I liked the article "How I Saved $8,000 in 10 Months" about the advantages of traveling by bus. I agreed with the idea that riding a bus (or a train) instead of driving can help you avoid stress, as well as save money. In addition, mass transit has advantages for society as a whole that the author didn't even mention, like reducing traffic and greenhouse gas emissions.

There was one thing about the article I found weird, though. The author made a big deal about the importance of getting over the "embarrassment" associated with riding the bus. She described "being totally embarrassed that someone would see me" on her first bus commute and reassured readers that riding the bus can be a great money-saver once they "get over the stigma" associated with it. Embarrassment? Stigma? What on earth is she talking about? Why would anyone be embarrassed to ride a bus? It's not illegal, immoral, or fattening; as far as I know, it isn't something that society frowns on in any way. In fact, many cities are eager to encourage bus ridership as a way to reduce traffic. So where does the "stigma" come in? Can anyone explain this?

When I lived in town and worked I took the bus everyday to work.  I loved it.  I worked for a state university and parking was expensive and still a long walk to the building I worked in.  The bus is where I met many of my neighbors and we spent the ride to work chatting and it was always very enjoyable.  The bus went by a grocery store and the library and I could get off and run errands and then get back on and head for home.  I worked in an office with about 40 other people and just two of us rode the bus.  The rest of them did feel that stigma or felt like it was too inconvenient to be on some elses schedule which wasn't true because during busy times the bus came every 15 minutes and it was 30 minutes at other times.  Of course there were a few people who lived outside the bus route and had no option.  I look back at my many hours on the bus as a good time.  I met so many nice people and we really did have fun gabbing.  We even had a guy on the bus who would always fall asleep on the way home and the bus drivers knew where he got off and always woke him up.

The reason I started riding the bus was when my oldest got her license she did feel an extreme stigma if she had to ride the school bus.  I was informed that Juniors in high school just didn't take the bus.  Since it was so important to her and I didn't mind taking the bus I let her have the car.  We never had an extra car for the kids and the only reason that worked was my taking the bus to work.  It worked out well for our family.

haverwench:

Embarrassment? Stigma? What on earth is she talking about?

I can't be sure but it may have to do with cars being status symbols and people without them being seen as unable to afford one?

 

I've never understood that either I've never had a lience (a couple driving permits but that's it) and have had to rely on either mass transit, dh or friends/family for rides. When I do take on campus classes I have to catch a bus a couple blocks from the house to downtown then transfer to a bus that takes me to campus (I try to schedule classes so I can get a ride home with dh at the end of his shift). 

In 2005 as I was riding the bus to class I over heeard someone on their cell calling their office to check in (not trying to ease drop but sometimes it's hard not to over hear a conversation) he was telling the person at the other end that he was taking the bus in cause his car was in the shop then commented "A $2 round trip fare is cheaper than a gallon of gas!" It sounded like he might become a regular rider but then he never rode the bus again.

The problems I have with the bus system around here is:

There are no buses before 5 am and none after midnight in the city (after 6 pm in the burbs) so dh has to drive to his graveyard shift job

From 5 am till 9 am they run every 1/2 hour after 9 am till 3 pm they run once an hour to my burbs and many of the burbs around me

The further out you go the less often the routes are where df lives the buses run from 5a-9a then from 3p-6p for the entire day

And the bus service has only small routes but you can transferr to go further if I want to go to dd#2's school 3 miles away in the next town I have to take a bus downtown then transfer to the bus that goes past her school. Not only am I (on the bus) forced to double back at least twice but the buses to the next town run on the same once an hour schedule as the bus I take down town so it takes 4 hours to make what is normally a 15 minuet drive.

Well!  Here in San Francisco, CA, & in many other large citiies, it is not embarrassing to ride the bus,but it can be dangerous.  Once I was sitting in the handicapped seats with my walker, & a mother & daughter came on the bus.  The mother said, "Hit her!"  The daughter didn't, so the mother smacked me in teh face with her (large) pocketbook.  I  did not dare to complain, lest they retaliate. Also, MANY people get their wallets/purses/backpacks opened & teh credit cards, cash, keys, etc stolen.  Also, gang gunshooting occurs on buses that go through the bad neighborhoods.  The bus drivers take the brunt of the gangs' ire, when they won't let the gaang members ride for free.  There are supposed to be plain-clothes police on 10% (I think) of the buses, but these things still happen.

I got on taxi scrip instead of takign the bus, because as time went on, I got more & more unable to balance onthe bus, but I'm also glad that I'm freed of the danger.

Yours in Him, Deb

Deborahmichelle:

Once I was sitting in the handicapped seats with my walker, & a mother & daughter came on the bus.  The mother said, "Hit her!"  The daughter didn't, so the mother smacked me in teh face with her (large) pocketbook

I am just shocked but I guess after reading and seeing so many news reports on violence in our country, I should not be. I am so sorry you have had to deal with this.

 

Brandy:

Deborahmichelle:

Once I was sitting in the handicapped seats with my walker, & a mother & daughter came on the bus.  The mother said, "Hit her!"  The daughter didn't, so the mother smacked me in teh face with her (large) pocketbook

I am just shocked but I guess after reading and seeing so many news reports on violence in our country, I should not be. I am so sorry you have had to deal with this.

Reading this makes me so happy I live in Iowa.  It isn't perfect but I never once felt unsafe on the bus system in Iowa City.  Like I said there was a guy who slept on the bus everynight on the way home.  The kids who rode the bus to the Junior High in the morning could be obnoxious but the bus driver would yell at them and they'd settle down.  I never saw any of them being physically abusive to each other but I know that does happen on school buses.

Los Angeles County has many of the same problems that Deb mentions for San Francisco. Here for the longest time it was the ones who couldn't afford cars that rode the buses, and that included some very scary, threatening, gang type people. Shootings, stabbings, theft and intimidation were a common occurence.

  The transit system has greatly improved over what it was, with train lines that were added about 15 years ago (remember Sept.'s train wreck?) and go to different parts of the region.  However the bus system has always had the stigma that if you didn't have to ride it, you didn't as it wasn't safe to ride, took too long to get to where you wanted to go, and didn't come along frequently enough to be useful. Sitting and waiting for the bus leaves you vulnerable. One man a few years ago that was waiting for a bus got blasted by paint ball guns by youths riding by. He was severely injured.

 In the more crowded areas the buses run more frequently then the outlying areas and run in a type of grid. In the outlying areas they run in a big circle and don't always run near where you want to go. 

 One of the most popular buses runs on a dedicated former railroad bed and it is always overflowing with riders, but most of them are commuters going from the Valley to Downtown, where parking is extremely expensive.   Edey

Deb, that is absolutely horrible!  I am so glad you are on the taxi service now.

I think it depends on the area you live in.  In larger cities and in places like the East Coast/New York, pubic transportation is the norm for so many people that no one thinks twice about it.

Here though, it is not the norm at all.  Like Edey writes, in my area, it is unreliable, not very safe, and a difficult system to use.  Therefore, the only people that use it are those that have to.  I definitely feel a stigma associated with it.  Where I live, there are few bus lines as very few people use it in this area.  If I were to decide to rely completely on the bus, my friends and family would be shocked and amazed to be honest.  In the downtown areas, there are a lot more lines and buses-those are the areas where people are more reliant on the system.  In fact, not long ago, DH & I decided to look at if he could ride the bus to work because it could save money & be good for the environment.  Well, we discovered for the less than 20 minute drive he makes, it would take him about 6 transfers, he may miss one bus entirely because if it came a little early the bus he was on wouldn't be there yet, and it would take him over 2 hours to get to work having travelled all over town and walking about 2 miles.  That is just for the trip TO work, so 4 hours a day minimum for transport to and from work.  Just not worth it.  So even though it saves money not having a car or paying for gas, it isn't a good option unless you have too, never mind the gang violence we have here and such.  That's why I don't know anyone that relies on the bus for transportation and I believe there is a definite stigma to it here.

But it does depend where you are.  Many areas, even small towns and cities, have fantastic public transportation.  I wish this was one of them!  If it was better, we would definitely use it.

I can understand not wanting to use to ride the bus because it's unsafe, dirty, inconvenient, unreliable, etc. There are many reasons why driving might be preferable. But what I don't understand is why, if the buses are in fact safe, clean, convenient, and cheaper than driving (all of which were apparently true for the author of this article), you would still feel embarrassed to be seen riding them.