this why we invented the ejector seat :rolleyes:

My local bus system, Orange County Transit rates about a B+ with me. They have a very large bus network that covers many parts of our county of 3.5 million, and I live about a block from a bus stop that gets me going in a couple of directions. Fare is a measly $1.25. All buses have bike racks, and they are quite popular and useful. No complaints from me. Even better, at the rate of 20 buses per month, the bus system is phasing out it's diesel buses and getting new compressed natural gas models. That means when a bus passes by while I'm pedaling along, I'm less likely to suck in so many toxic fumes. Southern Cal gets a pretty bad rap regarding public transit, and our OCTA could be much better I'm sure. But if a person takes a little time to get familiar with the various routes, it's not that difficult to figure out how a bus can substitute for a lot of car trips.
My bus service can get me to work (about 7 miles) on a direct, straight line route in about 20 minutes, only about 5 minutes slower than driving a car. Or, I can take the bus to an Amtrak station in about 30 minutes, with connections there for a train north to Los Angeles or south to San Diego.

The public transport in my city is so terrible I will never ride it. If you manage to not get stabbed, yelled at, beaten, you still have to deal with *******s gangbangers, crazy old people, cracked out welfare moms, etc. Plus the busses are too infrequent, even the train is too slow.
NOT WORTH IT. I feel so sorry for the businesspeople having to ride that monstrosity evry day. I will always, always ride my bike or drive, even when it's 20 below.

The public transport in my city is so terrible I will never ride it. If you manage to not get stabbed, yelled at, beaten, you still have to deal with *******s gangbangers, crazy old people, cracked out welfare moms, etc. Plus the busses are too infrequent, even the train is too slow.
NOT WORTH IT. I feel so sorry for the businesspeople having to ride that monstrosity evry day. I will always, always ride my bike or drive, even when it's 20 below.

Geeze,.. what part of Calgary do you live in? It ain't that bad.

The public transport in my city is so terrible I will never ride it. If you manage to not get stabbed, yelled at, beaten, you still have to deal with *******s gangbangers, crazy old people, cracked out welfare moms, etc. Plus the busses are too infrequent, even the train is too slow.
NOT WORTH IT. I feel so sorry for the businesspeople having to ride that monstrosity evry day. I will always, always ride my bike or drive, even when it's 20 below.

What part of Baghdad do you live in?

The public transport in my city is so terrible I will never ride it. If you manage to not get stabbed, yelled at, beaten, you still have to deal with *******s gangbangers, crazy old people, cracked out welfare moms, etc.

I feel so sorry for the businesspeople having to ride that monstrosity evry day.

If that's what the business people are like there, the bad neighborhoods must be apocalyptic! :D

Be happy all of you can even ride a bus. I spent three years working in a country where I was not allowed to ride the buses because I had a White skin.

A little late, but I didn't see Austin represented here.

I don't ride all that often, but not due to fear of illness, undesirables or violence. I actually live just north of Austin, and our town built a huge park and ride but now they don't run here on the weekends...

When I do ride, it has been clean, on time, not too crowded, bike racks, we even get free wifi for my main route. About the only time i go far enough to need transportation is on weekends though. Pretty much the only reason I still have a vehicle.

My dad's not carfree (or a biker for that matter), but he rides the bus to work everyday. It's about 45 min each way with a total of 2 miles walking roundtrip for the day. He could get there by car in less than a half hour, but he doesn't mind the long bus ride b/c he gets to read the whole time, doesn't deal with traffic, etc. I'm amazed he always does it though b/c there are some days a bus doesn't come or he has to wait 30 min for a bus, but he just really likes getting time to read.