How is the Sun Tran bus system in Tucson? (high school, live)

[alter_nick]

Just would like to get some insights here, though I have read a lot of negative reviews.

[azdr0710]

I don't use it a lot, but it's always worked for me...$1.25 per ride if you don't have a pass....it usually gets good ratings, I think, on a national standpoint....

[Bummer]

Originally Posted by alter_nick

Just would like to get some insights here, though I have read a lot of negative reviews.

Originally Posted by azdr0710

I don't use it a lot, but it's always worked for me...$1.25 per ride if you don't have a pass....it usually gets good ratings, I think, on a national standpoint....

From my very limited experience . . . THE PASSENGERS ARE FUN TO WATCH.

! ! ! ! ! !

[alter_nick]

^what do you mean fun to watch?

[coatimundi]

It's kind of funny that, if you ask someone who's never ridden the bus (or has done so like twice), they'll usually say how terrible the system is and how scary it is.
I rode it almost every day for two years when I worked Downtown. If you take the express bus routes, they're really nice: very comfortable, nothing but commuters, run on-time, etc. And the best part is that they cost the same as the local service (except for the Raytheon bus).
If you take the local service though, that's the "interesting" ones.
Take, for instance, the #1, which I used to ride every day when I lived on Fort Lowell (and walked down to Glenn). I think it was about once a month, there was drug court Downtown, and you'd get some really scary-looking people in there at 7am, but mostly in shirts and slacks. Then it also rolled through the meth corridor on Park Avenue, and would occasionally pick up one of them who'd been up all night. Overall though, it was absolutely fine when you rode it in in the morning and out in the evening, because the majority of people on there were commuters.
Not to be insensitive, but it was also always annoying when you picked up a disabled person in a wheelchair, simply because the lifts don't always work properly, and they clear a 3-person seat at the front for it.
Oh, and then you have to make sure you don't get a route that goes by a high school. God, those little bastards are obnoxious. The #3 is probably the worst, because it rolls by UHS/Rincon and THS.

The really big issue with any bus travel in Tucson is the heat. Almost every stop has very limited shade, so you're standing out in the sun for as long as 30 minutes waiting for the thing to come, and it'll really make you curse it.
Personally, I took it because I got a significantly discounted monthly pass through my employer. That's the main motivation. Otherwise, in Tucson, you may as well drive. The traffic is just not that bad.