I’ve lived in cities my whole life and yet it seems like the bus systems in every city I’ve ever lived in have only gone downhill. When I first went to grad school, I used buses and trains to get around town to do my grocery shopping and whatnot. By the time I was graduating, the buses had all gotten so sketchy that I no longer used them. People smoked openly on them, there were always homeless people panhandling, and they just seemed a little too violent to be safe. I eventually left that city for my current one, and the buses are STILL crap but in another direction. They’re never on time, I’ve had multiple days where a bus just plain doesn’t show up, and now they’ve altered the route schedule to ensure that my bus MUST take a much longer time to reach it’s destination. When I started riding my route, I could get from A to B in 20 minutes give or take. They’ve now altered the route to make A to B take 30 minutes, and if traffic isn’t bad and the bus is a little early, the driver will stop on the side of the road to ensure it takes no less than 30 minutes.

I don’t know what buses have always been this bad, but it’s really putting me off public transportation in general. It’s even more galling when the cities I’ve lived in are demanding ever increasing funding for ever worsening service. At what point should the city cut its loses and say no, no new funding without fixing what you currently have. More money isn’t a cure all, countries other than mine have much better bus service at much lower cost, I know, I’ve been to them. The cities I’ve been to seem to have a cost disease, where they keep spending more and more to get worse and worse and the only conceivable cure is more money. It’s infuriating.