Right now I'm sitting at Peet's Coffee & Tea at Telegraph and Dwight. It's 5:00 on a Friday. Rush hour. Looking out the window, I see two buses go through the intersection almost simultaneously, the 1 and the 1R. One is half full, and the other is nearly empty. Cars are backed up Dwight as far as the eye can see. And I ask myself a question I've wondered a thousand times.
Why don't more people ride the bus?
Personally, I like riding the bus. While trains are faster for certain kinds of trips, they don't offer the same kind of experience the bus offers. Trains are boring to me. They're either underground or way above ground, and I like the surface experience the bus offers. And yes, I realize that not everyone likes that experience. Buses have a reputation for attracting "the crazies." But I think you get crazy people on trains too, so I think that stigma is unjustified. And it's more than made up for by putting you in direct contact with the life of the city. I took the F bus across the Bay Bridge last night, and it was spectacular. Granted, I'd never been across the Bay Bridge before, but I don't think anyone could ignore the urban beauty of the San Francisco skyline at dusk, no matter how many times they see it. I wouldn't have been able to fully admire this view if I was driving a car, and I wouldn't have seen it at all if I had taken the train.
Buses are also cheaper. They're cheaper to build, they're cheaper to buy, and they're cheaper to ride. They're more expensive to operate on a year-by-year basis than light and heavy rail trains, but the enormous up-front investment required to build a rail system makes a comprehensive bus system by far the more sensible choice. I'm going to talk about the debate between bus and light rail in another post, but suffice it to say that expanding bus service makes more sense than building a light rail system when your resources are limited because you don't have to build new infrastructure: the roads are already there.
So, again, why don't people ride the bus? It's an hour later here at Dwight and Telegraph, and I've seen a lot of people. Most were walking, many were in cars, some were on bicycles, and a few were on scooters and skateboards. Dozens of buses have gone by in this hour. They were definitely in use, but none of them were standing room only. People obviously need to get places at 6:00 on a Friday afternoon, and it's their prerogative to choose how to get where they need to go. I just wish more people would see what I see when I look at the bus.
Credits: Image of Buses from SF Gate, Image of San Francisco Bay Bridge from Pulsar Wallpaper.
As someone who has depended on the bus/streetcar/BART for most of my life, I appreciate mass transit. However, there are plenty of reasons why people don't take the bus. The first that comes to mind is that in an inefficiently run system, the buses don't come on time or sometimes they don't come at all. If you're trying to make it to work on time or to an appointment, and you don't want to worry about giving yourself 30 minutes of padding just to make sure you'll make it to your destination on time.
ReplyDeleteAlso, while many of us are very optimistic about local government, we live in a time of huge service cuts to transit. It's hard to become dependent on a system, without certainty that your bus route or your service hours won't be cut out because your transit authority has run out of money.
Finally, many transit systems are very good at getting people into the urban core and downtown areas, but they are bad at transporting people from one outer urban neighborhood to another. In these cases, car travel may be the only feasible option.
I can understand being able to view the city while you're still at street level, but from a functional point of view - buses were designed to transport. The fact that, for example NYC, buses have to navigate the same traffic as taxis as opposed to the subways that have clean shot to the next station, its much easier to go with the subways. Bus lanes could be the way to go, and even in NYC they've achieved some success, but like bike lanes, their exclusion to buses isn't properly enforced many times. Sweet picture btw.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment about bus riding putting you in direct contact with the city - I always feel like I experience the rhythm of a city or town (however halting or jarring at times) more immediately on the bus. I'm also interested in the simultaneously public and intimate experience of riding the bus - carrying groceries or a baby or having a conversation on a cell phone in the close quarters of the bus presents a close and sometimes memorable riding experience. It also seems like an opportunity for rare collective sentiment - the bus is one of those places I've noticed people look up from their i-whatever and heave a collective sigh of frustration when things get hairy or laugh/enjoy a funny moment together. This happens on trains too, but the unpredictability and spontaneous nature of bus travel seems to bring that collective feeling into closer focus. You can hop a train car if things get too weird, but unless you decide get out and walk, a bus ride usually represents a commitment to see it through, whatever happens (which I like).
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