What's so bad about riding the bus to work?

[Soulstealer]

Two points here.

1. The OP's public transportation system may not be at the level of Vancouver's, and the OP's mother may well know this.

2. You have regaled us time and again with horror stories from your daily commute. From crazies to drunks to weirdos to police situations to transit breakdowns to stuff I am not even remembering. Frankly, I hardly think you are the poster boy for joys of public transportation!

Indeed, if I ever visit Vancouver I may have to rent a car just out of fear of Broadway Although in all seriousness if the poster doesn't have a problem with the transit system then it probably doesn't suck too much. His mom might just be a little over protective but then again has a parent it's their right to be that way.

[blas]

Thanks for pointing that out, Jester.

Not every one of us is from a big enough area to have a 24/7 (or even close to that) transit system.....or even a transit system that goes literally all over the city.

I can see people in Milwaukee or Madison or Green Bay could probably get away with it, but for those of us in these piddly towns and cities where public transit is a bigger joke than a spray tan...yeah, we have to have our own vehicles or rely on someone else who does.

I for one love having my own vehicle. Maintenance and gas sure can be a pain and being stranded occasionally sucks, but I think it still beats the heck out of the crazies and weirdos on the busses around here.

[KellyHabersham]

The main thing I always disliked about having to ride the bus to work (this being from my time at Macy's) was the way the bus routes were planned out. I had to take two buses to get there, and because the second bus didn't complete the entire route every trip, if I missed it, I had to wait an hour for the next "full trip" bus to come by.

[NightWatch]

Around here we have great roads and even downtown is highly accessible by car. We actually have a reasonable amount of parking. The busses are expensive here, like $2.50a pop, and more if you take an express route. The stops are limited and therefore if you aren't travelling near a major thoroughfare, you're kinda SOL, unless you don't mind biking or walking the rest of the way. and the rest of the way isn't always "just a few blocks". Also, if you are going to be out later then 9PM, a lot of the busses have stopped running. Although the TRAX line runs til midnight on some nights.

It's also a retarded set up. Sometimes the only way to get somewhere is to take a bus that goes the opposite way. For example, it your job is far southwest from your home, you might have to get on a bus that takes you 3 miles north, to get on a train that takes you west, to get on another train that finally takes you south. The further south you get, the fewer busses you'll find too. and FYI, a LOT of people live in the southern part of this city.

[protege]

Pittsburgh's mass transit system is awful. Mainly because there aren't that many subway routes, and several bus routes have seen cutbacks lately. The Port Authority's fiscal woes have managed to turn a 15-minute trip into well over an hour in many cases. Not helping matters, is that most bus routes from the 'burbs end up downtown. To cross the city, or even head into other areas, you'll need a transfer. But, because of cutbacks, if you're late...you've missed your transfer, and will be waiting a bit for the next one. Years ago though, you could take a trolley or bus anywhere in town. Most of the trolley routes were gone by the 1970s--trolleys were scrapped in favor of buses. Either way, service was better then.

If I could, I'd *gladly* take mass transit to work. But, until the system is expanded (and by "expanded," I don't mean that billion-dollar hole under the river to serve the stadiums!), it's not happening. I can get wherever I need to be, usually faster, in my own car.

[Chromatix]

Meanwhile over here, they just put a new type of train in service a couple of weeks ago. So far only one unit is actually in service, with a second used for driver training, but a few dozen of these 4-car units are on order.

They're a heavily localised version of the Stadler FLIRT, for those of us from the rest of Europe who know what those are. In this case "heavily localised" means they widened the wheel gauge, widened the body, winterised it to -40°C with triple glazing and a heat-feedback system in the air circulation, and even put in a special seat layout to cope with commuter loads.

Probably they'll be used to replace a lot of the 1960s and 70s units that are still in heavy use. I regularly see all four types of commuter EMU on my line (Sm1/2 as the oldest type, Sm4 as the newish one, and Sm5 as the FLIRT - the Sm3 is the Pendolino which is only used for fast expresses).

As it happens the Sm1/2 are actually still quite comfortable and sufficiently fast and reliable, but they're not wheelchair accessible and barely pram-accessible (it's easier if someone helps). Unlike in Britain, the platforms are not above chassis height, so non-unibody trains all have steps up to floor height.

The older trams have the same problem, but to get around that they've had someone build a low-floor unit to insert into the middle of them, re-using some extra bogies in the process. The result is a perfectly good tram with an extended lifespan and which needs a longer platform...

And they've started work on the extension of the Metro into next-door Espoo. As part of that, they're migrating to driverless operation, resignaling the entire existing line too. They hope that the flooded Central Railway Station stop on it can be re-opened in January, after they've replaced the lifts and repaired the escalators.

[Gravekeeper]

2. You have regaled us time and again with horror stories from your daily commute. From crazies to drunks to weirdos to police situations to transit breakdowns to stuff I am not even remembering. Frankly, I hardly think you are the poster boy for joys of public transportation!

Touche. Though Broadway denizens aside our transit system is pretty awesome.

I'm still alive and I ride it weekly at the worst possible times of night. But then I mean we can leave the office here at 3am for a munchies run and the worst that will happen to you is someone might ask you for change.