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US cities pay too much for buses

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355 points pavel_lishin | 4 comments | 26 Sep 25 13:57 UTC | HN request time: 0.246s | source
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bluGill ◴[26 Sep 25 15:13 UTC] No.45387448[source]▶
Don't be fooled, paying less won't help much since the cost of a bus is a small part of the costs of running a bus route. about half your costs are the bus driver. The most expensive bus is still only 1/3rd of your hourly cost of running the bus. If a more expensive bus is more reliable that could more than make up for a more expensive bus (I don't have any numbers to do math on though).

Half the costs of running a bus route are the driver's labor. The other half needs to pay for maintenance, the cost of the bus, and all the other overhead.

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esafak ◴[26 Sep 25 17:33 UTC] No.45388984[source]▶
I'm hearing you say we should have self-driving buses... which is feasible since their route is fixed.
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kjkjadksj ◴[26 Sep 25 17:36 UTC] No.45389011[source]▶
Bus driver also does things like trigger ramp for handicapped people, strap in wheelchairs securely, answer questions about the route, and security surveillance.
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bluGill ◴[26 Sep 25 17:47 UTC] No.45389130[source]▶
None of those should be needed. Get more people riding and they take care of security.

wheelchairs are hard - but the driver strapping them in is robbing everyone else of their valuable time so we need a better soultion anyway

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1. Symbiote ◴[26 Sep 25 18:00 UTC] No.45389258[source]▶
Every bus in Copenhagen has a button next to the door to lower the wheelchair ramp, but I have never seen anyone use it. I've never seen a wheelchair on a bus.

The metro and suburban trains have level boarding (the platform is at exactly the same level as the floor of the train so it's very easy for a wheelchair user to wheel themselves in). I've still only seen wheelchairs users on these trains once or twice.

I suspect wheelchair users prefer to call the disability taxi service. It's free for wheelchair users and blind people [1]. I don't know if this service is more or less expensive to provide than adapting buses and trains, but it is probably easier for everyone.

[1, in Danish] https://www.moviatrafik.dk/flexkunde/flexhandicap

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2. rootusrootus ◴[26 Sep 25 18:28 UTC] No.45389544[source]▶
That's relatively similar to how my local (US) municipality handles disabled passengers. All of the big infrastructure supports wheelchairs, but it is only occasionally used. Disabled people are served by mini-buses which operate point-to-point and charge them the same fare they'd pay for the big bus.
3. pessimizer ◴[26 Sep 25 19:35 UTC] No.45390196[source]▶
Wheelchairs, sometimes multiple, are on Chicago buses all the time. Also rolling grocery trolleys, walkers (especially for dialysis patients where they have a medical functions) and also old people whose legs don't work so good and need the bus lowered.
4. cogman10 ◴[26 Sep 25 21:26 UTC] No.45391181[source]▶
This honestly makes a lot of sense, particularly because the number of people that need wheelchairs is so much smaller than the general population.

I visit hospitals pretty frequently and while it's not never that I see someone in a wheelchair, it's not every day and it's definitely not a majority of the visitors.

When I'm out and about in public, I basically never see wheelchair users.

It makes sense to simply have a taxi service instead. Far more convenient for the wheelchair user and you don't need to retrofit every bus with wheelchair access.