• @Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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    3610 months ago

    Lets assume we disqualify the cars going left ro right, and if we also assume each car only has 1 person per car, that means the cars is 32.

    A bus that size is usually built to fit around 50ish people using every seat, but none standing.

    I ride my local bus everyday. It’s NEVER full like that. I might have 6 people on the bus. Sometimes I’m the only rider.

    So, yeah, a bus CAN hold roughly as many prople as cars, (again assuming only 1 person per car, which probably isn’t the case 100%), the reality is that’s not functionally true.

    • @Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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      1610 months ago

      The bus I ride every morning is always so full you struggle to get past the standing people to get to the door. The bus home is usually a little less busy, but I’m currently writing this comment while having to stand on that bus.

      • @lunarul@lemmy.world
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        410 months ago

        I absolutely avoided riding the bus in my native city. If a place wasn’t within a mile from a subway station then it might as well be in a different country because I’m not taking the bus there. The buses were always crowded and hot. Subway got crowded during rush hour, but at least there was good AC no matter where you stand.

        • @Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          We’ve only got busses. The climate control is usually pretty good though; decent AC in the summer and heated in winter. Just the occasional shitty driver that doesn’t set it correctly.

          Tbh the worst part is inconsolable crying babys. That’s been pretty frequent this summer; but isn’t usually a problem throughout the rest of the year. Otherwise people just keep to themselves, it’s pretty peaceful.

    • @PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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      1510 months ago

      tbf, it’s only possibly not true because of intentional choices in city design and general social attitudes.

      That being said, I live in a pretty shitty area for bus transport (I’m in the USA, no less) and the busses are still usually mostly full when I use them.

      • @L0rdMathias@sh.itjust.works
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        510 months ago

        There are many other reasons why a bus might not be used at full capacity beyond just city design combined with the general attitude of “society”.

        • @PugJesus@lemmy.worldOP
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          510 months ago

          In individual cases, sure. But a well-designed city and public transport system should not be running skeleton capacities at daylight hours on the regular.

    • @dustyData@lemmy.world
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      1110 months ago

      Badly designed transit is not a condemnation of all public transit. Specially when in most of the world public transit is vastly more occupied than in the US and Canada, by the simple fact of actually connecting places people want to go, where people can then walk around when they get there. Parking lots are not destinations.

      • @lunarul@lemmy.world
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        710 months ago

        I lived in a European capital until 28 and never got a driver’s license because public transport was faster than driving through horrible traffic.

        Moved to the US and in less than a year had to buy a car because it was impossible to do anything without one. And that was in am area with considerably better public transport than usual for the US. It was just my wife driving, but after a few years I had to get a driver’s license too and buy a second car. I like walking, I prefer good public transit to driving, but it’s simply not an option in most of the US.

        Oh, and another story. In my hometown I absolutely loved the subway as THE way to get around. It was cool in the summer, warm in the winter, and average wait was 2-3 minutes. I visited New York one summer and as per habit I went to take the subway to my destination. It was sweltering hot and I waited 20 minutes for a train. Up to that point I considered NYC to be the closest US city to what I’m used to, but that would have been a deal breaker.