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A different perspective: it's weird that school buses that only run two routes per day exist. That has to be one of the most underutiluzed forms of public trans

A different perspective: it's weird that school buses that only run two routes per day exist. That has to be one of the most underutiluzed forms of public transport. My home country Australia has free public transport for children. The public transport system gets kids to school and back with no issues. You don't get drivers and busses underutilized either.

bpodgursky 5y ago
They don't only run two routes per day; most US districts stagger elementary, middle, and high-school start times so the same busses can be used for all of those systems. (this leads to other problems with kids waking up early, ofc) > My home country Australia has free public transport for children I am not opposed to this when possible, but I'm suspicious of the implication that Australia either has (1) convenient, frequent bus service in all suburbs or (2) no suburbs. Edit: little bit of research: > The vast majority of schools in Australia (both government and private) do not have their own buses for transporting children between the school and their home and thus most school children in Australia that do travel by bus travel on public transport buses, either on standard scheduled public transport routes, or on specific 'school travel' routes. Most school routes do not allow the general adult public to ride along with the children, although this does vary by location according to practicality (i.e. remote areas) and local regulation. Ok yeah so you end up with kids-only "school routes" for a lot of public busses when public transit doesn't align, nominally within the same public transit system... cool, but that doesn't really seem completely different from the US system.
- bitwize 5y ago
  > I am not opposed to this when possible, but I'm suspicious of the implication that Australia either has (1) convenient, frequent bus service in all suburbs or (2) no suburbs. From what I observed in Queensland... a mix of both, actually. There are suburbs, but the distance from CBD to bush is much shorter than the corresponding distance in the USA. At the same time, there is an extensive public transit network that competing private carriers participate in. The government sets routes and establishes the payment system, the carriers drive the routes and and keep prices reasonable and the service good. I was quite pleasantly surprised by Queensland's bus network.
- Symbiote 5y ago
  > kids-only "school routes" for a lot of public busses when public transit doesn't align The same vehicles and probably the same drivers (or a subset) are used, which should cost less. I think it's only the USA and Canada that have a separate design of vehicle for school buses. (Why are American school buses such an old design? E.g. this [1], which is the first modern one listed on the Wikipedia School Bus article, has a high enough cab that it needs loads of mirrors for the driver to see around, and has a high floor (so several steps to get in). A typical bus used in European cities is this Mercedes [2]. The driver has a better view, there is only the one step to get in, and it can be lowered [3].) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Saf-T-Liner_C2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Saf-T-Liner_C2 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_Citaro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_Citaro [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr5BSIFB_GY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr5BSIFB_GY

bpodgursky 5y ago

They don't only run two routes per day; most US districts stagger elementary, middle, and high-school start times so the same busses can be used for all of those systems. (this leads to other problems with kids waking up early, ofc) > My home country Australia has free public transport for children I am not opposed to this when possible, but I'm suspicious of the implication that Australia either has (1) convenient, frequent bus service in all suburbs or (2) no suburbs. Edit: little bit of research: > The vast majority of schools in Australia (both government and private) do not have their own buses for transporting children between the school and their home and thus most school children in Australia that do travel by bus travel on public transport buses, either on standard scheduled public transport routes, or on specific 'school travel' routes. Most school routes do not allow the general adult public to ride along with the children, although this does vary by location according to practicality (i.e. remote areas) and local regulation. Ok yeah so you end up with kids-only "school routes" for a lot of public busses when public transit doesn't align, nominally within the same public transit system... cool, but that doesn't really seem completely different from the US system.

bitwize 5y ago
> I am not opposed to this when possible, but I'm suspicious of the implication that Australia either has (1) convenient, frequent bus service in all suburbs or (2) no suburbs. From what I observed in Queensland... a mix of both, actually. There are suburbs, but the distance from CBD to bush is much shorter than the corresponding distance in the USA. At the same time, there is an extensive public transit network that competing private carriers participate in. The government sets routes and establishes the payment system, the carriers drive the routes and and keep prices reasonable and the service good. I was quite pleasantly surprised by Queensland's bus network.
Symbiote 5y ago
> kids-only "school routes" for a lot of public busses when public transit doesn't align The same vehicles and probably the same drivers (or a subset) are used, which should cost less. I think it's only the USA and Canada that have a separate design of vehicle for school buses. (Why are American school buses such an old design? E.g. this [1], which is the first modern one listed on the Wikipedia School Bus article, has a high enough cab that it needs loads of mirrors for the driver to see around, and has a high floor (so several steps to get in). A typical bus used in European cities is this Mercedes [2]. The driver has a better view, there is only the one step to get in, and it can be lowered [3].) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Saf-T-Liner_C2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Saf-T-Liner_C2 [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_Citaro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_Citaro [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr5BSIFB_GY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dr5BSIFB_GY