So, a very talented friend of mine is having an exhibition of her art at a small town close to where I live. Its a 30 minute drive, but 2 hours on public transport, with 2 buses, one train, and a long walk under the summer sun on the way. Whatever, I'll sleep/read on the way, right?

so I show up at the bus station 10 minutes before the bus takes off, the bus arrives, and the driver gets off and turns off the bus. I think he's just going to the bathroom, to take a break, smoke a cigarette, whatever. Nope. He never returns.

I've now been standing at the bus station for an hour after the scheduled departure time, staring at the switched off bus, and fuming about how I have just lost 20 bucks because I missed all the other buses and trai (i had to buy the tickets beforehand), how now I can't get to the exhibition without being late for work, how I will have let down my friend by not showing up and supporting her, and how this wouldn't have happened if I just had a fucking car and wasn't a depressed mess who can't find energy to do anything until the very last moment, letting down everyone around me.

I don't normally get angry, but this whole thing has made me very upset.

  • Runcible [none/use name]
    ·
    5 months ago

    Busses are bad because "bus infrastructure" magically becomes car infrastructure just by not funding public transit and terrible traffic laws.

    If bus lanes aren't exclusive you lose most of the incentives to get people to ride them.

    • ClimateChangeAnxiety [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      5 months ago

      And how you make the bus lanes exclusive matters. If it’s just paint people will drive in them anyway. And if it’s curb separated you might as well use rails. Then you get rid of the tire pollution too.

      The only “benefit” to busses is actually a huge downside, the fact that they use the same infrastructure as cars.

      • Runcible [none/use name]
        ·
        5 months ago

        I assume you'd just have a cop on each bus and give them some sort of scalp quota

    • Grandpa_garbagio [he/him]
      ·
      5 months ago

      even if they're exclusive no one follows that rule lol. exclusive lanes just become parking or passing lanes dependent on the road it's on, same for bike lane unfortunately.

      at least in large cities in the US, maybe smaller ones have better enforcement