[eyeresist]

Seems to be a common pattern - transport is great if you're near the centre of the city, but deteriorates the further out you go.

Lots of State Transit bus routes near my place. I can get to city centre in 20 min. They've introduced a few circle routes lately as well (i.e. AROUND the city rather than TO it).

Further out the buses are private, more expensive, less frequent.

There are always news stories about late trains but I never had any trouble (when I commuted a few years ago now). It depends what line you live on.

Sydney CBD also has a monorail that is basically a fun-ride for tourists. Colossal waste of money. Remember the "Monorail" episode of the Simpsons? Our state government pulled strings to have that episode cancelled around the time the monorail was being built!

There is also "light rail", a tram route that basically serves the same function as the monorail, i.e. none, except that it also goes to a nearby suburb where rich people live.

The latest trendy government idea is to ban buses from the city and replace them with light-rail, because "buses are so 20th century!" Never mind the billions this would cost to build, and replacing the flexibility of buses with the fixed routes of trams, which would also eliminate several lanes from the already congested streets. Bureaucrats LOVE wasting other people's money.



BTW, A lot of complaints about public transport seem to stem from impatience. It's unreasonable to expect the bus/train to show up instantly you get to the station. You've got to be Zen about these things!

 

[EyeAmEye]

NYC's subway system is fairly good, you get where you need to go in a decent time, normally. The bus, however, is absolutely terrible. Never on schedule and overcrowded. Most of them have no idea how to drive either, and create gridlock. Awful.

 

[augustwest]

Los Angeles public transportation pretty much sucks. I think that is also true of most of the western United States, with maybe the exception of San Francisco. It seems most of the Federal dollars for transportation get spent back on the East Coast.

As far as LA is concerned, Public Transit rarely goes were you need to go, it's expensive, not timed well to make connections and doesn't run very late into the evening. So if you use it to go to a concert, or sporting event, you could get stranded, as a friend of mine did. Ended up having to get a hotel room for $150.

- augustwest

 

[scompton]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Davesrose /img/forum/go_quote.gif Best subway system in the U.S., I think, is in Washington DC. Even when there's construction on the tracks/ they seem to try to get the trains still moving....something tells me it has to do with all the politicians needing a working subway system!

DC's Metro is great. I take it to work every day and use it for errands. The bus system is not quite as good as the subway, but still pretty good. I don't think the politicians have much to do with it though. I doubt many of them use mass transit. The biggest problem with DC's Metro is getting to the edge cities like Tyson's Corner, which is one of the largest collections of office/retail space in the country. The subway doesn't go there, traffic is a nightmare, and walking is hazardous.

Quote:

Originally Posted by eyeresist /img/forum/go_quote.gif Seems to be a common pattern - transport is great if you're near the centre of the city, but deteriorates the further out you go.

Suburbs were designed for cars, not mass transit. My wife and I purposely bought a house relatively close in (we're 8 miles from the White House). We have a 3/4 mile walk to the closest subway stop and buses run every 20 minutes 2 blocks away.

 

[YamiTenshi]

To use the bus system I have to make a ten minute walk to the bus stop then get on two buses that take about an hour (an extra 15 minutes if the first bus is late and the connecting bus never waits!) So my entire travel time by public transportation is ~1 1/4 hours.

If I drive my own car is takes 15-20 minutes. 25 minutes if traffic is really bad.

Bus ticket for the month is $30. Gas for the car is ~$40.

Buses only run to 10 p.m. I've had classes until 11:30 p.m.

Public transportation sucks.

 

[darkangel9685]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ice Max /img/forum/go_quote.gif The LIRR is good as long as your going east or west Never took a bus here on LI though

x2

NYC subways are okay...the maps are dead easy to understand, its getting on the correct platform you gotta worry about

"****, i meant to do uptown!!!!

" <- its happened before!