Why are so many people ashamed of riding the bus or walking?

[ApatheticNoMore]

Why don't people take the bus? It takes twice as long to get anywhere as driving. Then like I've said some bus lines are just horribly unreliable and choose not to come whenever they feel like it (I happen to know someone well who is really and truly living the carless life like I said. They are desperately calling for rides in such situations). Then there are whole parts of town you can't even get to by bus after say 9pm. I know I've wanted to go to the bars there and let's just say not drink and drive Stigma has to be way down the list I'd think.

Make no mistake peak oil and the like and people will be using busses, but they leave a lot to be desired so long as other choices exist.

[CatsNK]

So funny - I was just telling people at work that I plan to sell the car and rely only on the bus. The reaction: "But aren't the people on the bus lowlifes?!" That was the very first thing that was mentioned. There's a stigma there, alright...

My response, fwiw, is that there are blind people riding the bus and poor people. Just because someone is poor doesn't say anything about their character.

[JaneV2.0]

How do I hate city buses? Let me count the ways...Really, I took them for years and years and years due to working downtown and wanting to avoid parking hassles. I took them at almost all hours of the day and evening. I will still take them on rare occasions, but I consider them a last resort, due to factors others have mentioned: waiting, lost time, long, meandering routes, and sometimes problematic fellow riders. Not to mention I'm not crazy about crowded conditions and really treasure my privacy. I do walk for errands on occasion, and can't imagine anyone else would think anything of it. People walk around here all the time. Mostly attached to dogs, but still...Bus commuting is common here, as well. The Park and Rides are always full.

[maribeth]

I like the bus in theory, but between the waiting, the stops and the transfers, it takes me at least half an hour longer to get to work that way, and I have better ways to spend that time.

I do, however, appreciate that our home is well-located near several bus routes. So we can walk to the beach (downhill) and take the bus back (uphill) when we are tired, get around by bus if one of our cars is in the shop, and take the bus to the airport.

[kib]

It's too bad light rail and subway systems are so much more expensive to install than busses. The NY subways are rather unattractive, but still astonishingly fast compared to any sort of street traffic solution. And one of the few places in the US where, unless you're in the class who takes taxis or a car service, subway travel is just how ordinary people get around - no stigma there.

[Tiam]

It's a social stigma. Not having a car. Not being ABLE to afford a car? And often the kind of people on busses are the the bottom of the pond type and that creates it's own dynamic.

[gimmethesimplelife]

I think it's because in this country, other than in some places where lots of middleclass people take public transportation, like NYC, it has a "flavor" to people of poverty. The feeling is that anyone who COULD have a car, would, so the only people left who "need" public transportation are losers. Yes, it's ridiculous, but it's real.

And since it's more the poor who ride buses in many places, and the poor in this country are often minorities, even racism gets mixed up in there with classism.

I know that both my mother and my MIL even resisted MIGHTILY, even riding the little buses operated by their retirement communities, and would do almost anything to avoid going in them, that "anti-bus" prejudice was so strong.

People feel like that about traveling by Greyhound, too. Not too many middle-class folks riding The Big Grey Dog.

I wish we had the attitude of Europeans, where EVERYBODY practically uses public transportation, and the public transportation systems are wonderful, but in this country in most areas, the public transportation systems are NOT great, and so no one except the people who HAVE to use them, do, which means that they don't get improved. It's a vicious circle.

I remember when I visited my mother's family in Salzburg, Austria, a city of only a few hundred thousand people, how amazed I was at how wonderful the public transit there was and what a broad cross section of society seemed to be riding it.....I also had this experience living in Portland, OR, which has AMAZING public transportation for a city of it's size. But now I am in Phoenix, a very auto dependent city, and notice here too with the economy being what it is, there seem to be more people of different walks of life riding the bus, and now we have light rail, which seems to me to have more cache than the bus, as I see many well dressed office workers commuting on it these days.

About Greyhound - I guess I am a bit bougeious (sp?) after all - I have had some really unpleasant experiences riding Greyhound and would rather not unless I absolutely have to. Back in the day when I was working at an upscale pizza place during the housing boom and making really good money (think 2005, 2006) I used to spend weekends in Tucson and I would take Crucero down, which at the time was a Mexican busline and much, much, much nicer than Greyhound. Seriously there is no comparison. Interesting reverse snobbery (?) I know some people who thought it was. Rob of the North Rim Summer 2011

[Leelee]

I live in the UK where most towns and cities have an excellent public transport system. There is however still a stigma amongst some people where buses are concerned. I sold my car last year and have no plans to get another. I used to take the bus into work and one day my boss called me into a meeting about my travel arrangements and practically told me I needed to get another car!!!!! Her thoughts were that I just wouldn't be able to make it into work in the winter by bus!!!!
Needless to say I no longer work there, I have a new job which I get to by train. One of my new colleagues also sold her car and didn't replace it and she walks to work. No one at my new job has berrated me for being without a car, I feel so much better for not having to explain myself.

[Zzz]

The time is definitely another concern. A drive that takes me 20 minutes in the car can take 90 minutes with a city bus by the time it makes all of its stops and by the time you transfer. I can't take 90 minutes to go each way each time I want to go somewhere.

Plus, if I didn't have a car I would be in a lot of trouble. They dropped service after 6 PM this year on one section that I would have to use a lot. Most of the bus goes until 9 or 10 pm.

The buses in a lot of cities don't start early enough to get people to an early first shift job (where you must be to work at 6 or 7 am) and end before people go home from 2nd shift. Makes it hard for people to get to and from work.

[mira]

A lot of people mention the increase in travel time as a deterrent to taking the bus/train/underground. I love using that time to read, listen to music or sleep. I can't imagine having to be alert at the wheel every time I went somewhere. How exhausting.