by peur evol

Created on: July 17, 2008

Why do buses always come in threes? Honestly, I'd never thought of this before, but, I would reckon that it would be because most people work at jobs with similar start times; i.e. 6 'til 2, 7 'til 3, 8 'til 4, etc. This is why in some cities there is a "peak time" discount; larger number of passengers makes the bus line more cost effective. Purchase of advance bus tickets / monthly passes also helps to make it more economical for both the riders and the bus line.

Apparently, the planning dept. for any particular metro bus system has considered the distances and drive times while they plan all the individual route schedules. Even a casual bus passenger has realized that this is a hit or miss thing. More often than not, the bus you'll have to catch gets you to your job a half hour early or ten minutes late. This is a small sacrifice considering that any bus / subway / light rail / metro is still cheaper than driving alone back and forth to work.

Of course, at any bus stop, in any major city there's someone who'll give you their expert opinion on how exactly the transit system should be run. As with anything in life, the average layman believes they know more than the professionals. I've no idea why this is so, maybe it's an American thing? I would swear that when I was in Europe, people were more willing to say: ''I don't know, that's just the way it is.''

Personally, I recognize that bus scheduling must be a career with a built-in headache. Any large metropolitan area has thousands of riders with an infinitely changing diversity of destinations. What a nightmare. I'm sure the complaint dept. gets more calls than the compliment dept.

Now, I've lived in many places across this great big world, and I've seen transit services that were absolutely awesome, as well as some that were absolutely un-awesome. Berlin comes to mind as being highly efficient, while Tulsa comes to mind as being a pain in the seat cushion. No offense to anybody, that's just my personal experience.(In defense of Tulsa transit, at least more than half of their fleet are eco-friendly hybrid buses.)

With gasoline prices rising to more and more ungodly rates, soon the U.S. will be looking to follow the already established E.U. model of only one in five people even owning a motor vehicle. So, the second part of the question (assessing public transportation) may soon be a very important campaign platform for local politicians running for mayor or city council. The alternatives are out there, but why did we wait this long to start utilizing them?

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