Saturday, July 15, 2006
There We Go Again: 3 Empty Buses
Why is it that many times when you wait for the bus, on the occasions when they don't seem to be on time (whatever "on time" is...there are no time tables), one of sudden you see 2-3 buses across the street going in the other direction, each of which are are almost totally empty....
It goes like this: At the stop on one side of a blvd stand say, up to two dozen people waiting for a bus that never seems to arrive. And when a bus finally does arrive, it is for the opposite direction and looks almost empty. Not only that, but sometimes 2-3 buses arrive simultaneously, going in the wrong direction (since they look empty), whereas on the side where the crowd is actually waiting, the bus doesn't come until way later. Sometimes there are 2-3 buses going in the opposite direction, often looking surprisingly empty, for each bus that stops where the actual crowds are waiting. That ratio seems out of whack.
Often it happens during evenings. For instance, after 7pm, a time of the day when very few people are heading toward the beach, but all the more people are heading away from the beach, from jobs on the Westside, and from from shopping areas along these routes, there seem to many more buses going toward the beach.
Most transit riders live away from the Westside of the city, consequently buses ought to be heading overwhelmingly in directions that reflected it.
Otherwise, what a waste of resources and people's times this is. And no, it isn't a myth, somtimes there really are 2-3 empty buses going in the opposite direction from where the bulk of the people are waiting for them, and comes across as a slap in the face, or a provocation at a moment when many people have already lost much of their patience from waiting.
Moral of the story: How about placing buses in directions where the most people need them?
It goes like this: At the stop on one side of a blvd stand say, up to two dozen people waiting for a bus that never seems to arrive. And when a bus finally does arrive, it is for the opposite direction and looks almost empty. Not only that, but sometimes 2-3 buses arrive simultaneously, going in the wrong direction (since they look empty), whereas on the side where the crowd is actually waiting, the bus doesn't come until way later. Sometimes there are 2-3 buses going in the opposite direction, often looking surprisingly empty, for each bus that stops where the actual crowds are waiting. That ratio seems out of whack.
Often it happens during evenings. For instance, after 7pm, a time of the day when very few people are heading toward the beach, but all the more people are heading away from the beach, from jobs on the Westside, and from from shopping areas along these routes, there seem to many more buses going toward the beach.
Most transit riders live away from the Westside of the city, consequently buses ought to be heading overwhelmingly in directions that reflected it.
Otherwise, what a waste of resources and people's times this is. And no, it isn't a myth, somtimes there really are 2-3 empty buses going in the opposite direction from where the bulk of the people are waiting for them, and comes across as a slap in the face, or a provocation at a moment when many people have already lost much of their patience from waiting.
Moral of the story: How about placing buses in directions where the most people need them?
