Public transportation

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What kind of difficulty have you had with public transportation?

Ex: late
Dirty
Passengers bothering you

Crowded, there are always several lines in a city that are very crowded, almost inevitably.

I always seem to pick up a cold after being sat next to some sneezing or coughing passenger, after being on the bus. My immune system isn't the best, so it is a concern for me.

Public transportation where I live is pretty good but it's not heavily used so it's never crowded, but you do have to be patient and have a lot of time on your hands because it's slow. There are no subways, only buses. I've had an occasion when a bus that runs every 30 minutes (which is bad, too infrequent) didn't come and I had to wait an hour. It was 97 degrees and the bench was too hot to sit on, so I sat on the ground and got bit by fire ants. Still, I'm not really complaining. When I can I'd still rather take the bus than an Uber.

Expensive.
And it's not even in dollar rate.

Poor accomodations to the usual weathers.
But then the climate here is crap.

Also not being able to go further...
There's no variations of transports in my city.
It's either tricycles or jeepneys.

There are no taxis, no trains, no vans, and buses are used to longer travels. I don't live in a particularly crowded city.
The road is only crowded when; school time starts and also when it's over, or if there's an event like graduations, if not Sunday masses.

Gained Number Post Count (1).
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Lose more time here - Updates at least once a week.

- The buses are old. They creak as they move and there's always a worry that the bus is going to break down any minute.

- Accidentally getting on a limited service version of your usual bus route, then ending up stranded because it doesn't go where you had planned to go.

- Buses just not turning up. What happened to it? Excellent question!

- Some of the bus stops are just decorative as no bus services actually stop there anymore.

- Really worn down seats on trains. Holding together by a thread - just absolutely tattered. Who even knows what the original colour used to be?

- Overcrowded train services with no seats available. Naturally we've somehow lost a train carriage and the food trolley is missing in action.

- Train services that are just blatantly unaffordable. We're not even going that far! Yet there are services that would cost me more than if I were to buy plane tickets to another country!

- Sudden cancelled train services.

- Near constant train strikes.

BUSES:
No bus shelter for protection when it's raining or blisteringly hot.
Bus stop located next to heavy traffic.
Bus stop located where you can't see bus arriving till it's too late to flag it down.
Bus early, late, or doesn't arrive at all.
Buses stop running early in evening.
Timetables at bus stop unclear.
Electronic signs wrong.
Services fragmented across many companies, making journey planning complicated.
Drivers rude or incompetent, enforcing nonexistent rules.
Bus overcrowded.
Fellow passengers noisy or unruly.
Insufficient baggage space.
Seats too small, insufficient leg room.
Seats placed so you're facing a stranger.
Can't see out of window to determine when arrived.
They're always mucking about with routes and times.
Private bus companies axing unprofitable but important routes.

Doesn't bother me personally because I've got a free bus pass, but they charge most people regardless of ability to pay.

To give credit where it's due, sometimes none of those things happen and the experience is quite good.

TRAINS:
Much of the above, plus:
Industrial relations poor, leading to frequent industrial action and disruption.
Extortionate prices especially if you buy ticket just before boarding.
Unintelligible announcements at stations.
Getting very hard to buy a Tube ticket with cash.

When I used to take the bus to school it was an absolute nightmare. Half the time the bus didn't even come, and when it did the drivers had no idea what they were doing and would go to the wrong place, or drive in circles for an hour before continuing, or stop and never start again with no explanation. (This is not an exaggeration.)
During covid, they had strict mask rules that were never enforced, so no one wore masks and I never knew if I would get sick from riding the bus. Also, people regularly smoked on the bus or were extremely loud and obnoxious, both of which were prohibited according to multiple signs, but no one ever did anything about it.

I am terrified of driving, mainly because I have severe ADHD.

Public transportation in Panama is nightmarish, since it isn't properly maintained. Some buses are like 10 years old and have air conditioner, but there are still buses that are more than 50 years old running around.

In both cases, buses tend to be overcrowded and getting in them can be nightmarish.

There is now a subway system, and it is really overcrowded between 5 and 6. I absolutely love the subway system. It is still clean, and well organized, hard to believe it runs in Panama.

Driving is stressful for me, so I prefer living in a city with good public transportation.

In addition to its ithet problems, the NYC subway used to be a sensory overload nightmare for me.

I'm now in a city with a clean, efficient, dependable train system, and people are mostly well behaved. I still get annoyed if people stand or sit too close, but I realize that's unavoidable. Sociopathic people watching programs or listening to music on their phones without earphones is another matter entirely.