3 ms·

People don't use greyhound because of the other people who use greyhound. Making this a public utility only worsens this problem.

bdndndndbve 2y ago
Making the bus more useful for more people has the opposite effect. The people who are currently on the bus are people with no other option. The population on the bus, on average, is only going to get less "undesirable" (to the HN crowd) if the bus station is nice, well-lit, comes at reasonable times, has coffee shops and stuff.
edm0nd 2y ago
This so much. Anyone who has ever spent time having to be stuck at a Greyhound terminal in the south knows what true hell looks like. They are full of the sketchiest people of every city. Not great places unless you are into smoking crack with homeless people and getting threatened or stabbed by them.
- mixmastamyk 2y ago
  It’s a choice to enable that situation, not an intrinsic factor. Bus terminals in South America are pretty nice.
- krasin 2y ago
  Outside of the US, this is usually addressed by having a dedicated police unit residing at a station. Everything is pretty calm and civil after that. The fact that it's not the case in the US does not mean that it's inevitable to have such unsafe stations.
- whartung 2y ago
  > They are full of the sketchiest people of every city. Partly because the bus station opened up in the 50s and remains in the sketchiest part of the city. There was rarely any real motivation to move them. I used to take the bus several times a year between LA and Carson City NV. A 12 hour bus ride that would take me from scenic downtown LA and eventually drop me off in Carson City at a closed bus station at 5 in the morning. The driver was able to sell tickets to folks that were just standing by the highway at designated stops in the middle of the desert on the way up. We used to stop in Mojave for dinner at the cafe next to the bus shack^H^H^H^H^Hstation. I'd pick up cool Space Shuttle on 747 postcards while I was there. Overall the folks weren't too awful on that bus, but it surely made for a long night.
- amy-petrik-214 2y ago
  This so much. Anyone who has ever spent time having to be stuck at a Greyhound terminal in the south knows what true hell looks like. They are full of the sketchiest people of every city. It's not the worst (i.e. a southern bus station), some parts of Chicago are the worst. It's just a god awful shitshow. I had a blast when I did it, yes there were crackheads, but you can make new friends with crackheads. There was a 'hood lady I made friends with and a sweet old foreigner grandma type visiting her kid... who didn't speak english.. so I helped her get there what with the 8 hour bus delay, which might be related to stations shutting down
sevensor 2y ago
Thank you for saying this, I was hoping somebody would bring class into it. Intercity bus lines aren’t subsidized because poor people ride buses between cities, and as a society we prefer not to subsidize poor people’s physical mobility. Physical mobility is a prerequisite for social mobility, after all.
- searealist 2y ago
  I suspect you are not aligned with me. I am saying that lower-class people, on average, have behavior that middle-class people don't want to be exposed to. Look at some of the stories in this thread.
  - sevensor 2y ago
    I’ve been my share of 15 hour bus rides. Greyhound. Megabus. Changing buses downtown at midnight. Mostly it’s just people trying to get around. Worst that ever happened is I got scammed out of $20 when I was a kid and I’d never heard “I’m trying to get back to Virginia but I’m $31 short” before. I mean sure, there might be a junkie taking way too long in the bathroom, but people intent on doing you actual harm are pretty thin on the ground.
    - searealist 2y ago
      > Mostly it’s just people trying to get around That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it. Moreover, you come across as someone driven by ideology rather than honesty. You jumped straight into a cliched talking point about how the man is maliciously trying to keep poor people down.
      - sevensor 2y ago
        > That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it. That’s a pretty high standard considering the behavior of highway drivers. How do you get around, friend?
oldnetguy 2y ago
Took a bus to Atlantic City, people played music and smoked in the bus. If no one drives me, I will never go back.

bdndndndbve 2y ago

Making the bus more useful for more people has the opposite effect. The people who are currently on the bus are people with no other option. The population on the bus, on average, is only going to get less "undesirable" (to the HN crowd) if the bus station is nice, well-lit, comes at reasonable times, has coffee shops and stuff.

edm0nd 2y ago

This so much. Anyone who has ever spent time having to be stuck at a Greyhound terminal in the south knows what true hell looks like. They are full of the sketchiest people of every city. Not great places unless you are into smoking crack with homeless people and getting threatened or stabbed by them.

mixmastamyk 2y ago
It’s a choice to enable that situation, not an intrinsic factor. Bus terminals in South America are pretty nice.
krasin 2y ago
Outside of the US, this is usually addressed by having a dedicated police unit residing at a station. Everything is pretty calm and civil after that. The fact that it's not the case in the US does not mean that it's inevitable to have such unsafe stations.
whartung 2y ago
> They are full of the sketchiest people of every city. Partly because the bus station opened up in the 50s and remains in the sketchiest part of the city. There was rarely any real motivation to move them. I used to take the bus several times a year between LA and Carson City NV. A 12 hour bus ride that would take me from scenic downtown LA and eventually drop me off in Carson City at a closed bus station at 5 in the morning. The driver was able to sell tickets to folks that were just standing by the highway at designated stops in the middle of the desert on the way up. We used to stop in Mojave for dinner at the cafe next to the bus shack^H^H^H^H^Hstation. I'd pick up cool Space Shuttle on 747 postcards while I was there. Overall the folks weren't too awful on that bus, but it surely made for a long night.
amy-petrik-214 2y ago
This so much. Anyone who has ever spent time having to be stuck at a Greyhound terminal in the south knows what true hell looks like. They are full of the sketchiest people of every city. It's not the worst (i.e. a southern bus station), some parts of Chicago are the worst. It's just a god awful shitshow. I had a blast when I did it, yes there were crackheads, but you can make new friends with crackheads. There was a 'hood lady I made friends with and a sweet old foreigner grandma type visiting her kid... who didn't speak english.. so I helped her get there what with the 8 hour bus delay, which might be related to stations shutting down

sevensor 2y ago

Thank you for saying this, I was hoping somebody would bring class into it. Intercity bus lines aren’t subsidized because poor people ride buses between cities, and as a society we prefer not to subsidize poor people’s physical mobility. Physical mobility is a prerequisite for social mobility, after all.

searealist 2y ago
I suspect you are not aligned with me. I am saying that lower-class people, on average, have behavior that middle-class people don't want to be exposed to. Look at some of the stories in this thread.
- sevensor 2y ago
  I’ve been my share of 15 hour bus rides. Greyhound. Megabus. Changing buses downtown at midnight. Mostly it’s just people trying to get around. Worst that ever happened is I got scammed out of $20 when I was a kid and I’d never heard “I’m trying to get back to Virginia but I’m $31 short” before. I mean sure, there might be a junkie taking way too long in the bathroom, but people intent on doing you actual harm are pretty thin on the ground.
  - searealist 2y ago
    > Mostly it’s just people trying to get around That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it. Moreover, you come across as someone driven by ideology rather than honesty. You jumped straight into a cliched talking point about how the man is maliciously trying to keep poor people down.
    - sevensor 2y ago
      > That's not good enough. It needs to be 99%. Look at the other stories in this thread. Even 5% is enough to avoid it. That’s a pretty high standard considering the behavior of highway drivers. How do you get around, friend?

oldnetguy 2y ago

Took a bus to Atlantic City, people played music and smoked in the bus. If no one drives me, I will never go back.