MetroRiderLA

• Millennials and Baby Boomers join forces in forgoing the suburbs for the many ammenities of urban life.  Hey Gen X, you suck!
• Hey ladies, despite conventional wisdom, cars aren’t the safest way to travel.
• A journey on America’s “oddball novelty”, Amtrak, presents a compelling look at the failure of American passenger rail.
• The Gold Line Foothill extension is exactly the kind of transit Los Angeles doesn’t need.
• Lusting for cars from the seat on a bus.  Car advertisements get heavy rotation on TransitTV.
• Pam is back! Join the Metro Interactive chat today at noon to discuss “beautiful rides, such as the Metro Line 2 bus down Sunset Boulevard”.

Image courtesy of mattlogelin.

What makes a good bus ride? This is the question posed over at EcoWorldly in an article that traverses the world in search of the best (and worst) buses. Gavin Hudson, the car-free author of the story, lists three key elements that he has found to be the difference between a good bus and a bad bus, they are:

1. You have access to a good schedule and map of the bus routes.
2. You feel clean and comfortable on the bus.
3. You feel safe on the bus.

Here’s my list:

1. Your bus comes frequently, as in every 5-10 minutes. Schedules be damned, I want to walk to a bus stop and know that my bus is going to come within 5 minutes, so even if I miss a bus I know I’m not screwed.
2. You aren’t packed like sardines. The only thing worse than waiting forever at a bus stop is having to squeeze onto a standing room only bus.
3. All stops are clearly announced. Automatic stop announcements are a life saver, because the only thing worse than waiting forever for a bus only to be packed in like a sardine is missing your stop because it wasn’t announced.

Those are my three, what are yours?

Related:

• 10 Ways to Improve L.A.’s Public Transportation System
• MetroRiderLA Forum: Speeding Up Buses