The cost of the bus is not keeping me off the bus; the speed and comfort are keeping me off. While not collecting fares would decrease the stop times, it isn't

The cost of the bus is not keeping me off the bus; the speed and comfort are keeping me off. While not collecting fares would decrease the stop times, it isn't going to get anywhere near what I would need to ride the bus more often. To go about 7.5 miles on one bus in San Francisco (basically from the bay to the ocean) takes 56 minutes on a bus. There are marathon runners who can literally run the route and arrive nearly 20 minutes before the bus! The light rail is considerably better at 42 minutes for roughly the same route (the more your trip is underground, the more it makes sense to take). In fact, the only time I take public transit is when heading downtown in the subway since it is actually fast. The same trip takes 28 minutes in a car (less if you know where the timed lights are). Now, if we had Personal Rapid Transit* instead of buses, then at least the comfort level and speed might be high enough for me to switch over. * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit