Public transportation

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Two days ago I went to a different city and on the way back could not find the bus stop. So went to a different bus stop. It just said "bus stop". Not which bus or what schedule. Had to phone the number to find out which bus it was. The bus was only scheduled once an hour. I asked the dude that answered the phone how I know which bus stop it is and he said it's on the south side of the street. Asked him how I know which side is the south side and he said download an app on your phone.

I don't think it is justified that riding the bus requires a phone call and an app.

The public transportation is too inconvenient

People that are blind, deaf, don't speak English, don't have phones, and et cetera must have a unnecessarily hard time taking the bus

What are the weaknesses of public transportation in your area?

What are some examples of simple things that people do, that cannot be done without a phone, car, credit card, but should be to be done without them?

Bus stops are hit & miss in my area.

Some bus stops have a shelter and a digital display for the times of incoming buses, other bus stops are literally just a metal pole with a sign that signifies that it is a bus stop.

Public transport is notoriously difficult for blind, deaf or disabled people, though buses generally do make efforts to accommodate disabled persons, it is usually not enough help and giving more help would be cost ineffective and impractical from a business standpoint.

My local bus system has actually improved in recent years. There is still only one bus every 45 minutes, but they're usually on time and the new route takes me right to where I work without having to transfer.

In the early 2000s, there was no bus service whatsoever on Sundays and every job I had required me to work on that day. Taxis were expensive, so if I couldn't arrange a ride, I couldn't get to work. At one point, my girlfriend's father would take me to work on Sundays, but only if I would go to church with them first. (I'm an Atheist.) Thankfully, the bus eventually added Sunday service.

One of the biggest issues for me was that the scheduled times were inexplicably 10 - 15 minutes earlier on weekends. I.e., if the weekday bus was scheduled at 12:15, on the weekend schedule, it was 12:05. So I had to keep saying to myself over and over, "Don't forget, it's Saturday! Don't forget to leave 10 minutes earlier or you'll miss the bus!" Thank goodness the recent changes fixed that too, so now the weekend times are the same, though the busses still stop running earlier on those days.

Most of the bus drivers are very nice. However, there was one driver who got mad at me for mentioning that the busses sometimes miss their transfers. He asked me if I wanted to transfer and I said that I didn't trust other bus. He got offended and said, "What do you mean you don't trust them?!" I explained that many times, after I had gotten off the bus to catch the transfer, I found out they had gone by early and I was stuck waiting until the next one. This happened so many times, I decided it was more reliable to get off at a different stop and walk to work. "Maybe the bus wasn't early," said the driver bitterly. "Maybe it was YOU that was late!" This made no sense, because if I was late to catch the transfer, it would only be because the bus he was driving was late in getting me there.

One day I saw the other route going by and that guy was the driver, so I guess that's why he was so defensive.

Years later, they changed the bus system, which as I said, was a good thing. However, it took the city several months to set up the signs where the new stops are. The bus stopped in front of a Starbucks every day for 6 months and other people got on and off, so I assumed this was the new stop. Until one day, the driver angrily told me that the real stop was a couple blocks further down the street. So I started using that stop instead, but the bus kept stopping at Starbucks, too. One day, I was running late and could see the bus had already passed the other stop. I stood in front of Starbucks to see if they'd stop there and of course, it was that one driver and he lectured me about how it wasn't a stop...even though he himself stopped there...more than once. I realized this was the same guy from the bus transfer thing. Thankfully, I haven't seen him in a while. Then another day, I got a different driver who wondered why I kept walking all the way to the other stop when I could just use the stop at Starbucks. He insisted up and down that it was a real stop! I called the bus service and the angry guy was actually right, it wasn't an official stop, but he was so mean about it.

Unfortunately, in my area, the bus stop signs are old and outdated. Most of the signs say bus stop and have a list of buses. These lists haven't been correct for a while. None of the listed buses actually even enter the area anymore. I think they used to more than five years ago.

Some signs are so worn down that you actually can't tell what the writing says anymore. There are bus stops that aren't even bus stops these days because all the services going that direction got cancelled, so now it's just a shelter.

We tend to warn people whom are new to the area that the bus stop information is useless. Check your sources online before travelling because your bus stop might not even be a bus stop anymore.

However, if you don't mind walking over to the next town, then they have up to date digital screens for their services. Sometimes I do that because it's easier.