36 Reasons Streetcars Are Better Than Buses

[nfitz]

Again, you're proving my point. More spacious (when not overcrowded), more comfortable (when sitting), etc.

How is that proving your point? I also pointed out that when standing they are a lot more comfortable. They are more spacious when overcrowded too?

The buses are absolutely absurd. Have you tried to get out of the back seat of one of the low-floor buses and to the door when it is only moderately crowded? It's nigh impossible for anyone to move!

 

[scarberiankhatru]

How is that proving your point? I also pointed out that when standing they are a lot more comfortable. They are more spacious when overcrowded too?

The buses are absolutely absurd. Have you tried to get out of the back seat of one of the low-floor buses and to the door when it is only moderately crowded? It's nigh impossible for anyone to move!

Virtually nobody really cares what they ride...they prefer certain features like [padded] seats but these aren't exclusive to one mode.

It's not difficult because people only stand back there once in a blue moon, and they also have rather wide rear doors. Sometimes a gaggle of high school kids will stand back there (they move as herds) but running the small risk of a few added seconds while disembarking is what you get for sticking yourself in the back corner. But I've only been on such buses a thousand or so times, which may not be enough to fabricate convincing hysterical anecdotes.

 

[Hipster Duck]

Hipster, I don't think anyone here is arguing that we should spend all those millions solely to attract riders. So how about we put that strawman to rest? All I've been saying is that rail tends to attract more riders than buses. Of course the main reason to build light rail is to accomodate high demand.

Actually, the "we need rail to attract riders" argument informs a depressing amount of transportation planning and spending in North America.

 

[nfitz]

Virtually nobody really cares what they ride...

Another extremely absurd statement. Most, if not all people would prefer a comfortable air-conditioned vehicle, other a packed, sweaty, jitney. I honestly don't know how you expect people to take you seriously, when you come out with things like this.

It's not difficult because people only stand back there once in a blue moon ...

I frequently see people stood back there on the Don Mills bus. The buses are packed beyond capacity, leaving people behind at stops, with the driver still shouting at people to move back. Where else are they going to move to?

but running the small risk of a few added seconds while disembarking is what you get for sticking yourself in the back corner.

So it's the customers fault for following the instructions to move back.

The superious comfort, ride, and capacity of the streetcars aside; it's a lot more pleasant to be living near one, than a major bus route. I live near a hill with a streetcar on it; the streetcar is very quiet, but the diesel engines of replacement buses heading uphill is quite annoying.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

Another extremely absurd statement. Most, if not all people would prefer a comfortable air-conditioned vehicle, other a packed, sweaty, jitney. I honestly don't know how you expect people to take you seriously, when you come out with things like this.

Yikes, learn to read...look at the other posts and even the rest of the sentence. Do I really need to say, twice in one sentence, that people don't really care what mode they take? In a post taking about streetcars vs buses? In a thread with both streetcars and buses in the title?

 

[SimonP]

My rather conservative grandmother likes to repeat the quote that "any man who rides the bus after the age of thirty can count himself a failure in life." After some Googling I've just found that it is originally credited to Margaret Thatcher.

It is a dated and classist view, but if we do want people to convert from cars to mass transit, I don't think the bias against buses can simply be ignored.

 

[nfitz]

Yikes, learn to read...look at the other posts and even the rest of the sentence.

Learn to read yourself! The thread is titled 36 reasons that streetcars are better than buses ... and you have the audacity to suggest that no one thinks streetcars are better than buses!! It has to be one of the all-time moronic comments on this forum!

 

[scarberiankhatru]

My rather conservative grandmother likes to repeat the quote that "any man who rides the bus after the age of thirty can count himself a failure in life." After some Googling I've just found that it is originally credited to Margaret Thatcher.

It is a dated and classist view, but if we do want people to convert from cars to mass transit, I don't think the bias against buses can simply be ignored.

And what makes you think such a bias exists in Toronto...all the empty buses running around? Oh, wait...

Often, the bias is not against buses but in favour of subways and commuter rail. Big difference there.

Learn to read yourself! The thread is titled 36 reasons that streetcars are better than buses ... and you have the audacity to suggest that no one thinks streetcars are better than buses!! It has to be one of the all-time moronic comments on this forum!

What I actually said wasn't that no one thinks streetcars are better, but that, in practice, virtually nobody actually cares because they prefer transit features that are not exclusive to one mode and absent in another (like padded seats or speed or whatever else). This distinction, apparently, is beyond your comprehension.

Not that what I post matters when you take any three words out of context and claim I said something else.

 

[kettal]

Do I really need to say, twice in one sentence, that people don't really care what mode they take?

There indeed is a demographic, even here in Toronto, who won't get on a bus, but use the subway with pleasure. I'm not going to say all of them will be converted by an LRT, but at least some of them will.

 

[scarberiankhatru]

There indeed is a demographic, even here in Toronto, who won't get on a bus, but use the subway with pleasure. I'm not going to say all of them will be converted by an LRT, but at least some of them will.

A grade separated LRT or one that stops at red lights? Any discussion of transit modes that excludes basics like that is worthless.

 

[nfitz]

This distinction, apparently, is beyond your comprehension.

Most of what you write is incomprehensible! ROTFLMAO

 

[Glen]

If the goal is to attract riders, take the billions of dollars for TC and increase TTC subsidies to the point of reducing or eliminating the fares. I am sure that would be more effective.

 

[GenerationW]

There indeed is a demographic, even here in Toronto, who won't get on a bus, but use the subway with pleasure. I'm not going to say all of them will be converted by an LRT, but at least some of them will.

That's interesting because I've never met a regular transit user like that, though I have met people who refuse to use the subway and have no problem with buses. But making transit policy that accounts for either of these extreme minorities is a waste of time.

As for comfort, whenever I imagine the subway system we would have had today if Toronto had been governed by competent politicians for the last 30+ years, my comfort levels always go sky-high.

 

[kettal]

That's interesting because I've never met a regular transit user like that, though I have met people who refuse to use the subway and have no problem with buses. But making transit policy that accounts for either of these extreme minorities is a waste of time.

I agree, trying to apease everybody is impossible and a waste of time. But to say that mode doesn't matter to the end user is bullshit.

 

[kettal]

A grade separated LRT or one that stops at red lights? Any discussion of transit modes that excludes basics like that is worthless.

Ok, let me clarify.

It is one that stops at red lights. And it has a red light every 10 metres for no reason, and the light is always red when the lrt gets to it and it stays red for 5 minutes. And it is never green when the vehicle gets to it. Plus pedestrians like to sit on the tracks for no reason, blocking the lrt. And there is a multiple vehicle collision at every intersection, every day, which also blocks the lrt.

There's the basics.