For about 9 months I commuted by bicycling about 4.8 miles to the bus stop, locking the bike to a rack in front of a busy store, and then catching the city bus the rest of the way. The total commute if I decided to ride the whole distance would be somewhere between 17 and 20 miles one-way, and I'm not ready for that distance yet. However, in the last 3 months of my cycling/bus commuting I had 4 drivers text while driving, several more using the cell phone, and a bunch of them eating. Plus, the bus has broken down leaving me stranded 4 times in the 9 months. I don't feel safe on the buses.

So I'm quitting the bus riding portion of the commute, and am going to ride and get fit enough to do the entire distance on one of my bikes. It shouldn't take too long, when I lived in Denver I had a very similar commute that became quite easy. Only thing is that in Denver I was in my 30s and early 40s, now I'm almost 60, so it might take a little longer to get fit enough.

Any body else have sucko bus systems? I'm in El Paso.

No but I do love when I can beat the bus home. That always feels good. (I thought that was going to be what this thread was about originally.)

Seriously though, good for you leaving the bus and taking the trip on your own 2 legs. It'll hurt the first few days, which I am sure you already know, but you'll have fun doing it.

My bicycle/bus combo was working fine until today. I would ride 9 miles into Dallas in the morning, ride the bus to Salem, then either work in Salem or ride another bus out to Stayton where my office is, and where I work most of the time. In the morning I catch the bus at it's first stop, so I always have a slot in the bike rack for my bike. The bike racks on the buses only hold two bikes, though one bus has a 3 bike rack. But on several occasions this summer there have been 4 bikes, and the driver let the owners put the bikes on the bus, strapping them to the sides of some folded up seats. It has always been against the rules, but the drivers did it anyway. I guess the company is cracking down on them now or something, as I rode downtown (4 miles from where I work) to catch the bus out of Salem, and there were already two bikes on the rack and he couldn't let me put my bike on. At that point there were two more buses out to Dallas. One is an hour and a half later, and the next is a half hour after that. I was so mad I didn't want to sit and stew for 1 1/2 hours so I just rode home, 28 more miles making 41 for the day. No big deal for tourists or even a bunch of the commuters on this board but I'm tired. But my problem is not so much being stranded in Salem. I just demonstrated that I can get home from there.

I'm afraid I will get stranded in Stayton, which is 50 miles from my house. I don't get off work at that plant until 4:30 so it would be very late by the time I got home, assuming I could ride that far at all. I'm going to call the bus company tomorrow (after riding my motorcycle to work!) and ask them if they really intend to strand bike riders 50 miles from home, but if they won't relent this may spell an end to my bike commuting. I don't work in Salem often enough to stay in good enough shape to ride that far; I need the Stayton commutes (roughly 20 mile days) to and from the bus as well.

Your idea of locking the bike to a rack in front of a busy store is possible for me, but I don't really want to lock my Fargo up for 14 hours a day 50 miles away from me. And like you, I feel trapped riding buses without my bike.

Anyway, to answer your question, my bus system was great until today.

^^^^Well, the good thing for me is that I am dealing with more reasonable distances! Hope it gets better with the bus racks.

public transport was really crappy in TX, so I feel for you guys

I do the bike to the bus (4+ miles) and put it on the bus (15+ miles) rack, then ride the last leg (.5 miles) here in Kansas City and it works great. Buses are safe, clean, usually on-time and my employer pays most of the cost of the monthly pass. Maybe once it gets cooler, I'll start riding more instead of letting the bus do all the work. Maybe not.

they do that here as well, which is really nice. my month subway pass (including to Frankfurt Airport) should be roughly 75€ and with the employee discount ... it's only 20€

No. But, I recently ditched riding the commuter rail 1/2 way on one leg of my commute. I realized that I can bike the whole way 35 miles RT and be a lot happier. I don't have to deal with any train delay's, rising fairs, or stink-eye from other passengers who don't like that bikes are allowed on the train. Plus, they only allow bikes on the train at certain times.

It's only another 10 miles or so a day and I can actually leave my house at the same time that I used to leave for the train and still get to work at roughly the same time.

How about driving a car with your bike inside or on a rack for part of the way, instead of the bus? Lots of flexibility that way.

Almost the same for me, except I do not get a subsidy for the MTA from my employer.
It's 3.8 miles from my house to the bus stop, then 12 miles of Interstate on the express OR 11 miles on a local, then the last 3/4 mile into the office.
Starting this week I switched to the local. My plan is to start getting off earlier in the route to extend the mileage on the bike incrementally. The ultimate goal is to ride the entire route on the bike. I've ridden the route (15.1 miles using the MUP/side streets) completely on one occasion.

To the OP; actually our MTA has been great for consistency and reliability. I have no complaints whatsoever. Once (last Friday), we had three bicycles show up with the bus only having slots for two. The driver could not allow the 3rd biuke onto the bus because of the passengers. The express route typically has standing room only, with 5 to 10 standing in the aisles.There's no room for the bike even if it were allowed policy wise.

In Houston the public transportation system is a PITA as well.

My commute is 20 miles (one way). I have to catch a bus to downtown, and then another bus to the west side. From what I understand commute times were lower at one time, but in order to get federal funding to help build/maintain the light rail system downtown, Houston Metro needed to show a certain level of ridership going downtown. In order to accomplish that they routed all buses through downtown - which means that people like me who live on one side of town and work on another no longer had any kind of fairly straight route to work.

My best commute on the bus was 1.5 hrs. My average was two hours. Weekends I could face a three hour one way trip. Three hours to go twenty miles.

Riding my bike I average slightly under 1.5 hrs, one way.

As a bonus, I am losing weight, bettering my health, avoiding winos who badly need bathing facilities, and not being embroiled in flaky one-sided conversations with very strange religious fanatics who believe some pretty far out stuff.

There's no question. For me, riding the bike is the better alternative.

That's exactly what I've been thinking!

And as time goes by and I get fitter, then gradually lengthen the bike portions of the rides until I'm able to do the whole distance.