Why I don't take the bus.

[vakkotaur]

Every once in a while I hear someone wishing more people would use public transit rather than private cars. The folks way this overlook that in most places the private vehicle makes more sense.

There are a few places where public transit can work. Such places have a high population density and busses or trains have schedules with frequent boardings and disembarkings at many locations, and with that, frequent stops. In those rare cases, public transit can work and make sense.

In other places, public transit is an expensive subsidized service that is only used by those who have no other real choice or who are willing to expend their time waiting and deal with a limited service area and limited service times.

Suppose, for some reason, that I did not have my own vehicle. The only thing resembling public transit in Fairmont is Martin County Express. That might get me to work and back, but I couldn't even count on being able to visit a grocery store except on Saturdays and forget about going anywhere in the evening. Also, it's limited to the county which doesn't mean much when I'm already in the largest town in Martin county. What if I wanted to go to Mankato or Sioux Falls or even Blue Earth? Forget it. Public transit doesn't handle it. Nor do the long distance carrier services one might immediately consider. Neither Amtrak nor Greyhound is an option.

Even keeping within the county, just for work I'd have up to an hour each workday I could no longer call my own. Martin County Express would want me ready and waiting 15 minutes before their scheduled pick up time and hang around for 15 minutes after that time if they didn't make it. There goes up to half an hour, and that's for each trip, so it's up to an hour each day. That doesn't account for travel time and scheduling from picking up and dropping off others. There is no set route or schedule beyond the hours of operation, so I'd have to guess at things at first and plan to arrive early and leave late so I could gauge how things would work.

This would also, at the best rate, cost me $3.50 each day. That's equivalent to the price of two gallons of gasoline to travel, effectively, less than 10 miles, round trip.

With my own private vehicle my time is my own. I don't have to wait for anyone else or bend my schedule to theirs, at least not beyond hours of business which constrains everyone about equally. I can do things after 6 PM weekdays, or after 2 PM Saturdays, or earlier than 5 AM if I wish. I can travel on Sundays. I'm not limited to Martin county but to how far I care to go myself.

Public transportation isn't necessarily a bad thing and it does have its place. But those who argue it should be used more have yet to make it at least as convenient and attractive, let alone more so, as private transportation in most places.

Comments

[shelbystripes.livejournal.com]

Well, it's really a matter of how big the city is. Especially for a city as big as Dallas, having a large public-transportation infrastructure makes sense. Smaller cities, it's less likely to be worth it, since there's less money to offer public transporation to everywhere, and limited public-transporation efforts have diminishing usefulness returns, especially if poorly planned.

It's easy for public transportation to be done badly. But this doesn't mean it shouldn't be done; just that when it is done, rather than complaining that it shouldn't be done, it should more effectively be protested that it should be done better.