Dahon.Steve

Here's a good article on how a motorist became carfree and actually enjoys the bus. You always hear people complaining about how the bus is just horrible and dangerous but that is just not aways the case. To think the writer actually lives in Los Angeles of all cities!

I think this statement of hers says it all.

"I think there's a social understanding and a construction around that if you take the bus, you take it because you don't have money. There's a social standard. Obviously I had bought into that."

I sent an email to the writer telling her to get a Xooter since she lives about 20 minutes from the bus stop. This would cut the time in half or more and she could use it instead of paying for transfers.


https://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...ge=1&track=rss

Torrilin

I thought that upholstery looked familiar. The rapid buses are a *lot* more expensive than regular LA buses. And if she were willing to move to West LA or Culver City, she'd be able to get damn near door to door service off the Santa Monica or Culver City buses. Oh well.

Dahon.Steve

I use a rapid bus service and the New York City subway and it's the most comfortable part of my commute. I actually prefer a long distant coach over a city bus any day because the seats are designed better since you'll be sitting longer and paying a higher fare.

I think this past recession forced alot of people back on pubic transit. It's unfortunate in this economy how cities balanced their budgets on the back of public transit. It's now when jobs are being slashed by the tens of thousands that people could really use an alternative to the car but service is being cut to in this time of need.

kokorozashi

We're definitely seeing this here in Louisville -- TARC (our local bus system) is pretty much being forced to trim its routes back to the bone, which is a shame, because it's been an excellent system for a city of our size. The cuts have wrought havoc on connections, ride times, and so forth. Weekend routes have been hit particularly hard. This is going to sound like so much overpriviledged whining, but recent cuts have made it a giant PITA to get to my Saturday Muay Thai class (yes, do feel free to throw things at me; yes, I do usually ride my bike the 12ish miles home -- but I'm not fit enough to ride all the way to class, then work my butt off for 2 hours in class, then ride home ). They've also made it much harder for students to get to weekend classes and night- and weekend-shift workers to get to and from their jobs.

Mid-shifters who work in outlying industrial and business parks have it especially bad: they can usually get to work, but not home: they don't get out late enough to take advantage of the pricey-but-still-cheaper-than-driving Night Owl service (only runs after 11PM), nor do they get out early enough to use regular service ... and while many, or even most, of us are physically able enough to bike, some aren't.

Of course, the fewer reliable routes to jobs, shopping, and other destinations, the fewer riders there are, and the fewer riders there are, the harder it becomes for the TARC board to justify itself when the city steps in to cut the budget. We're in something of a transit death spiral, out here.

I'll be back at school full time in the fall just over the river in Indiana. I realized the other day that the 11-mile trip will take me far less time by bike (< 1 hour) than if I ride the bus ( 2 hours or more, once connections and the maddeningly-indirect routes on the Indiana side of the river are considered).

As a bonus, the return trip is downhill almost all the way

I hope we'll see more articles like Ms. Bloomekatz's. Brava to her and to her subject, Jacquelyn Carr, and thanks to Dahon Steve for posting the link!

Doohickie

I've bus commuted in the past and enjoyed the time to read books for pleasure.

When I've looked into riding recently, I've found 20 minute car rides that take 90 minutes or more on the bus. I don't need that much reading time. I've been to several city and regional meetings about transportation and they all realize increased transit is good (in principle) but have trouble coming up with the money to expand bus service and make it more attractive. The powers that be are caught between trying to solve a problem that they see coming (a big jump in poplulation expected in the next 10-20 years) with keeping the current residents happy, which for most means keeping expenditures at a minimum to keep taxes low. Kind of tough situation.

The other issues that gum everything up is that there are several transit services in the region (The T in Tarrant County and DART in Dallas County) and they are far from seamlessly integrated. Add to that the fact that the The T is supposed to serve Tarrant County, but Fort Worth (population 700,000) participates financially while suburban Arlington (350,000) refuses to.... and oh, by the way, Arlington is home to major sports venues (Texas Rangers Baseball, Dallas Cowboys Football), and our transit system is pretty FUBARed. Texans hold this romanticized notion of being independent and going it alone, but that mentality is detrimental when trying to sell a transit system to serve the masses.

travelmama

I find the article to be weak. There are so many others like her who have shared their public transportation experiences for various reasons and the stories are getting tiring. The buses are for people to take not to be empty. If people think others will look down on them for taking the bus or riding a bike to a destination should be kicked to the curb. Heck, I am a single female with 3 properties, 2 cars, 1 scooter, 9 bikes and I have NO problem taking the bus. Most people would see me as one who should not ever be found on a bus or in a train. In fact, when I have to go to Los Angeles or Hollywood, I am usually take public transportation because I am too lazy to drive and won't pay for parking.

Torrilin

No, that's the other other bus. LA's bus system is a little crazy . The long haul buses that really should be commuter train routes are basically a long distance coach style of bus, and have ridiculous fares. The rapid series is a slightly more expensive short haul express bus, run by the City of Los Angeles. Then there are regular local buses. You can transfer between all of these systems, but you may have to pay extra to transfer from a cheap local bus to one of the higher end buses. Most Angelenos will have at least two local bus systems available to them, if they're in a functional area for transit. It's probably possible to have well over 4 available to you... all depends on where you live.

This is why I'd often take trips that involved "take the Culver City 3, then pick up the Santa Monica 7" or "walk down to Venice, grab the LA 33".

I'm not even getting into the train . It's a real headache of a system to learn, and figuring out which routes work well takes practice. It's a bit like if Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx all had their own separate subway systems and bus systems, and the only long distance routes were run by Manhattan.

Roody

The posts here point out one of the worst problems facing American public transit: the lack of regional planning. Buses and trains should serve the entire metro area, not just one city or small group of suburbs. The federal government should probably quit subsidizing bus lines that only serve one city, and force them to regionalize.

gerv 

The 'burbs to the west of Des Moines are so lacking in regional planning that, on the main drag, the street numbering is completely out of sync. The town on the north side of the street refers to 86th Street what the town on the other side calls 22nd street. It's been like this for decades and they see no advantage to correcting it.

What chance is there for a bus service to mesh between 'burbs?