In the future I will be highlighting the benefits of trams too!
7 Likes
This includes rather graphic descriptions of murders, FYI…
18 Likes
Chapter 2 of Why Busses Suck — The Futility of Trying
When I moved back to Minnesota in late 2011, naturally I had to buy a car. A Fiat 500, by the way.
When I would have long days with tight deadlines back in NY, I would usually leave work and not go home immediately. I would walk for a bit to see what was going on outside, and to clear my mind. I would walk one or two subway stations down the line, then get on the train and be driven home.
But now I had a car — the symbol of American freedom — and was working in Twin Cities’ “Western Suburbs.”
I remember the first strenuous day I had at this job. The day came to an end and I breathed a sigh of relief. Then I realized despite my mental exhaustion, I would have to go directly back to where I parked my can and then drive myself home. Learning to stay awake behind the wheel is just another life skill.
This kind of living soon becomes habit, but what if there was another way? What if there wan an alternative that the average Mid-Western mind was overlooking?
So after a couple of years of daily commuting, I decided to see if I could use the one and only public transportation option available to me — the bus.
Metro Transit has a handy website that helps you plan your trips. The quickest way from my parents’ home — where I was living at the time — to where I work involved taking three busses and would last approximately 1.5 hours, assuming I made all the connections. This would be after walking for 20 minutes to the nearest bus stop.
It only took me half an hour to drive myself.
So basically, the buses were there, but basically served no purpose. And as of now such a trip is totally impossible: The bus stop that was 20 minutes away from my parents’ house has been removed.
7 Likes
20 Likes
Chapter 3 of Why Busses Suck — Giving Buses Another Chance
On April 21, 2016 I started 6 months of work at Medtronic. I can easily remember that date because it was the day Price was found dead in his elevator.
Medtronic, as it turned out, was possibly the worst place I have ever worked. But that is another story.
In order to work at Medtronic I would have to make a long commute into unknown territory — Fridley. I really never when up there before, because why would I?
At some point early in the summer, there was a health-industry-related event at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The studio manager announced that we were all going there as a group the next day to look around a make some kind of decision. Transportation and parking would not be provided. We were going as a group, but of course we would all have to drive ourselves individually.
Driving into the heart of Minneapolis is something I try to avoid. Having to drive a long distance on my tires and using my gas, and then having to pay for my own parking just made it worse. Doing a bit of research, I found out that right at the end of the Medronic driveway there is a bus stop. The bus that stops there happens to go to the Minneapolis Convention Center. Clearly this is how it was meant to be. I decided to do the right thing and took my Metropass the next day.
The Metropass was, maybe still is, a pre-payed bus pass with a chip in it that you tap on a received when you enter the bus.
So, the next day, as we were all getting ready to leave I let it be know that I would be taking the bus. I was hoping that other people would see the benefit of a bus basically right outside our door that would take us where we want to go. No one else was interested. However Gwen, one of the sub-managers and the only cool person there, asked “do you have your Metropass?” I replied in the affirmative and she said “good man.” So I felt good about that anyway.
So, in short, I got on the bus. It showed up on time. It drove me to the convention center. I was a little late but that was OK. After a little it was time to go back. I found the bus stop to go back north, and got on the next bus.
This map shows the route for bus 10. It is taken from Metro Transit’s website.
At the southern end, you can see a small loop — that is the square in front of the convention center. At the northern end is the Northtown Mall.
Now do you see how once the bus reaches Fridley, the route diverges into two? Now why would that large loop be there? How does that benefit anyone? It doesn’t.
The bus was about one stop away from my destination when it turned to the west. I had no idea what was going on or where we were going. We then just kept going north. I was frantically checking my iPhone 15s trying to figure out what is going on and where we are.
Ultimately, we reached the Northtown Mall.
I had to sit on the bus for half and hour and wait for it to start it’s route southward once again. I was a temp. I had work to do. Metronic was the kind of place that made me account for every minute of my work.
No one in the northern suburbs is taking the bus, and Metro Transit knows that. So they have the route go in a large loop because they know no one will be riding it or even care. On the collective map of bus service, it looks like twice as much area is being covered because it is just a colored line. Not until you ride it do you notice you can either go north on the western route or south on the eastern route.
7 Likes
True, I do my taxes the first week of February and get the money back quite quickly.
12 Likes
Tanker in North Sea collision was carrying jet fuel for US military
Solong vessel was carrying sodium cyanide
19 Likes
Chapter 4 of Why Busses Suck — A Direct Comparison
In late 2011 I lived for two months in Bordentown, NJ. My reasons for being there is another story.
I can best describe Bordentown as “quaint.” About as quaint as you can get in post-industrial New Jersey. The city was founded in the colonial period due to trade traveling between Philadelphia and New York, and no none wants to go to Trenton if they can avoid it. Trade would travel up the Delaware River, dock at Bordentown and then travel by land to Raritan Bay, where it once again be put on boats to be transported the rest of the way to New York.
Anyway, I was living in Bordentown but I was still working in Manhattan. So every day I would take the NJ Transit Northeast Corridor service between the Trenton Transit Center and NY Penn Station. This journey lasts about 1.5 hours.
If you draw a straight line between Washington, DC and Boston, that is basically the Northeast Corridor. The only profitable passenger rail lines in the USA. Four tracks all the way, more or less.
Getting between Bordentown and Trenton is a breeze — and only takes about 10 minutes — because there is a convenient tram that runs approximately every half hour named the River Line. The trip is smooth, quick and picturesque. The station was about a 10-minute walk away from where I was living. Its terminal in Trenton is right across the street from The Trenton Transit Center.
This long commute was tedious, but generally worked quite smoothly. The problem was I would frequently have to work late, and at that time the River Line stopped running at either 9:30 or 10:00, I can’t remember. There were times I would have to run to get the last River Line.
Mostly I was lucky, but eventually I knew I would have to take the bus.
And one dark night it finally happened. There is only bus that goes to Bordentown from Trenton, the 409. I could gather than much from the big map. The next difficulty was finding the actual bus stop. This was crucial. No time to observe or experiment. If I missed the 409 there would be a 45-minute wait for the next one.
By walking around the building I found the stop. It is not actually at the Transit Center, but down the road a bit near a small parking lot.
I got on the correct bus, and it began slowly wandering around the New Jersey countryside. I had no idea where it was going.
Eventually I did recognize a street. I had arrived in Bordentown. It only took half-an-hour.
So here is the difference:
- Tram — A smooth 10-minute journey between two unmistakable stations
- Bus — A bumpy, rolling half-hour journey from one dark street to another
6 Likes
Chapter 5 of Why Busses Suck — Another Direct Comparison
I live in Brooklyn at the southern end of the R train. In this area, the R train runs under 4th Avenue, a residential street oriented north-and-south. There are two bus routes that run parallel to it on 3rd and 5th Avenues. All of these services run 24 hours a day.
Every once in a while, the R is shut down all weekend for repairs and modernization. When this happens, the MTA provides a never-ending fleet of busses as a replacement. The busses line-up in front of St Patrick’s Church, just south of the 95th Street station. They leave approximately every 10 minutes. The busses follow the subway’s route, making all the stops along 4th Avenue, up to 59th Street or 36th Street. They then turn around and do the same while heading back to the south. This service is provided in addition to the two parallel bus routes that continue to run as normal.
The stops between 36th and 95th Streets are as follows: 45th, 53rd, 59th, 68th, 77th, 86th.
On a usual weekend, when the subway is running, the cars are not crowded. Mostly everyone has a seat. There are a few people standing. The trip between 95th Street and 36th Street is quite quick and easy. I estimate there are approximately 2.5 minutes between stations. That would make the trip about 17.5 minutes.
On the unfortunate weekends when one has to take the bus, the situation is in no way equal. By the time the bus reaches the second stop of 86th Street, it is already packed. It is hard for people to enter and exit, because there are only doors in the front and the back. People have to stand in areas near the doors where they shouldn’t be standing — an automated message starts playing, “please move away from the doors,” but there is nowhere else to go. On the journey north, I can usually get a seat because it is the first stop. The seats are so cramped I have to sit sideways, like coach seats on an airplane. The bus is to full, I will usually have someone’s butt in my face. The trip takes twice as long as we weave around traffic and stop at traffic lights.
And, let me point out again, this is in addition to the two parallel bus routes that continue to run as normal.
Therefore let me stress again, busses suck. They are not a legitimate form of public transportation. They are transportation theater.
5 Likes
All of this sounds like what you are saying is that busses suck where you live.
I’m not a huge fan of busses myself. Given the opportunity, I prefer trams, light rail, ferries and trains, but those don’t run everywhere, so busses are an important part of any city’s public transport system. And for the most part they work here. It really sounds like most of the problems you’re relating would be solved by a bus system that isn’t underfunded and the planners of which actually gave a fuck. That’s usually the case here in Europe.
Now, I’m only talking about city busses. Rural bus systems are very hard to implement. If there’s a bus only every few hours, it’s basically useless, but on the other hand, there simply aren’t enough users. If there were, they would have built a train. Consequently, I avoid rural bus systems as much as possible.
And then there are overland busses. Those really make no sense in my opinion (at least in Europe). They really have no advantage over trains, except that they are slightly cheaper. On the other hand, you get to put your life in the hands of an overworked and tired bus driver on the Autobahn and the emissions per person are ridiculous compared to a train. And you can’t get up and move around. I hate overland busses but they appear to be useful for some, apparently.
But busses are definitely not transportation theatre. For most small and medium sized cities, they’re the only viable form of public transportation
18 Likes
Busses can be transportation theatre, but they don’t have to be.
As part of a wider functioning transportation system, they can be invaluable. Train lines and tram lines can only take you so far, and busses can be the vital stage in filling in the inevitable gaps, creating links between radial trunks and infilling otherwise uncovered territory in, and this is the important part, a considered and planned transportation system.
If you don’t have a functioning system, then busses are cheapest (you don’t need extra infrastructure build) and easiest and theoretically the most flexible, and if you don’t really care, then slap in some bus routes and tick off the “has a public transportation system” of your city council achievement list.
If you don’t have the ability to build trains and/or trams, then busses are invaluable, if you do it right, and maintain them as a system. If you don’t do it right, then you end up with all the sorts of situations that RAvery has described.
Where you are, Dr Faustus, and in many other places, you are right, and busses are an important part of the functioning of a city.
Where RAvery is and has been, and in many other places, he is right, and busses are a perfunctory and resented obligation, literally the least the local government could do and still call itself a government, and they don’t care if it’s actually usable, and it shows.
16 Likes
Indeed. You said it better than I did, but that is what I was trying to get across. Busses aren’t bad or good per se. Like any mode of transportation (or any public good, really) they have to be implemented well to work.
13 Likes
12 Likes
Okay, I’ve read all of your bus experiences, but I’m afraid I still don’t agree, except that in some areas where it’s run badly or given low priority it can be next to useless (which previous posters have already gone over) and that, depending on where you’re trying to go, it can take a ridiculously long time compared to driving. Unfortunately, that’s one of the limitations of busses, and a reason why even though I find them very useful, I don’t think they’re the right solution 100% of the time.
I use a bus to get to work every day because the route happens to go right by my house and has a stop close to my job, which is in the commercial center of town. It’s quick and easy, aside from the fact that it feels like 90% of the time I arrive at the bus stop JUST after the bus I needed went by, and thus have to wait the maximum possible amount of time almost every time (this somehow seems to happen no matter when I leave to catch the bus). Still, that time is maybe 12 to 15 minutes and it’s much more efficient than trying to find free parking around that area. If my job were further down that same street by several blocks, getting to the closest stop by bus would be extremely difficult and time-consuming and I’d definitely take a car instead (but finding parking in that area would also be much easier). Busses CAN be a substitute for cars, but it very much depends on where you need to go, how many routes are available, whether you’re willing to walk a few minutes or bring a bike to extend your range, etc. That doesn’t make them “transportation theater” though- they’re very nice to have in a lot of circumstances.
A lot of your posts compare them to taking a tram or subway, as though you just assume those are options for everyone that make busses obsolete. Not everyone lives in a huge, dense, urban city with that kind of network. I’ve taken a few of those, and yes, they’re much faster than the bus- but I don’t live in New York City or Atlanta. We don’t have anything like that here and probably never will. For us busses aren’t an afterthought, they are public transit, entirely. Does taking a bus to the airport take forever and if you miss it it’s 45 minutes until the next one? Yes. Is it still much more convenient than driving to the airport in heavy traffic and paying to park for however long your trip is? Also yes. If they were as crowded as the ones you describe it would be a different story, but that’s not the case around here or, I think, most places.
Finally, you had an example of a bus going in a loop, bringing you close to your destination but then veering away and circling around to get there the long way. You claim, based on what I’m not sure, that this benefits no one. It turns out, my bus route home works EXACTLY like this. If I’m in a hurry, I have to get off at the bottom of the loop and walk the rest of the way home, which takes 5 minutes. If I wait and ride the loop around, it takes 20. But there’s a reason for that loop- it passes by a high school, and for a lot of students in that area who CAN’T drive, it’s essential for them to get home after class or after school events in the evenings, when their parents might be at work and unable to pick them up. For me, it’s inconvenient, but for them, it’s important.
So all in all, I’m not convinced. Busses can suck and be useless depending on what you’re trying to accomplish with them, but they can also be convenient and extremely helpful. I’d hate to think how much more congested and dangerous our roadways would become if we got rid of our local bus service- in that sense, they help me out even if I’m driving a car that day.
13 Likes
I want to thank everyone for reading and responding to my petty tirades.
I wasn’t trying to say that exactly. In the yesterday’s installment, my story is about a street flooded with buses. Basically it is as much bus service as can possibly be imagined. But despite the quantity, they are still unable to effectively handle a light weekend volume of commuters.
This is unfortunately how cities of the 20th century have developed. Buses are like a dog chasing its tail — they try to catch up with a city’s development, but are never able to. They end up wandering aimlessly around suburbia. Rail on the other hand leads a city’s development.
I agree that this is an ideal possibility.
If I do write an additional installment on this subject, it would be about the Blue and Green light rail lines that have recently been constructed in Minneapolis/St Paul. The light rail there is starting to reform the retail and residential development. Why? Because business and people see the benefit of being near it. If the Twin Cities are able to integrate the expanding light rail system with buses it might be something good.
I’m going to blame the automobile. In the US, up until the Second World War, most cities had effective rail-based commuter options. Then, starting in the 1920s, it was decided that the car was the future, and thus cities began to spread out and develop wherever the cars could drive. Thus buses were bought from the car companies to make use of cities’ newly paved infrastructure. And then I get back to my “dog chasing its tail” analogy.
Oh, as someone who grew up far-far away from any form of public transportation, I understand you. I say, if a bus is all you got, make the best use of it. I salute your bus use. But we should not lose sight of the fact that they are not flawless.
As for small communities, I would point out my story in Bordentown. The River Line is a tram that makes use of a disused freight line. There is a lot wrong with the state of New Jersey, but somehow they got this right. It goes from small town to small town in about 1/3 the time of the bus. Many people can walk to the stations, but each station also has a park-and-ride lot for cars.
It was an alternative to spending money on stroads. All stroads lead to exurbs. Rail is a long-term investment that serves a community better and makes it stronger.
But what if the high school students want to go in the opposite direction?
Anyway, a small Ioop I can live with. The loop in the map I pointed out added more than an hour to my journey.
6 Likes
Admittedly, they can’t. If they’re going home, it’s not much of a problem, since the school is near the bottom of the loop so almost the entire coverage of the residential area comes after that stop. If they’re trying to get somewhere else, however, well, they would have to sit through the loop. And yeah, that’s a limitation of busses, there’s only so much money the city can spend, so there can only be so many routes, so sometimes you either have to wait a long time or use something else. But the bus system, at least around here, is still pretty useful despite those drawbacks.
8 Likes
I’m very glad that is so.
3 Likes
I feel like you are not fully acknowledging @Catsidhe and my arguments, which are that
a) You cannot have rail everywhere
and
b) You cannot have rail without a bus system, not unless people live exclusively within walking distance of the rail stops, at least
Let’s take London: they have an amazing transport system. They have a tube (they invented it, even!), light rail, river ferries and even a cable car!
You know what every Londoner does every day in addition to using those options?
They take a bus. And yeah, they will complain about the buses. And they will be late and there will be congestion. But you can’t reach every community of people priced out of living in the centre by tube and riverboat. Somehow, they have to get to the next tube station or the next community over, which isn’t connected by tube without going through the centre. There is no alternative, if you don’t want to leave transportation to cabs and American techbro companies. And despite all the complaining, this amazingly complex system works for the most part.
14 Likes