Why do many people have such scorn for those who take the bus?
Forty-one million trips are taken on 12,000 public buses each year in Connecticut in communities across the state (not counting school buses). Yet, those riders are regarded as losers, not by the transit operators, but by those who drive by car.
When Southington was recently considering restoring bus service for the first time since 1969, a local resident wrote a letter to the local paper declaring “Towns that have bus service are towns that frankly have a lesser quality of people.”
Really? “Lesser quality,” how? Because they can’t afford to own a car? Or because they are minorities? That comment is either racist or classist or both.
As I wrote recently, the Greater Bridgeport Transit bus system carries 18,000 passengers every day (5.2 million a year), 90 percent of them either going to school or work. Something like 26 percent of all Bridgeport train riders got to or from the station by bus.
Sure, some are non-white or non-English speaking. But why begrudge them transportation? You’d rather they not have a job or an education?
And yes, their fares are kept low with state subsidies. But their incomes are also low and for them even a $1.75 bus fare is expensive. Remember… Metro-North trips (26.5 million per year), though also expensive (the highest in the U.S.), are also subsidized.
But the biggest target of transit scorn is CTfastrak, the four year old, 9.4 mile-long dedicated bus rapid transit system running between Hartford and New Britain. Transit planners from across the country come to study CTfastrak. The Feds are looking to spend $665 million on similar systems across the U.S.
Yet Connecticut Republicans were trying to close it before it even began.
When it first opened in 2014, the Connecticut Department of Transportation projected 16,000 daily riders. To date the ridership is closer to 11,400. Fares are cheap ($1.75 round-trip) and service is frequent with buses departing every few minutes. From New Britain to downtown Hartford it’s only 20 minutes, even at rush hour. That’s about half the time you’d spend on I-84 stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic.
From the dedicated bus-only right-of-way, buses can also transfer to local roads into downtown Hartford and communities ranging from New Britain and Bristol to Cheshire and Waterbury. The stations are clean and modern and the buses even offer free Wifi — something we still don’t (and probably never will) have on Metro-North.
Critics complain about “empty buses” riding up and down the system. Sure, the buses may not be jammed like Metro-North on a summertime Friday, but they do carry thousands every day. Imagine if those bus riders were in cars. How’d you like the traffic then?
Why the scorn for bus riders? Beyond racism and class-warfare, I think there’s actually some jealousy. Why do they get a fast, clean, cheap ride when I’m stuck in traffic? Well, for some it’s a matter of necessity: they don’t own or have access to a car. For others, as with train riders, it’s a matter of choice: they prefer the bus for speed and convenience.
So can we please stop shaming bus riders? Like all of us, they have places to go, so let’s just allow them to ride in peace and harmony.
Posted with permission of Hearst CT Media. Jim Cameron is founder of The Commuter Action Group, and a member of the Darien Representative Town Meeting.
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Mr Cameron is on point. Transportation is essential for all of us. What form it takes is not cause to look down on anyone.
Mr. Cameron, the primary issue with the 9.4 mile-long dedicated bus rapid transit system running between Hartford and New Britain is it cost far too much to build, it has double the operating budget it was expected to have and to be clear it was not necessary (or at least not as high a priority) as many other areas that continue to have far more traffic congestion and service many more people of all races and incomes levels.
The problem is the subsidize they get. As you even state yourself that there are empty buses during the day just driving no one around. In the record journal they did a report on wallingford a few years ago and found that only around 35 people used it regularly and the town subsidize over 200k to keep it running. At that cost i could just give these folks money to uber themselves around town instead of paying for bus and the salary and pension costs for the driver. Right now as we get closer to tolls. This angers us drivers who again have to subsidize mass transit. If we have pay our fair share then make them pay for what it costs to run a bus. Its not the buses should go out of service. But there should be plan to look at what buses are needed against what is acutally out there. This is mostly a suburban state where most of own our own cars
I had a flat tire on my way into Hartford from the “burbs” last week. Barely made it to a Tire Repair store in West Hartford (Thumbs up to Modern Tire, by the way – they were fantastic). I still had to get to work, so I hopped the bus near Blue Back Square. I hadn’t been on a city bus in over two decades. It was such a pleasant ride. The driver was very helpful, letting me know the cost and the closest drop off stop. True, there weren’t many white men in suits on the bus, but the riders were quiet, and courteous and a pleasure to travel with. Not wishing for another flat tire, but it’s too bad there aren’t more public transit options from the burbs – it’s a more community-friendly way to get to work.
OK, so one knucklehead in Southington says something stupid about bus riders and because of that it is alleged that we are a state of “minority-hating “racists” with simmering “class warfare” and “jealousy”? Yikes! That is quite a stretch.
Please don’t try to create another Protected Class, we don’t need another Great Divider preaching hatreds that don’t exist, or prejudices that exist only in the receptor’s mind.
My friend, there is no sinister “scorn for bus riders”. Ok, there is that jerk in Southington, but nobody else hates bus riders. Oye ve.
For me, the bus was the bridge to a sustainable income via employment that would otherwise be unrealistic to maintain without a private vehicle. It was also an inexpensive and unanticipated respite from the stress of daily commuting. Listening to podcasts while sailing past the long, unbroken chain of single occupant crossover behemoths on 84 , I couldn’t help but feel I was luckier than most.