Why do Houstonians not ride the Metro bus more often? (Orange: lease, crime rate)

[imadrummer2k]

I take the Park and Ride every day, then get off downtown and hop on a local bus that takes me down Allen Parkway to my office. I love it and will never go back to driving to work. The bus picks me up and drops me off right at my office door.

That being said, I’m pretty lucky that I work at a complex that Metro caters to. I can’t imagine trying to take the bus around town just trying to run errands on the weekend, etc. You would have about 4 different transfers and it would take you 2 hours to get to a destination that would take you 30 minutes in your own car.

Metro needs more efficient local routes if they ever want to change the driving-culture of the city. I don’t see it ever happening, frankly.

[debzkidz]

Originally Posted by astrohip

I drive to work every day in 12-15 minutes. I tried the bus once, back in the late 90's, just for fun. Starting from when it picked me up, it dropped me off 54 minutes later. About two blocks from work, so location-wise, it was close enough. But time-wise...

But really, 54 mins vs <15. I'll *never* take the bus.

I've spent lots of time in San Francisco. And have almost exclusively used mass transit. It's the difference between a compact city, and one built on sprawl. Not saying one is right or wrong, just the way it is.

We were there a couple of weeks ago, and tried to use mass transit. It was horrible. We could never seem to get where we wanted to go in under 1.5 hours. The buses just don't seem to run on schedule, even in such a supposedly green, compact city. We waited forever for buses that never seemed to come. We even tried asking a couple of bus drivers the easiest way to get to wherever we were going, and most of the time they couldn't really tell us an easy way. Everywhere we tried to go would require making 2 or 3 transfers, with lots of waiting between each. After a couple of days, we finally just started using cabs. We were discussing this with some relatives there, and they, along with many of their friends, said they are boycotting mass transit there because it is so unreliable.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by CitrusFruit

A lot of people tend not to ride Metro because it's fairly unreliable...and 90% of the time, it's not really due to traffic. It's drivers with a "don't give a crap" attitude. :\ There needs to be a major housecleaning of those bad drivers before Metro can even begin to get up to speed.

I believe I read somewhere that Houston's bus drivers are paid way less than other cities. I believe some cities pay their drives 25 dollars an hour while metro pays their drives 12-15 dollars an hour. If I get paid that much to drive knowing that other cities provide more money for the same job, I wouldn't give a crap either.

This thread just shows why I do not understand the fascination with buses. They are slow and fight the same traffic. Tory Gattis is so pro bus because it's cheap. Well you get what you pay for. Washington DC has one of the best ridership systems in the nation no matter if it's bus or rail. But even people in DC dislike the bus. They are building streetcars along a couple of the bus routes in DC and they cannot wait for them and I do not blame them. This is mostly due to time. They come when they want to come. They stop at certain points without telling us why they stopped there. Many of them just change drives in the middle of the routes.

I remember having a conversation with somebody from Europe a couple years ago and he couldn't understand why there is such a long gap between the timetables on our bus system. They are much more frequent in Europe. This is mostly due to culture and way of life. But it was still interesting listening to him.

[Zhang Fei]

Originally Posted by debzkidz

The buses just don't seem to run on schedule, even in such a supposedly green, compact city.

Houston is pretty spread out (3,900 people per sq mile vs NYC's 27,500 per sq mile). It certainly has fewer people per square mile than most suburbs surrounding NYC. Bus service in NYC's suburbs is nothing to write home about either. The suburbs surrounding Houston would be considered rural in the NYC metro area.

[Reivax]

Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp

There seems to be a problem with a majority of Houston residents who will not ride the bus. For those who have been to Europe, and other cities, you will know that there is not a stigma as there is here.

I've seen executives in Switzerland, people going to the Opera in Germany, and nicely dressed people going out to party in Spain. I've seen young and old; etc. I do understand that most don't have vehicles, but it is obvious they see public transportation differently.

A friend of mine's only excuse was the oil stains on the windows and seats where people rest their heads. Some, like me, have strict schedules due to having to drop kids off at school and daycare, and picking them up afterwards. What reasons do you have for not riding Metro buses?

Taking a bus to work for me would probably turn my 25 minute drive in to a 2 hour, 4-5 different bus nightmare.
Owning and operating a car here is very cheap here, at least relative to Europe.
Nothing to do with a stigma, or dirty seats, at least for me.
Now, if I lived in NYC or downtown of a large city, and I lived in an apartment or some place where parking a car was either very expensive or a total pain, I'd probably be glad to use a subway, bus or just walk.
But here in Houston, forget it.

[texas7]

Originally Posted by HookTheBrotherUp

There seems to be a problem with a majority of Houston residents who will not ride the bus. For those who have been to Europe, and other cities, you will know that there is not a stigma as there is here.

I've seen executives in Switzerland, people going to the Opera in Germany, and nicely dressed people going out to party in Spain. I've seen young and old; etc. I do understand that most don't have vehicles, but it is obvious they see public transportation differently.

A friend of mine's only excuse was the oil stains on the windows and seats where people rest their heads. Some, like me, have strict schedules due to having to drop kids off at school and daycare, and picking them up afterwards. What reasons do you have for not riding Metro buses?

I just don't care for buses - would rather have my vehicle. Not to mention - the crappy, unskilled drivers.

[Spade]

Originally Posted by Zhang Fei

Houston is pretty spread out (3,900 people per sq mile vs NYC's 27,500 per sq mile). It certainly has fewer people per square mile than most suburbs surrounding NYC. Bus service in NYC's suburbs is nothing to write home about either. The suburbs surrounding Houston would be considered rural in the NYC metro area.

That's a given in any metro area though. I know in DC, if you're out past 11:00 in most locations and you aren't home yet and you rely on the bus, you better call a cab. If it's a Sunday, you can forget it. This also shows how suburban in nature Houston really is.

[worldlyman]

I take METRO for what it is. Compared to other cities reliant on buses, METRO is subpar. But for a service that serves a city some hundreds of square miles, METRO is not that bad.

Yes, the lack of punctuality does irk me at times...but it's usually on time about 92% of the time for me. I live in the Westchase area and can choose either the Richmond 25 route or the Westheimer 82. I wish Sunday's 25 route from Wheeler Station would go all the way down Richmond westbound.

I do own my own vehicle but I do ride the bus about 2x a week out of personal dignity (not letting the rich oil companies dictate how I get around...though METRO buses do use fuel, just saying). I am the proud owner of a Q-Card.

So I don't care about stigma. When I leave my car parked and get on a METRO bus, I don't have a care about road rage and that's just one more day I don't worry to about personal accidents, selfish idiot drivers and such. And that's one less day of wear and tear. I like the fact that I can use METRO as an alternative.

[kmalone4]

I love the bus! I take it from Spring to downtown before taking the train to TMC.

[Alphalogica]

It's problem in Houston, but as gas prices inch higher (inevitable once we drag out of this economic malaise), rest assured you will see a substantial increase in mass transit ridership.