Buses are Actually Pretty Great

buses buses buses buses are the underappreciated and underloved Transit workhorses the world over from London to Singapore and Mexico City over my many years of Transit YouTube video making and Transit advocacy I've almost shed a tear too many times when a passionate trans Enthusiast talks about how they don't really like buses the reality is that I think people's dislike of buses is tied up with a lot of things from bad past experience is to a misunderstanding of transit systems their capabilities and their limitations even for me my high school and University years didn't necessarily leave me loving buses because in high school riding the bus was mostly about waiting for 30 minutes at a random street corner for a bus that would hopefully show up and rattle me off to high school whereas in University getting on a bus usually meant being on a vehicle that was supposed to be a train but wasn't indeed few things will strike fear into a Transit Rider's heart like the words rail replacement bus but buses have some real superpowers and can do some things that rail Transit just can't the truth is I haven't given buses enough love on this channel and it's high time that changed my most you video isn't actually about trains but about buses so why are buses so great why are so many critiques of them off Bas and why do I think that if you want to truly know if a transit system is good you should look at the buses let's talk about it [Music] if you're new here I'm reys and this is RM Transit a Channel about how public transportation systems work around the world the most obvious great thing about buses is their flexibility and while so often flexibility is a bit of a double-edged sword for public transit systems for buses it's undoubtedly a huge asset when a new development appears getting more buses running should be rather trivial and when a vehicle breaks down or a street is inaccessible buses can easily be rerouted they're incredibly Nimble the flexibility of buses doesn't just mean they can be slapped down willy-nilly though it means they can get better faster more easily with just a few Road adjustments like say a q jump Lane a little bit of bus laye here and a nicer stop the bus experience can be massively upgraded for little money combine lots of these little interventions and you can get a fantastic Transit experience that is fast frequent and reliable all without laying rail building stations or going through a multi-year environmental assessment process that you probably shouldn't have to do for electric Transit which is clearly better for the environment than the alternative which is probably driving I digress of course bus's flexibility isn't just limited to the small and Scrappy buses can operate on almost any type of right of we from tunnels to elevated guideways and typically different bus types are all intercompatibility take that trains this offers you the ability to tailor your vehicle to the transit service you're providing which is a really cool idea buses come in so many shapes and sizes from single length city buses that can operate on local routes to coaches and double Tech buses which can have more comfortable seats Wi-Fi on board and charging for devices which really feel at home on Express and longer distance routes and then of course you have long boys and bendy boys which are really well suited for high demand on and off routes where a lot of passengers are cycling onto an off of the vehicle in fact the longest by articulated buses these days feel quite similar to a tram both in terms of length and the number of doors they have in fact you can even get buses these days that have doors on both sides so they can serve both Island and side platforms while trains are maybe just starting to get into the realm of electrification without wires everywhere for buses it's pretty common place already electric buses including ones that can go on and off wire already exist around the world in tons of different cities and they're expanding rapidly at this point completely electrifying a bus based transit system is entirely doable and buses can do things for surface that you just can't see with rail bus service can truly take you to your front door even if your front door isn't at the bottom of this you can also easily have 24-hour bus service without needing an entire RM Transit video that talks about the technical ins and outs of actually implementing it you know that awesome feeling when you get on a subway train in New York at 3:00 a.m. and it's just a regular old subway train at a regular old subway station if you have a great bus Network you can just get on a regular old great bus from a regular old great bus stop and go on your way 3:00 a.m. 4:00 a.m. or whenever you want probably the biggest and most underappreciated thing about buses is that they can conveniently and frequently provide all kinds of different direct single seat ride Journeys now of course transferring is a significant part of a lot of good transit systems but not having to transfer to get from place to place is the cherry on top of an already great public transit experience while rail systems are usually constrained by the need for mostly linear corridors with few branches and high costs buses can provide lots of direct point-to-point service across the city providing for faster trips and more convenience without talking about trains per hour capacity and the number of branches you can practically have but wait there are probably some showstoppers here right one of the first things that comes up whenever I mention buses to people is that they're uncomfortable but in the same way that when someone tells me that Transit isn't great because they have to wait so long to get on a bus or train and I would say well you should maybe just run more buses and trains the same thing can be said for people who say buses are uncomfortable why don't you just get some more comfortable buses indeed the quality of buses ranges widely from one manufacturer to another and if the roads that your buses are driving on are crap well the ride isn't going to be all that comfortable but the answer here isn't that buses are bad it's just that you need to pave better roads ideally so smooth that you can see your own reflection in them which cyclists will appreciate as well and buy much better buses fortunately we're in a bit of a rising tide lifts saww boat situation with buses these days because as more buses become electrified even the worse ones tend to be better with all the vibration and noise of engines being replaced with the cool wor of electric motors I actually did an entire subst article about the great buses of Berlin so if you're interested in that link down below astute RM Transit viewers will say but what about the capacity of buses and their High operating costs and to that I'd say well most bus systems could stand to be a lot more efficient buses which move faster thanks to less stops and more bus lanes mean less drivers and less buses per route Which is less operating cost better yet electrified buses should last longer and require less maintenance and less costly maintenance for capacity well it's amazing how many cities still don't widely use double decker or articulated buses much less double decker articulated buses which aren't a thing or are they probably the argument I've historically appreciated the most about going all in on higher order bus transit is that it just lacks the permanence of rail-based solutions the argument is basically that politicians aren't going to rip out rails to build a new car Lane which they might very well do for a bus lane but the truth is that Rail lines have been shut down including shockingly recently at the same time based on the design of your brt it might be very difficult to convert it into a regular driving lane probably more importantly though if your local politicians are in 2023 trying to cannibalize bus infrastructure to build more space for cars you probably have bigger fish to fry I seriously doubt that the same politician who wants to rip out a dedicated Transit R of away for more car Lanes is going to provide the much more important highquality Transit service that we need at the end of the day wanting rail because it's going to be harder for politicians to rip out of the ground is wanting the wrong things for the wrong reasons now I can't imagine the comment writing itself what if all of our cities were like say Hong Kong where everyone lives in beautiful Transit oriented developments over Rail stations there's not really a need for buses in that kind of Utopian city right well the reality is that even in Hong Kong the rail does not go every and so buses are actually a huge part of that transit system and these schools of double-decker buses moving around Hong Kong are actually one of the greatest things about the transit Network there ultimately in some ways I think the best transit system for a small city or town especially in North America where there's less of a national rail infrastructure to hook into is just a really good bus system and I think that's symbolic of a city that truly cares about good transit for the passengers in a lot of ways running a good bus service is more complicated than running a good good rail service you could have great electrified buses providing Fast Direct frequent and reliable service between major trip generators along people oriented streets with tons of spaces for buses as well as people walking and cycling stops could be large and keep people warm dry and comfortable as well as providing lots of information on the transit service being provided major routs could even have dedicated sections of Transit weight that provide the capacity and speed of a true rapid transit system and better yet if the city was growing while the bus system could easily keep pace and grow with it and service on major corridors could even run 24 hours a day providing a consistent Transit experience around the clock and the type of highquality night Transit that you usually only see in major centers if you run comfortable buses with smooth suspension and soft seats people might even be able to take a little bit of a Night Bus nap now of course even a fancy bus-based system is probably not going to get a ton of ooze and Oz from Travelers or traveling YouTube Transit channels but the reality is I'm not really a Transit fan or at least I'm not mostly a Transit fan I'm a Mobility fan and a city fan and a great bus system could provide a great City and a great bus system could provide not only a great City but great Mobility for its residents helping to get them where they need to go quickly comfortably reliably and affordably and that's what really matters thanks for watching [Music]

Channel: RMTransit

Views: 71,091

Keywords: transit, transportation, rail, railway, railfan, public transit, public transport, public transportation, train, subway, metro, underground, rail transport, urban planning

Id: RgMENVKYZDg

Length: 10min 49sec (649 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 07 2023