Why The Bus?
No bus? Too bad, perhaps someday soon.
How does riding the bus compare to riding your own steed?
Now there are all kinds of regular transportation: cars, trucks, busses, motorcycles, scooters, planes, helicopters, trains, trolleys, even snowboards (in season, of course!)
I don't have a helicopter. Lots of folks are lucky to have a bicycle (not mentioned above.) So I have chosen to compare using public transportation, namely busses, to driving a car back and forth to work, school, and other semi-convenient locations.
Here's how it looks to me:
Automobile Owners' Expenses:
Purchase Price
Interest Payments
Property Taxes
Licenses
Registration
Inspections & emissions tests
Insurance
Maintenance
Major and minor repairs
Parking fees
Tires
Fuel
Oil & Lubrication
Insurance
Wash/Wax
Road Service
Depreciation
Bus Riders' Expenses:
Paying the fares
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Now I could stop at this point, add that busses, compared to the number of cars that would be required to carry an average busload, are environmentally friendly, air conditioned or heated (once you catch it) and allow you to meet a wide variety of people you might never meet otherwise. What's more, you don't have to keep your eyes on the road, and you may catch a few winks (of both kinds.) But I should add that some busses have discounted passes, most have subsidized fee schedules your taxes have already helped pay for, and seniors and handicapped riders often get special considerations.
As a senior passenger, my bus fare is $1.15 for unlimited rides during any two-hour period, or $39.25 for a whole month. The regular adult rate is $2.35 for a two-hour period, or $5.75 for an all-day, unlimited bus pass, and monthly passes are also available. Some 51,000 local university students have passes provided for unlimited bus rides through an arrangement between the local transit authority and the two local universities.
Schedules are readily available. Toll free information numbers put scheduling assistance at the riders' convenience.
But, life without a car? You may still have one you use for "car needed occasions," but for the two years I have spent riding the busses, I have saved enough that when a bus and a bicycle do not meet the needs, I can rent a late model, clean, serviced car to meet those needs and still have money I have saved!
If you can do so, try it. You will be pleasantly surprised. After all, if the bus doesn't take you right to the front door of the place you are going, a few steps of "shank's mare" will entitle you to tell your spouse that "Yes, honey, I did exercise today!"
And how much was that you say you are paying for a single gallon of gas these days?
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© 2012 Demas W. Jasper All rights reserved.
There are only two sides to this question, namely "Are you going South?
Or North? (East, West, and in between are served, too!)
There are no seatbelts on public transportation busses, but why aren't there seatbelts on school busses?
- School Buses: What Might We Do To Make Children Safer?
School busses are used to carry many of our nation's children back and forth to schools across the country. School bus drivers get training with safety in mind. They have seatbelts. Cars and planes have seat belts. Our children's busses lack them.
