This is how you sell riding the bus.
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This is how you sell riding the bus.
The Danes know how to get people out of their cars and onto buses.
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They're having fun at the expense of the cars companies and their ads.
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Public transit is a hard sell for people who have other options. It is a fact that majority of bus users here in the suburbs do so because of financial reasons, they simply can't afford a car or they own a car but are trying to save money on gas and maintenance so they take a bus. Not too many people ride a bus for fun or entertainment. The reality of public transit is that it can be very frustrating at times. For example, our commuter trains here in my city have serious problems during very cold, icy, snowy winter days, the track switches and other controls freeze during very cold weather and there are many delays and cancelations. The same thing with streetcars in downtown Toronto which are very old and past their useful service life and just can't hold up to very cold temperatures anymore. The snow drifts make it hard for people to walk to a bus stops and shelters. Canadian winters are hard on public transit commuters. I rather ride my bike.
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Public transit is a hard sell for people who have other options. It is a fact that majority of bus users here in the suburbs do so because of financial reasons, they simply can't afford a car or they own a car but are trying to save money on gas and maintenance so they take a bus. Not too many people ride a bus for fun or entertainment.
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Public transit is a hard sell for people who have other options. It is a fact that majority of bus users here in the suburbs do so because of financial reasons, they simply can't afford a car or they own a car but are trying to save money on gas and maintenance so they take a bus. Not too many people ride a bus for fun or entertainment. The reality of public transit is that it can be very frustrating at times. For example, our commuter trains here in my city have serious problems during very cold, icy, snowy winter days, the track switches and other controls freeze during very cold weather and there are many delays and cancelations. The same thing with streetcars in downtown Toronto which are very old and past their useful service life and just can't hold up to very cold temperatures anymore. The snow drifts make it hard for people to walk to a bus stops and shelters. Canadian winters are hard on public transit commuters. I rather ride my bike.
edit: I'm a software architect and could easily afford to own cars.
Last edited by Walter S; 02-08-15 at 02:34 PM.
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Are you sure it's only for transportation ??..Or do you also get "fun and entertainment" from picking up hot and hip chicks that ride the public transit ??
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Public transit is a hard sell for people who have other options. It is a fact that majority of bus users here in the suburbs do so because of financial reasons, they simply can't afford a car or they own a car but are trying to save money on gas and maintenance so they take a bus.
While one can never truly know what is motivating other people, I suspect the folks on the bus are riding because it is convenient relative to driving (and parking) and because it fits with their sense of themselves as responsible environmentally inclined citizens.
Back up in Eugene, it's a totally different situation. There are almost no people on the bus who have other options. Interestingly, the incomes and education levels here are a lot lower than where people with upper middle-class incomes choose to ride the bus.
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Was the molotov cocktail some kind of super fancy champagne? There's no way the ABV of champagne is enough for that to work.
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#18
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Awesome. But since the 70s I've been lamenting the plush of euro buses vs. the utilitarian fare we have here in the US. If USA public transit was as swank, perhaps we'd have more riders... but then again, perhaps we'd have more vandalism...
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"Selling" public transit in this way is important because of the cultural lag between the growing practicality of alternatives to driving and their popularization. Obviously there's a reason driving became almost ubiquitous through the first generation of suburban development where traffic between suburbs and the city was relatively sparse and unidirectional. Now that ubiquitous driving has compounded into multidirectional traffic to- and from- multiple areas of counties, infrastructure is faced with the choice of expanding lanes and bypasses or grow public transit as a means of facilitating greater traffic flows and densities without expanding road networks.
There is a danger that if people keep digging in their heels against taking the bus that roads will be widened and bypasses built as is happening in many areas already. The ultimate problem with that solution (beyond the immediate costs and degradation of public space) is that it can't continue through multiple generations of population/economic growth. You can only bypass and widen bypasses so many times before functionality is lost completely. Already people spend ridiculous amounts of time driving distances that should go must faster but can't because of all the traffic and re-directioning.
So even if there are issues with public transit, they are ultimately not as bad as the issues of driving in an expanding road network, not to mention the expanding costs of building and maintaining all those roads, lanes, bypasses, overpasses, etc. I'm surprised more public discussion hasn't emerged following the collapse of the clover leaf where a construction worker was killed.
There needs to be public awareness that vast mazes of crumbling infrastructure aren't something we should want to burden future generations with. Public transit is a way of consolidating motor-traffic to reduce the need for road-network expansion. Bikable/walkable localities are even better but buses have the potential to consolidate multitudes of automobile traffic down to a handful of full buses on the roads. Obviously, thinning traffic in this way is also better for traffic flow for everyone who drives instead of taking the bus.
Why do people resist this obvious fact? It has been widely known to the public for decades upon decades. Answer: because the rat race is about everyone competing to stay ahead of the curve that they perceive as a demotion from normalcy - so as long as driving is normalized, people will fight against being the one 'demoted' to riding the bus - hence the need for commercials like this.
There is a danger that if people keep digging in their heels against taking the bus that roads will be widened and bypasses built as is happening in many areas already. The ultimate problem with that solution (beyond the immediate costs and degradation of public space) is that it can't continue through multiple generations of population/economic growth. You can only bypass and widen bypasses so many times before functionality is lost completely. Already people spend ridiculous amounts of time driving distances that should go must faster but can't because of all the traffic and re-directioning.
So even if there are issues with public transit, they are ultimately not as bad as the issues of driving in an expanding road network, not to mention the expanding costs of building and maintaining all those roads, lanes, bypasses, overpasses, etc. I'm surprised more public discussion hasn't emerged following the collapse of the clover leaf where a construction worker was killed.
There needs to be public awareness that vast mazes of crumbling infrastructure aren't something we should want to burden future generations with. Public transit is a way of consolidating motor-traffic to reduce the need for road-network expansion. Bikable/walkable localities are even better but buses have the potential to consolidate multitudes of automobile traffic down to a handful of full buses on the roads. Obviously, thinning traffic in this way is also better for traffic flow for everyone who drives instead of taking the bus.
Why do people resist this obvious fact? It has been widely known to the public for decades upon decades. Answer: because the rat race is about everyone competing to stay ahead of the curve that they perceive as a demotion from normalcy - so as long as driving is normalized, people will fight against being the one 'demoted' to riding the bus - hence the need for commercials like this.
Last edited by tandempower; 02-08-15 at 07:04 PM.
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I think that was some kind of super-deep metaphor regarding the relationship between business success, the oil/fuel industry, and driving as a status symbol. Perhaps it was also commentary on the relationship between fuel waste and business success.
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"Selling" public transit in this way is important because of the cultural lag between the growing practicality of alternatives to driving and their popularization......so as long as driving is normalized, people will fight against being the one 'demoted' to riding the bus - hence the need for commercials like this.
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+1. The task is to bring public transportation (along with bike culture) to critical mass, so that the stigma of using buses/subways/etc. is eliminated. If the attitudes of younger people can be shaped to embrace the low-carbon alternatives, there is hope that when the currently conventional suburbanites die off, a better order can take root. European cities have pioneered this model, and progressive cities in the U.S. are getting there, but urban/village population densities are required, which is a long stretch for much of the U.S.
Mixed-use development is making car-free living possible in remote suburban areas by putting apartments and shopping together in the same complex, often with walkable/bikable greenspace to make living there comfortable and healthy without constantly needing to travel elsewhere. Such mixed-use communities of business and residential living can be linked with other such areas, with stops in between where subdivision residents can ride. Bike-sharing or bike parking at transit stops allow transit riders to bike between home and the bus stop.
Suburbs are not permanently unbikeable and inconvenient to transit use. There just needs to be transit lines and bike paths/lanes available so that people have the option of leaving the car parked instead of sitting in motor-congestion when growth begins to push the limits of automotive infrastructure in the area.
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