Comments on: Cap Metro Hell

By: Orb

Orb — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:50:19 +0000

The fact that the three inner city routes I use regularly are crowded doesn’t in any way prove many people use the bus system. The routes I don’t use regularly, the ones feeding in from the ‘burbs, I am often the only person on no matter the hour of day. What we need are fewer feeders from the ‘burbs and an increase in frequency (or maybe even just bus size) on the routes with higher ridership. Really, if a bus with 25 seats is being crammed full with 75 people, and every bus before and after it is doing the same, something needs to be done about it. I’m not new to riding the buses and have been using them here for 18 years, so the suckiness of it isn’t going to stop me from using them when I need to, but for someone who’s never ridden before and has other options, I can’t think they’d be inspired to want to go through that every day to commute to work or school.

It used to not be this bad here. We had large buses, and the frequency was more closely tied to rush periods. The buses stayed full, but they were a crush of people, and during rushes they came every five minutes on the main arteries … which, I might add, were straight shot routes and not combination routes that take 50 minutes to go 12 miles. They have since combined routes, cut back on buses on major arteries, and I have yet to see any bus with more than 25 seats.

The bus that runs through my neighborhood, for example, is the only one in a four block radius that goes downtown, and I catch it fairly early in its southbound route. I caught that bus at a different time every day I used it, and I can tell you that every time, it was standing room only … between the hours of 6 am and noon. It was even worse on the return trip, because no bus leaves the downtown region after 5 pm without being full, and then it just gets worse at every stop. I used to enjoy riding the bus, because I hate driving and finding parking spaces, but now, I pretty much hate the thought of having to get on a bus. It’s really not much better than driving as far as stress and aggravation, and it takes three times as long to get where I am going.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens when we get that first light rail line. Provided they ever stop testing it and actually start using it.

By: Marco

Marco — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 17:05:06 +0000

Ahh, the empty bus myth! It’s funny that you start your post with “no one uses the bus system” but then you go on and on about riding on a crowded bus.

By: Lori

Lori — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:48:08 +0000

I’m really sorry. I wish the bus systems where you are at were better. I know when I used to live in South Jersey…HA! It was impossible to get anything done.

In Oregon, we have a much better bus system. People here gripe about it all the time, but really, if they lived in South Jersey, or heard stories like these, they’d be thankful. There are times when the bus is so freaking full, yeah, and it sucks and what is it with young people these days that can’t get off their ass for a pregnant woman?!

But other than that, if you call the number to speak to someone about the bus routes, you get a real live person right away. Also, sometimes, you can get an emergency ride home.

I know there are places over the U.S. that are modeling their bus system after ours. Here’s hoping Austin catches up!

(Actually, I was going to bitch today in my livejournal about people here who just aren’t thankful for the wonderful bus system they have – it’s not perfect – but holy crap, they have it so good, they just don’t know.)