#and even gps isn't reliable and will show ghost buses (if you even have a smart phone and the app and data to use it) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

awkward-teabag · 6 months ago

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I went with the frequent delays option but really it's many of them.

Some routes are too infrequent (e.g. 6 trips per day to a major shopping area); delays are getting worse and worse thanks to buses breaking down, drivers not being paid enough so there's a shortage of drivers, and the schedule meaning nothing because drivers will show up early or late or not at all; trips anywhere other than a straight line often means a transfer which didn't used to be a problem but with entire buses not showing (or being too full to let anyone else on) the more buses you have to take increases your chance of being delayed by a not small amount.

There's no dedicated bus/HOV lanes so any issue with traffic further delays the bus as buses are stuck in the same traffic. It's worst when rush hour starts as what normally takes <5 minutes for the bus to do takes 10+ minutes as it's stuck at a crawl. It's bad for people on the bus but waiting for the bus while in bad weather and it being visible but unable to move is worse.

There's also no direct East-West route so what would be a 5 minute drive takes an hour or more because you're stuck taking a route downtown and having to transfer. And given it's a 5 minute drive on a highway, there's no pedestrian infrastructure so walking there isn't an option.

It's also bloody expensive. $5 for a day pass and there were recent talks of going back to a time limit (of one hour) on transfers and only having the transfers work in one direction so you couldn't grab a bus, go do what you need to, and head back home.

And of course there's how it's often not pleasant, especially with covid. Part of that is due to public health not giving a flying fuck about it (there's much more concern about how capitalism will function if people are sick or required to take a couple days off because most people can't take the full time off and the vast majority of people can't afford to take time off to begin with (and employers punishing people who do refuse to come in when sick)) but being in a confined space with people hacking up lungs is not enjoyable, especially if you're paying for the experience.

I used to take the bus a lot and while there were issues at times—namely not enough buses on a route—it wasn't this bad but now I actively avoid it when possible.

And as per usual, ridership is down across the board because of the current issues so BC Transit is yet again cutting services and increasing fares to compensate rather than actually addressing what's causing ridership to go down.

So i'm working on a project that involves looking at people's opinions on public transportation, and something that keeps coming up is that a lot of people like the idea of public transportation but ridership is at the same time low, so I wanna figure out what stops people from riding.

If you could reblog this for bigger sample size that would be so so appreciated

#then there's how people get on reeking of pot/perfume/bo and people blaring music/videos on their phone for all to hear #or taking phone/vid calls and all but yelling and possibly filming you #one of my commutes used to take me by multiple high schools after they got out so i'm used to noise and smell on buses #it's worse now #there's also a small amount of disability seating and it has to be shared with strollers #and people will glare at you if you're in a chair or have a stroller because the bus gets packed #because 3-5 people could be in the same area #oh and to make times and compensate for the lack of service you *will* be crammed into a bus to the point you can barely move #the exit doors are often blocked and people miss their stop because the doors aren't manual and it takes forever to make it to them #and the driver can't see that someone wants off because there's too many people in the way #the public transit in my city used to be considered one of the best ones in my province #possibly *the* best depending on who you talked to #now... you have to add an extra hour or more on top of what it was already because of all the delays/no shows/packed buses #and be prepared to wait in shitty weather for upwards of an hour thanks to having to transfer #no benches for you because what if a homeless person were to use one to sleep on #also probably no shelter because what if a homeless person had protection from the wind or rain #not sure if it was just my city or all of bc transit but they fought hard against having to include auditory stop announcements via compute #and even gps isn't reliable and will show ghost buses (if you even have a smart phone and the app and data to use it)#i don't expect public transit to be pleasant or fun but it should at least be reliable #it's not reliable and is a bad experience now #that you pay for

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