86 € a month for a card to go from where I leave (about 10 km from paris) to whereever I want in Paris or in between and a little further, as much as I want, with any kind of transportation available (train, subway, bus, tramway)! I think here people fell it's expensive even if your employer have to pay half of it.

Yeah they're great if they stop within walking distance of where you want to leave from and go to, and arrive on time, oh and don't treble your journey time.
I think most people for whom it is easier, or just as easy as using their car, to use a bus will use them. The trouble is, it's nowhere near as easy for 95% of people.

Trains are worse, maybe if they got the trains running well more people might use buses too.

Quote from theirishnoob :

adult fare cause everyone thinks im 18+ :S

Obviously they've never spoken to you then.

Quote from Jakg :

Obviously they've never spoken to you then.

I work around 5 miles from my house - I cycle or get the bus.Cycling is free and gets me there in 25 minutes. If I were to get the bus, I have to take 2 buses - the first comes at 7:35am and takes 20 minutes to get 2 miles down the road. Then I have a 20 minute wait to get the next one which takes another 20 minutes to do the rest. This is to get in for 9am.

These buses are crowded, expensive (£4 a day) and s - l - o - w. I could walk 5 miles in an hour and a half.

So I cycle.

Quote from Jakg :

Obviously they've never spoken to you then.

http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/7533/rofldb1.gif

Quote from Bladerunner :

...

Cost of petrol to drive from Kidlington to Oxford :approx £2.50 (each way!)
Cost of parking in Oxford: F***ing LOADS!!!
Cost of time spent sat in traffic and looking for a parking space.. £20.00 (at average £10.00/hour!)

Cost of return trip on bus, including Park & Ride = £2.00

...

On the other hand some things in life, like a own car, are...:

Getting up 30 minutes later, no need to hurry for the "early bus" and no elderly people giving you the glances...

PRICELESS!

Being so used to my car I would never want to use bus anymore.. It is just so much easier to live and go to places when you don't need to check time tables every time. And waiting the bus when the temperature is -30, the wind blows at hurricane speeds and the bus is late and full is not nice.

2.70€ is the base tax here too, although students get the "free rides for a month" -card for a 33€ or so. Parking slots are not a problem. Just avoid the peak hours whenever possible and park a bit further

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

I actively avoid buses, they are never on time, often smell of piss, I am too tall to fit on them, theres no leg room, bus drivers are arseholes, they cost too much, and walking is just better for you.

i agree plus : drug dealers and other shady people you need to take care of

i would ride my bike if it wasnt broken ...

Walking time to next bus station : 10 minutes

ride to station in the center of my district : 5 minutes

Waiting for the next bus because i need to change : 10 minutes
(because the next bus never matches for whatever reason)

ok so 25 minutes so far and i traveled maybe 3 km and not any closer to my destination

in this time i would have been at work already with my bike (8km)

now i get on the bus which takes me to my work and well there is always traffic jam so add another 20 minutes...

45 minutes bus vs 20-25 with bike and it costs me 6 euro for a day ticket or twice 2.60 euro for a one way ticket...

the underground system on the other hand is excellent and very fast !!! just it doesnt cover some areas where you have to take the busses

Quote from Jakg :

Obviously they've never spoken to you then.

thanks for your eh " words of wisdom " but it might have to do with my 6'1 height or my low pitch voice but i dont know

Quote from theirishnoob :

thanks for your eh " words of wisdom " but it might have to do with my 6'1 height or my low pitch voice but i dont know

Whoa, 6"1 and sounding like Barry White, cool stuff. Why dont you drive the cars you restore?

I hate public transportation!! I was going somewhere in this crappy city and then... BaNg! the tire of the freaking bus dissapeared.... God damn.

Everyone in my family uses public transportation. It's really the only way to get downtown without taking out a mortgage to pay for parking. I actually go uptown, not downtown, but my university (York) chooses to charge students $3/h for parking. Damn bastards, how can a student possibly afford that? Assumming I'm at school for like 5 hours a day on average, I'd be paying about $300 a month for parking. I could buy a pass but then it would still be over $100 a month for parking. Still not worth it. So I take the bus every day.

It seems that México is the only country where people use the bus because they have no other choice.

I have a bus card I use for getting about, the bus service here isn't too bad apart from the complete lack of legroom in most of the seats (being 6ft 5 doesn't help). Only takes 10 mins to get to the city centre. Rarely have a problem with the driver, although I do get annoyed when I have to repeat where I'm going 4 times because the driver doesn't know more than 5 words of english.

I do have a car on the drive, but its in peices while I change the head gasket, once its running I'm not sure I'll renew the bus card.

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

Everyone in my family uses public transportation. It's really the only way to get downtown without taking out a mortgage to pay for parking. I actually go uptown, not downtown, but my university (York) chooses to charge students $3/h for parking. Damn bastards, how can a student possibly afford that? Assumming I'm at school for like 5 hours a day on average, I'd be paying about $300 a month for parking. I could buy a pass but then it would still be over $100 a month for parking. Still not worth it. So I take the bus every day.

Depending on the area you live in, this is indeed true. What is funny is, those who speak of the cost to ride the bus compared to the cost of fuel they use to drive a car instead, always neglect to factor in the actual cost of the vehicle, insurance, licensing, repairs, etc etc.

I of course listed my reason, I would have to drive an additional 10 miles past work to catch the bus .

This is much like the discussions that come up about fuel milage with motorcycles. People argue that they bought their bikes strictly for fuel milage when they are buying $25,000 Harleys over here, hehehe. How long does one reap the benefits of 50 mpg on a bike over 30 mpg in a car when they are paying that $25,000 for the bike?

So, if you pay $2 to get where you need to by car, but it would cost $3 by bus, what is the difference when you factor in the $10-20,000 for the car plus insurance, licensing, registering, and repairs?

It's kind of silly to argue this topic because public transportation isn't everywhere.

Here it's $1.75 to ride in a zone 1 area and $2.25 in a zone 2 area. It's $0.50 extra for a transfer from one bus to another. I have a feeling though that they'll go up again in the near future. Port Authority (PAT) was just bailed out by the state for being in financial trouble again. They nearly cut my only route to school to save funds when they could have cut the paychecks for the bus and T (trolley) drivers that they pay too much. I've heard they can make upwards of $75k and that's just for driving a bus/trolley. My dad makes around that amount and he's a senior engineer and has been working for 20+ years. It seems every time PAT is in financial trouble they talk about cutting routes for a county that is already under serviced.

While I'm studying I usually use the bus (which is free for students, cause we already pay a kind of flatrate) or the bike. Back here at my original home you sadly can't rely on public transportation, cause there are driving maybe 3 busses a day, and only in one direction. So without a own car you can forget getting anywhere