Riding The Bus

[phantom power]

Amanda's right that there's a degree of social stigma attached to bus riders, but it's also the case that short distance buses aren't... awesome. They're slow. They stop and start a lot. It isn't a comfortable ride. You have to pay attention so you don't miss your stop. Schedules aren't always followed very closely. They just aren't an extremely pleasant way to get around.

But the general issue - do people stick with public transit - has a lot to do with whether people have the potential to reduce the number of cars in their household. Much of the costs of using an automobile are fixed - insurance, payment/lease, etc... - and aren't reduced (or not reduced by much) if you start commuting with mass transit. Maybe you save a bit relative to your gas cost, but those savings for most people aren't going to be tremendous. You also might enjoy the train a bit more than driving, but the real savings come when you can actually get rid of a car. And in most places in the country, that doesn't come close to being an option. Still, I highly recommend looking for places where it is! But I won't force you to. Not yet, anyway. Not yet.

...addding that while I live in a zero car household, that likely wouldn't be the case if not for a quality local car sharing program. Cars are very useful things! Even in my urban paradise they come in handy quite frequently.

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2008_11_16_archive.html#7755887083861959978

[Avalux]

1. I WISH I could ride the bus.

It is impossible for me to do so however. My office is 14 miles from my house and there isn't a bus stop nearby. I live in a city that sprawls and mass transit is inadequate.

It would take me driving to a bus stop and transferring twice. Would take about an hour and a half to commute 14 miles each way.

[CTyankee]

2. Hubby takes the bus downtown to his job in City Hall every day.

Before I retired we carpooled downtown (I had the parking spot) and he took the bus home. If he misses one bus he can catch one 20 minutes later. He loves it, except when things get squirrely and the bus starts wandering around (we haven't figured out why that happens, tho).

[GliderGuider]

3. I'm a daily bus rider

It's a 20-minute trip from my front door to my workplace, which makes it very attractive. Ottawa has a generally good public transit infrastructure, with park-and-ride facilities about 10 miles out in the bedroom communities. I pay about $75 a month for a bus pass, which is tax deductible.

My one car now mostly sits in the parking lot of the apartment building. It sees about 4000 miles a year before special-purpose trips. The fixed costs are still there, but at least my GHG profile is reduced and I don't end up sitting in f#@king traffic jams every day. Plus I get an extra 3 hours a week of reading time.

Because most of the riders in Ottawa are civil servants and most of us up to second level management ride the bus, there isn't even any stigma attached to it. We tend to sympathize with people who have to drive.

[phantom power]

4. I think that for some people, fuel and mileage/maintenance savings are big.

I think that's especially true if you own an older car that's already paid for. Payments are sunk, and insurance tends to be less on older cars. If you can keep the mileage on an old car low, you can keep it running for more years, for less.