Seattlest: Report: 98% of people who actually ride the bus want you to shut the hell up about how great it is.

TroyJMorris

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:47:11 -0800

I walk. Which only sucks when it rains like it did today. I'm tired of buses being 15-20 minutes late. I'm tired of people not going to the end of the bus. I'm tired of people not having fares ready. I'm tired of 12 year-olds screaming louder than infants. I'm tired of not having a fucking rail that comes every 5-7 minutes and not having to deal with traffic. So I'll buy an umbrella and make sure I work within a 20 minute walk to work. Or, if that won't work, a 20 minute bike ride to work. Now yes, I understand not all can live near work, but more of us can try.

bigyaz

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 12:27:45 -0800

Buses work reasonably well between the city and suburbs. Go to a park-and-ride lot some day and you'll see thousands of people who prefer the bus to driving their cars into the city. Among the reasons: lack of parking, gas prices, subsidized bus passes and reduced stress. However, depending on buses within the city is no picnic. They're typically crowded, a lot of the riders are sketchy and, since th buses are subject to the vagaries of weather and car traffic, often not timely. The argument that people in the suburbs favor roads over mass transit is a convenient fallacy. You'll find much evidence to the contrary at the Eastgate, South Kirkland and Lynnwood park-and-ride lots, among others.

redwoodtree

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:46:10 -0800

My gut feeling is that all the people who complain about busses sucking and being too humid and being stuck in traffic and all the other stuff, are exactly people who don't ride the bus. How do I know this? Because it's the same stuff I'd say before I became a regular rider. You know what sucks? Driving. Read the craigslist rant & rave for instance, 50% of the posts are road rage mad commuters who come home just to spend time ranting on the 'net to make themselves feel better. I would challenge people who live near bus routes to really give it a try for a month and then report back.

meara

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 10:01:15 -0800

Heh. Just moved here from DC, and while I do/did adore the metro, all is not perfect there either, believe me (fires in the stations, regular breakdown delays, ridiculously crowded trains, huge need for more cash, plus the fun of two states and the District government having to get involved?) That said, rail kicks ass, and while it doesn't solve all problems (and I still took the bus in DC sometimes), it would be a great addition here. (I'm taking the bus to/from work here)

Jeremy M. Barker

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:52:13 -0800

The mode of transportation actually has an impact on commuters in the sense that they prefer some to others. For instance, Portland installed a downtown streetcar about 10 years ago. It was originally derided as a kitschy sort of tourist trinket, but it turns out, people really like riding streetcars (in a way they don't with buses) and it beat all its ridership predictions. So no, trains and the like don't eliminate gross people from mass transit, but to assume that the cheapest, least appealing option (buses) is the best because it's, well, cheap, ignores the other benefits you get out of things like a streetcar or light rail or, God forbid, a subway. All these options have their own unique value-addeds: people enjoy streetcars as a form of public transit; light rail is more efficient and reasonably inured to traffic.

Paul Henry

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:32:15 -0800

The problem is that even on the "better" routes--Sound Transit route 545, which transports docile computer geeks exclusively in the morning and afternoon, is probably the best route in the system--the bus experience still sucks. You get there two minutes after the bus leaves and have to wait 20 minutes in the rain for the next one. Riding the bus in the rain is exactly the humid nightmare that Jeremy describes, which is inconvenient when you don't want to show up at your destination looking like you just ran a marathon through a rainforest. You're stuck in the same damn traffic as the cars, which means that during rush hour you never know if it's going to take 20 minutes to get there, or 50 minutes. And on and on. I spent a week in DC earlier this month taking the subway everywhere. The worst trip I took on Metrorail, I can say with some confidence, was better than the best trip I've ever taken on the 545. I've always wanted to pose just one question to the bus-only fanatics like Ron Sims and the Times editorial board: King County has what could justifiably be called the finest bus-only public transit system in the nation, and it still sucks. What could possibly make anyone think that more of the same is going to change that?

scotto

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 09:31:51 -0800

It's not clear how trains would solve drug and BO problems. A train ride in NYC or Boston suggests that they don't. Not that I'm against building tons of light rail -- it's just that trains won't cure all that ails you.

Seth

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 08:31:23 -0800

Over in NYC, they have the Straphangers Campaign, which watchdogs the MTA (their Metro), releases reports on the slowest subway line, most crowded subway line, etc. It's a really well-run operation. Not sure who funds it.

redwoodtree

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 01:16:36 -0800

it totally depends on the route, some of the routes don't suck. Some suck a lot. I'm lucky enough that my route doesn't suck, the worst I can say is that some days I have to stand for about 10 minutes, that's not so bad and no different than any other big city. For the routes that suck, here's gotta be something that can be done and some of the ideas floating around are not bad. All we can do is keep pushing Metro to make it better.

eldan

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:29:19 -0800

Michael van Baker

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 16:50:01 -0800

It'd be nice if there were some sort of accountability. Between buses not even starting their routes on time, bus stops missing posted schedules, and buses *whoops* not stopping, it gets to be drag. What gets me is that there is a more or less unofficial Top 10 list of things you can do to improve bus riding (no Free Zones, pay at kiosks, conductors to take tickets, roving inspectors, etc.) but no one seems to be leading the charge for this in Seattle. We get extra buses, but the system itself needs optimizing -- without that, extra buses just offer more inconvenient trips.