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You had to get out of New York more, or at least big cities. Don't need to go far, a number of the bus routes of my region are shut down on Sundays (I can't go to the next town to the south of me on Sundays by bus). I've found some small cities that have no weekend service at all.
LOL.
I mean, I know in Suffolk County they have no Sunday service outside of the summer (and I know the S1 down Route 110 definitely has the ridership to justify it), but to me it's just strange to me how a place could call itself a city (and a state capital to boot) and not have Sunday service. But that's just how I was raised: Taking Sunday service for granted.
I mean, I know in Suffolk County they have no Sunday service outside of the summer (and I know the S1 down Route 110 definitely has the ridership to justify it), but to me it's just strange to me how a place could call itself a city (and a state capital to boot) and not have Sunday service. But that's just how I was raised: Taking Sunday service for granted.
I'm surprised the S1 doesn't (I used to live a few minutes walk from 110 until I was 8 years old). I'm curious who rides the S1; I never knew anyone who used it but it's one of the more practical suburban bus routes.
I know people in New York (transplants) who've never used the bus system.
The capital of Oregon (Salem) has no weekend bus service. Portland, of course, has decent bus service every day of the week.
Mostly where there are buses only. Rail attracts mainstream commuters. This is one reason why those who don't want mass transit to grow fight so hard against rail.
Here in Toledo, a city of 300k and metro of over 600k....our bus transit system, TARTA, gets weak funding but our city is so sprawled out, that its hard to do things efficiently. We also have the stigma of buses being only for those who wish they had a car but don't. We even have the University of Toledo but it doesnt have much of an effect on the transit system. The inner neighborhoods are where the ridership is at, but those are mostly just the poorer neighborhoods. There are a few individuals here and there in this area that actually choose to ride the bus, but unfortunately they're too far and few between.
Portland, OR Max rail doesn't have a socioeconomic stigma.
I think if you look at it more complexly, though, there are certain routes in most cities that have reputations as "poor" routes while there are others that are mostly middle class. For example express buses that run 3x in the morning and evening from the suburbs into downtown areas. Those buses always seem to be the most modern and well-kept whereas the core bus lines always seem to be running the 2nd-generation buses that have much more wear and tear.
I'm surprised the S1 doesn't (I used to live a few minutes walk from 110 until I was 8 years old). I'm curious who rides the S1; I never knew anyone who used it but it's one of the more practical suburban bus routes.
I know people in New York (transplants) who've never used the bus system.
The capital of Oregon (Salem) has no weekend bus service. Portland, of course, has decent bus service every day of the week.
The funny thing is they're thinking of building a streetcar even though the bus routes apparently don't have enough ridership for 7-day service: Salem Area Mass Transit District - (http://www.cherriots.org/Misc.%20Info%20pages/Streetcar_Study.htm - broken link)
I glanced at a few of their schedules, and the service doesn't look too bad during the weekdays. A lot of routes have 30 minute headways (the #1 even runs every 15 minutes during rush hours), though the span could be longer for most of them.
As for the S1, I think it serves SUNY Farmingdale, so you probably have some college students, and it also passes through North Amityville and Huntington Station, so it probably gets some riders from there (obviously, I know they're not as poor as the people on the LI forum make them out to be, but you see what I'm saying).
As for Amityville and Huntington, I'm sure there were a few people here and there who used it. Remember that you don't need a high percentage of the population using buses to give them decent ridership. The whole S1 route gets about 2,000 riders per weekday (a friend on another forum actually sent a FOIL request to SCT to get that information), and the Village of Huntington has 20,000 people. If say, 300 of those riders actually live in Huntington, that's only 1.5% of the population, so it's not out of the question that you could run into people who have never rode the bus.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pete6032
Portland, OR Max rail doesn't have a socioeconomic stigma.
I think if you look at it more complexly, though, there are certain routes in most cities that have reputations as "poor" routes while there are others that are mostly middle class. For example express buses that run 3x in the morning and evening from the suburbs into downtown areas. Those buses always seem to be the most modern and well-kept whereas the core bus lines always seem to be running the 2nd-generation buses that have much more wear and tear.
Well, you have to consider that the riders on express routes generally pay a higher fare, so you could have people saying "Why am I paying $3 when the local riders pay $1.50" or something like that, so they give them the newer buses to justify a higher fare.
I think it also depends on when and how you use it. In the Bay Area, a lot of people take transit to work. Especially if they work in Downtown SF. But people taking transit by choice to do errands, go to the grocery store, etc .... that is looked down upon. Especially if you live outside of SF, Oakland or Berkeley.
In much of the Bay Area, the only time there are a variety of people on transit is during commute times. Outside of that the crowd changes.
Portland, OR Max rail doesn't have a socioeconomic stigma.
I think if you look at it more complexly, though, there are certain routes in most cities that have reputations as "poor" routes while there are others that are mostly middle class. For example express buses that run 3x in the morning and evening from the suburbs into downtown areas. Those buses always seem to be the most modern and well-kept whereas the core bus lines always seem to be running the 2nd-generation buses that have much more wear and tear.
Unfortunately, the choice riders are the ones who tend to squawk more if their commute on transit isn't just right. In some ways those types of routes in some cities do get better quality service than poorer commuters ... Even though those cities could risk losing federal funding due to discrimination if someone brought it up.
I believe that public transportation is the affordable way for these people in poverty. However, I don't think it is looked down upon in most places if you do take it. It is a way of life, and it gets you from A to B. In KC, the majority who take it are struggling families/individuals, but many young, successful, urbanites take it too. In the end, it is transportation, and should not be frowned upon.
In Albuquerque the busses can be pretty hard to navigate. The city's roadways are pretty much set up in a grid, but rather than going in straight lines, the busses are set up based on commuter patterns. The city's website has a 'plan your trip' page where you input your origin/destination/time and it gives you different route combo's and options, but sometimes, especially if you have to make a transfer, the trip can take over 2 hours (and nowhere in the city is over a 30 minute drive).
Combine that with limited hours and infrequent pick-ups and most people who use the busses are those who absolutely need to, and some of those people scare off other potential users. The university students get free buss passes but only some take advantage of it. I got around car-free for a while here but there's no way I could've done it without having a bike to supplement the bus. I hate to talk bad about the busses here since they have drastically improved in the last 10 years, but still there's major bus stigma here.
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