5 Responses to salon: it’s time to love the bus

  1. anonymouse March 3, 2012 at 5:11 pm #

    Flowing curves and nice shapes
    Really? I mean, really? One can certainly argue that things like having bigger windows or higher ceilings make the bus experience marginally more pleasant, but does anyone really care whether the bus they’re riding is round or square? This just reminds me too much of the reports on BRT that I read that talk about the importance of having “stylized” “BRTVs” (Bus Rapid Transit Vehicles), as if by calling it a BRTV, people could be fooled into thinking it’s not a bus.

  2. Jarrett at HumanTransit.org March 3, 2012 at 5:37 pm #

    Anonymouse.  I do think transparency over the largest possible surface is fundamental.  Square vs round must be left to the taste of the age, which has already done one complete revolution in the last 70 years.

  3. Miles Bader March 3, 2012 at 5:49 pm #

    C’mon the Salon article is awful (granted Salon isn’t known for its intellectual heft…): it’s unfocused and vague, uses bogus implications (“bicycles became cool -> buses will become cool too!” [what?]), and in the end doesn’t really seem to reach much of a conclusion stronger than “buses: they could suck less.”
    It’s not even very clear what the author is actually defending or what he really advocates (BRT? pretty buses? air-conditioned bus stops?).
    The only really good and memorable point it makes is the one they got from you: in some cases, frequency might make it worth it.

  4. Matthew March 4, 2012 at 3:41 am #

    Someone should tell the author that trains have wheels too.
    The biggest things are no brainers: bus stop bulbouts and exclusive bus lanes. The author also points out why these haven’t been done: NIMBYism (also the empty lanes attack).
    So it goes.

  5. Alan Howes March 4, 2012 at 8:13 am #

    I don’t want to sound like a sycophant – but I’m 100% with Miles. An article written by Jarrett himself wouold have been much better. Talk about money for old rope!