Why American Buses Are Just Worse

In most of the world, cities buy buses from a wide variety of companies. But unfortunately, in North America, there are mainly just two. In today’s video. I’ll talk about why this is a huge problem.

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Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!

Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.

[dkelly]

Buses in Europe, Asia, and Latin America are regarded as a form of transportation for everyone. Buses (and sometimes transit in general) in North America are generally regarded as almost a charity service for people too poor to afford cars (i.e. "captive riders").

[johnnymartinjohansen]

Here in Norway, the quality of the buses has little to do with competiton of any sorts. There are very strict requirements for safety and other things. And there has been a huge focus on comfort as one of many ways to get more people to use public transport.

[eentest]

Around the year 2000 I was visiting the Skoda trolleybusfactory in the Chech city of Ostrov. Over there they told me they had just dismantled the old production line for high floor buses and were continuing to build only low floor buses. To their surprise, The American companies who wanted to buy their trolleybuses ordered the obselete high floor buses. Chechs are not too difficult, so they rebuild their old production line, and started again building high floor trolleybuses for the American market

[vonPeter_]

Buses in large european cities are usually serves as a shuttle to the nearest traffic hubs where you can get a tram or a subway. This is why buses here are designed with a lot of doors, to keep the constans passenger flow at every stops. Also worth to mention: Regulators in Europe wants public transport appealing for everyone, not just a charity solution for poor people. Often car owners also using public transportation on the workdays and driving cars only if it's a must.

[wearwolf]

I think the seat problem comes from this strange idea that if you make seats uncomfortable then homeless people or intoxicated people will just disappear.

[davidhutchinson]

I like what they did in Colombia years ago. They upgraded the buses, created special "bus only" lanes and it's been a HUGE success.

[bixbysnyder-]

After living in Europe for three years, I returned to the states and made a point to take transit when I visited cities here in the US. I remember one time in Raleigh, NC, I needed to get to the airport from the city center, which is a 15-20 min drive. On what they call a transit system, it is an hour and a half on the bus. I now rent a car when I visit places within the US.

[Runix]

There was one type of bus you forgot when listing them in the beginning. Here in Denmark, in evenings, when there aren't many passengers, my parents' suburb gets serviced by a minibus. Just a grey van with a lot of seats, and a lift on the back for wheelchairs.

[ManuelsWorld]

It's crazy that the U.S. and Canada are still developing countries in terms of transportation.

[archuletawsn]

As a Mexican, I really appreciate that you clarified and explained why you were not going to include us this time in North America, sometimes the world forgets Mexico is located in North America and not in South America. You've got my like and my subscription.

[DanTheCaptain]

As mentioned, European buses generally prioritize standing room instead of seating room. They also have more doors. This makes them much roomier and less cramped like a sardine can on wheels. In Czechia and Slovakia I’ve even been on 12m buses with 4 doors even! A lot of the buses here in NA have odd seating layouts that cram passengers in.

Another feature that is noticeably absent from our measly North American buses are door closing chimes and self-opening doors. This I think goes without saying has always been a mystery as to why these are absent from these buses. Too often I see passengers be confused and annoyed with the doors and cause delays and maintenance problems. It’s not unheard of for a bud to go out of service because someone got angry and managed to break the doors. Every thought of just having the rear doors open like the front ones? No passenger interaction needed. Having a door closing chime will also help people recognize when the doors are about to close and GET OUT OF THE WAY…

Edit: Structure

[julian.]

Here in Argentina (in the capital city) public transportation is pretty much used by everyone, regarding their income or social backround (only the really wealthy, especially if they live in areas where bus options are not that many may not use them, since they got cars to go everywhere). It is simply more comfortable and faster, very well organized and way more efficient in terms of getting from A to B in less time. Most buses are modern and comfortable, and each line has it's own number and design, meaning they're painted with their own colours and styled differently, although some of them may be similar if they belong to the same company. Trains, buses and the Subte (metro) are also extremely cheap to use because we are in economical havoc and people would not be able to pay too much for them, so anyone that owns anything public transportation related is losing money despite the fact of being subsidized by the goverment. Another issue is that there's a huge difference between public transport in big cities, where things run smooth-ish, and less populated and/or poorer areas in which public transport is pretty lacklustered.

[japanesetrainandtravel]

As a regular user of buses
in Mississauga, my frustrations are this:

1. Lack of regular frequency on major arteries (Hurontario aside)

2. Low capacity buses being used more often on busy routes resulting in over crowding.

That said, what Mississauga and Toronto do well is running their bus network along a grid system unlike other cities in America where you have to ride a bus into the city centre only to take another bus to get back to another suburb.

[JHZech]

As someone who has traveled to Korea, the one feature their buses have that I really want is an announcement saying "the upcoming stop is X, the stop after is Y". In my neighborhood, buses don't even consistently announce what stop is about to come up.

[jhonjd]

The BRT system was created on my city in 1992, on Curitiba-PR/Brazil. Now I understand the importance of this system, because more and more cities around the world adopt him, this give me a little proud of my hometown. Great videos!! Thanks

[asahearts]

As an American, I've shown up to bus stops 15 minutes early many times to see that I had just missed that bus. There's also the issue of taking a bike on the bus. Most places have a policy of "if there's enough space." If not, you either get your bike stolen or don't take the bus. Not to mention the times the final leg of your trip or the return need to be completed by bike to be on time.

[analogbunny]

When I lived overseas one of the biggest differences I noticed was bus etiquette. It was strictly enforced that you get on the bus at one door and off the bus at another (whether it's front or back will depend). This ensures a constant flow from front to back, and prevented everyone clustering up front with an empty back half. Most of the wintertime "crowded" buses I see have an empty back half, and almost all of the skipped stops are skipped unnecessarily.

Part of that etiquette overseas was the driver enforcing the rules, but sometimes it was structural; if it had a tap-on/tap-off system there were separated terminals for tapping on and off the bus, in once case there were turnstiles, maybe the driver only opened the rear door at stops, but mostly it was just the other passengers who enforced a flow of foot traffic. It seems like a small thing, but it can completely change the experience

[Seregium]

Thank you!
I lived in Russia and I live in Turkey now.
In main russian megapolices buses and trams are very comfortable, they have a low floor and many doors, an air conditioning and soft seats, usb chargers and WIFI. You can enter any door and pay on terminals with your bank cards and special "transport" cards and, if you have transport card you can buy various long and short subscriptions such as unlimited ride for month, unlimit for buses+metro, and just hour ride with any transfers for one price.
In megapolices you have useful transport forecast on your smartphone (but I mentioned some projected buses suddely disappear sometimes).
In smaller cities and towns there are small vans and high floor buses in which you can pay with cash (if you enter a back door you just give your money to any hand forward to pass pay to driver and it is normal etiquette 😅). These buses are less comfortable, sometimes you can feel you are sardina in can, but the seats are mostly soft and clean. Problem of small cities are irregular transit timing and less buses in low hours.
Here in Turkey most popular are small vans going when turns out. They go everywhere and with small breaks, but there are large articulated buses going on schedule in big cities. I think mass transit in Turkey are so popular mostly because cars are very expensive here due to very high taxes.

[Fanw]

Thanks Reece for a very informative video. However, writing as a Brit, I should stress that most British buses outside London have only one door. One correction. Trolleybuses are 'not all over Europe'. Many countries in WESTERN Europe have NONE. Switzerland with 12 trolleybus systems is exceptional. Outside Switzerland, Lyon and Milan are the only large western European cities with thriving trolleybus systems. (Rome and Naples also have a few trolleybuses.)

[TiborgSGE]

I can only talk about the buses here in Germany.Our buses and local trains have a separated sections for disabled persons, for people with their bycicle and for people with their pets.I find this really amazing and it was one of the first shocks when i moved to Germany some 10 years ago.Also, they are very clean and even a ride with a local trains through villages can be really enjoyable.Greetings....