<story><title>Seattle is putting up $50B for transit</title><url>http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2016/04/06/youve-got-50-billion-for-transit-now-how-should-you-spend-it/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>timthelion</author><text>I for one, am extremely dissapointed with the concept of &amp;quot;bus rapid transit&amp;quot;. I live in Prague, and so I experience all three froms of mass transit: metro(subway), tram, and bus. Busses are extremely uncomfortable. They rock as they drive, and they have really awful seating arangements due to the need for tall wheel wells. I don&amp;#x27;t see the point in including busses as a part of a modern system. They also have a much shorter lifespan, and have horible gas milage&amp;#x2F;electric efficiency compared to tram cars which last over 50 years. I think that busses are only included in the system due to the convenience of not having to have a line to the depo, and perhaps the corruption of the consultants involved.&lt;p&gt;As Americans, you may have this impression that mass transit is a horrible thing for poor people. That impression comes from busses, where the bus is rocking around so much that you cannot whip out your cellphone and read on the way to work(one of the big advantages of mass transit over a car). Trams, however, are very comfortable. The floor is always extremely stable, you can comfortably read or do work on your laptop. You no longer feel the stress of driving and your commute can become a &amp;quot;free time&amp;quot; part of your day, rather than a stressfull period between home and work.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>rsync</author><text>&amp;quot;As Americans, you may have this impression that mass transit is a horrible thing for poor people. That impression comes from busses&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;This cannot be overstated.&lt;p&gt;There is nothing in the urban, built environment that is as terrible aesthetically and functionally as some big lumbering bus bonking its way through the city (and usually belching black smoke as it goes).&lt;p&gt;I am a huge advocate of public transit and I will &lt;i&gt;do anything to not ride a bus&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;Always remember the quote from Steve Jobs about tablets and the stylus:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;If you see a (bus), they blew it.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;edit: Yes, yes I know all about BRT.  Lipstick on a pig.</text></comment>
<story><title>Seattle is putting up $50B for transit</title><url>http://www.thetransportpolitic.com/2016/04/06/youve-got-50-billion-for-transit-now-how-should-you-spend-it/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>timthelion</author><text>I for one, am extremely dissapointed with the concept of &amp;quot;bus rapid transit&amp;quot;. I live in Prague, and so I experience all three froms of mass transit: metro(subway), tram, and bus. Busses are extremely uncomfortable. They rock as they drive, and they have really awful seating arangements due to the need for tall wheel wells. I don&amp;#x27;t see the point in including busses as a part of a modern system. They also have a much shorter lifespan, and have horible gas milage&amp;#x2F;electric efficiency compared to tram cars which last over 50 years. I think that busses are only included in the system due to the convenience of not having to have a line to the depo, and perhaps the corruption of the consultants involved.&lt;p&gt;As Americans, you may have this impression that mass transit is a horrible thing for poor people. That impression comes from busses, where the bus is rocking around so much that you cannot whip out your cellphone and read on the way to work(one of the big advantages of mass transit over a car). Trams, however, are very comfortable. The floor is always extremely stable, you can comfortably read or do work on your laptop. You no longer feel the stress of driving and your commute can become a &amp;quot;free time&amp;quot; part of your day, rather than a stressfull period between home and work.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>sfilmeyer</author><text>&amp;gt;I think that busses are only included in the system due to the convenience of not having to have a line to the depo&lt;p&gt;Busses are just a lot more flexible in general. The costs with starting and stopping bus lines are much less than other forms of transit, the vehicles tend to be more interchangeable, the infrastructure is less substantial, and so on. I&amp;#x27;m not saying I generally enjoy riding busses, but the costs to the system are very different than other forms of transit.</text></comment>