Why American Buses Are Just Worse
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- Опубликовано: 16 янв 2023
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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.
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").
It is not about income, it is about race.
Definitely the impression I get in US cities. I find the drivers are generally really friendly and helpful though.
In Canada as well, or just USA?
@@starventure Every race seems to be cool with it except one that try's to blame other people with their problems.
@@theaveragejoe5781 Mostly USA.
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.
If you're talking about those seats without any padding, well, those are easier to clean and more resistant to vandalism and general wear. (Yes, I'm aware that the vandalism bit is silly.)
@@sonicboy678 See, I don't buy the cleaning bit. A padded seat with some kind of vinyl cover or something like that should be just as easy to clean. But also I've never been on a bus or train with super dirty or worn seats, even obviously old ones. Now that might be because they spend a lot of time cleaning and repairing the seats but I kind of doubt that. Also the new LRT trains in Calgary have these plastic seats with a strange curvature that kind of digs into your back. I don't think that's because it's easier to clean.
@@wearwolf2500 The vinyl may be easy to clean, but it tears. I've seen several torn seats. I don't know whether this is vandalism, people wearing tools, someone sitting too abruptly, brittleness in the cold, or something else, but it seems to be a thing.
@@wearwolf2500 Vinyl is a quite bad idea, as it heats up when exposed to sunlight, and it gets brittle very soon. Most European busses thus have textile covers.
@Kyle Brown Compare the seats on the London Tube with those on the New York subway. New York's seats, despite the reputation otherwise, are much cleaner owing to the fact they are plastic and only need a wipe down to be clean. London's seats are padded and require vacuuming, and are generally considered more gross.
There are subways that have been active for decades with the same seats because you can't really damage a plain plastic seat. Also, homeless people readily sleep on them so it's not a good deterrent if that is the goal.
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.
Okay, but they do buy buses from other countries...
@@XxXgabbO95XxX Almost all busses in Norway are made at Volvo's factory in Poland, but a few ones are made in Finland and Israel.
The main reason why Volvo is popular here, is that no other company has their focus on safety. They claim their goal is that no one shall die in a vehicle made by them - they know that's impossible, but it's their way of focusing on safety in everything they do.
Correct@@XxXgabbO95XxX, what @johnnymartinjohansen is total bullshit. I don't know where he lives, but in Western Norway it is highly competitive who wins a contract. I haven't seen Volvo winning any contracts here since 2018 (except coaches, they have great coaches).The Chinese brand Yutong won the contract to supply the city of Bergen with all electric busses in 2020. Outside of Bergen they mainly run Mercedes-Benz and Scania. Also some MAN gas powered busses, some smaller Iveco busses and some Volvos.
Here in Bulgaria they regularly breathalyse bus drivers before they start the day
@@piccalillipit9211 In Norway too, all new busses and minibusses are required to have breathalyzes after 2019.
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.
better than the previous system, which was an Ancap's wet dream of dozens of companies running death traps whichever way they felt like. But Bogotá's system, which copies Ottawa's, is wholly inadequate
@@kenon6968 What's inadequate? Bogota? I mean it's not perfect but it's much better than what the city had before. Or were you referring to Ottawa? Most North American cities are woefully underserved when it comes to transit. Just a few exceptions. NY, Chicago and LA come to mind.
@@davidhutchinson5233 Bogotá's, there really wasn't a "unified" system per say before then. Ottawa's is perfectly adequate for a city its size.
Are bus lanes not common in the US? Damn
@@staryoshi06 Sacrifice one of the car lanes for a bus lane ? Never.
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.
This is exactly the point. Public transportation is not really made appealing for every one. It's for the have nots, or the can'ts. Not quite a charity solution, because here it's $5 per ride; $5 of gas/petrol takes me 30 minutes to work and back in my car easily. And I don't have to wait in 0 degree weather in the dark for a bus, or walk half a mile to a stop carrying all my work items, sit in dirty seats and risk taking home bugs with me, listen to the drunk person sing obscene rap lyrics the entire 90 minute bus trip, or rush out of my work to catch the return that only comes once every 90 minutes. Peace, safety, space, cost and convivence will keep US buses from becoming a universal thing, and the will always limit the improvements they will make to the system. Though honestly I think they want it that way, because it's Americas way of keeping class distinctions in place. ( along with housing and education).
same here in Argentina. Everyone uses public transport. Even people that own a car will 100% the Subway for example if the place they wanna visit results to be near a subway station
In Hamburg, we currently plan to eventually never have longer waiting periods than 5min. They really do a lot to replace cars by PT
You would never take the car in central Stockholm because it would take you half an hour to find parking.
At least in germany in a huge city above 1 mio pop. Its pretty stupid to own a car. Its cheaper to buy a ticket. fix costs and the non exisiting parking space makes a car a pain in the arse. Still you need a car on the landside privatised bus comapnies who have a contract with the city have to make a buck. Really low timing and bus traffic stops sometimes at 6pm also driver shortage is a thing nowadays. We still have to go a long way.
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.
in my country these vans are used to travel faster, but with the cost that you're crampled there like a sardina, like 0 cm between people
In Poland some companies offered small bus (MB/Dodge Sprinter) as outer city transport and between villages.
Also we dominated long haul via even smaller buses (officially non bus, 8-9ppl)
In México we call them "combis". Those cover areas far away from principal avenues and highways.
also in Germany
We used to have those in the UK in the 80s and 90s for evenings and low ridership local routes, they were called "hoppastoppas" in my town you could hail them (or get off again) from anywhere as they approached on certain routes. They were most convenient for the riders, though not so much for other vehicles travelling behind them. They all got replaced by standard 22 tonne total load units and the services run down and down to the point now that the busses are no longer practical to use unless you have no choice. Never let a reich wing government run your services down, it'll remove the quality of life and living standards of a generation or more of your people, don't tolerate what we have because you will regret it.
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
ETI (Skoda) was dissolved in 2004 after failing to win a bid in Vancouver. Only San Francisco and Dayton bought them, and they weren't nice. They replaced and were replaced by New Flyer trolley buses that were *much* quieter and more reliable.
@@az................. Ehm... you get what you pay for?
The BYD K8 electric buses common in Shenzhen are also high-floor for some reason, despite being introduced only in ard 2016 I remember, while Singapore initially opted for a low entry design for its Volvo B9TL buses despite them being able to be made low-floor instead
It's crazy that the U.S. and Canada are still developing countries in terms of transportation.
Yeah, they don't even support pedestrians. Car is the only way.
It's because we're backwards but, have money. Easy. 😂
@@Elintasokas personal transportation is king only because the majority of the population is outside pubic transportation areas.
Is there a law against a bunch of you buying a "cool" bus from Europe and driving it in Canada?
Not in term of transportation only. Seeing from Europe, USA is a 3rd world country with a lot of money.
Life-work balance, free health care for everyone, access to basic service (supermarkets, pharmacies, schools..etc) at the neighbourhood in walking distance, bicycle lanes, not neccesaty to be a billionair to be a politician, several different politiocal parties tto choose, language knowledge, knowledge about of the "rest of the world), safety on the streets ..etc.) But maybe I offended many 3rd world countries by this because in many of them these thins are natural.
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.
GG car lobby
Romania capital got STB
i dont know why, Open transit is a hell of a good business, or not?
i mean if you place a Bus line on a Main traveling line you would make a ton of money.
Us transit sucks
Everything’s is thinking for cars
"but but but the usa is big!!"
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.
Nice Archuletawsn! So true. As I made in a comment above, I am familiar with the long red buses in Mexico City. They're modern and not too dissimilar to anything you would find in Australia/NZ/Europe. It's the reason that people shouldn't put Mexico in the "North American" basket for everything because they're decades more modern than typical US buses. But the small, green, ancient Mexico City buses are in a completely different category and like many forms for transport in Mexico City, it seems that different socio economic groups take different forms of transport.
Kudos to the subway in Mexico City though. It's cheap and works so well!
Biba mi amlo buey
I thought Mexico was considered part of Central America.
Yes. Mexican buses are very unique. I don't know why we are excluded if we are part of the NAFTA.
@@glennstewart6632 lmao feels weird when Australia is lumped in with Europe as opposed to NA when talking about public transport
The bus in the thumbnail is a Mercedes Benz Citaro C2 running on Budapest's 124th line between Bosnyák tér and Rákospalota, Bogáncs utca. Its a city outskirts line running every 30 minutes, in rush hours 15-20 minutes. It connects lesser traveled parts of Zugló, Pestújhely and Rákospalota offering connections to mainline trams or buses.
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.
yeah your so lucky to have luxury Busses while we get the welfare buses here in Canada😭
When I lived in Buenos Aires I loved the buses and subte, everywhere I went I could find a bus at any hour to get me where I needed to go. Some buses where better than others, though (the 55 from Palermo to Caballito was awful...)
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
If by "self-opening doors" you mean operator controlled, then yes ALL North American busses have them. Known as a "rear door override" to be taken from passenger controlled to operator controlled.
But in most cases that is reserved for when passengers can be bothered to read the instructions (on how to operate the rear door) presented right in their face and sometimes even said to them by the door that the operator will resort to opening it via their control as they are now holding up the bus
When looking at the NA busses shown, their interior looks like the oldest of our belgian busses usually only reserved for low maintainance routes with less stress on the vehicles due to low passenger numbers...mind you, those are busses from the 90's or at least busses from the early 00's using the pre 04 lay out.
@@theepicgamer84 Yes I know they’re controlled by the driver. What I mean is it would be much simpler if the driver would open the door right from the press of the button instead of the door unlocking and as you described having the passengers push on them.
actually here, theyve introduced passangers opening the doors by button instead of the chauffeur doing it like previously (eruopean city). really its not at all black and white between usa and europe like this video makes it out to be, not even close.
All buses in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania operate this way, with the operator controlling the rear doors at all times. It can be frustrating to have to yell for the operator to open the rear door at a stop if they don't look up to see if anyone is back there.
On the flip side, I always liked the passenger controlled doors that were unlocked at every stop, allowing us passengers to exit as needed without having to yell at the operator for assistance.
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.
RIGHT?! What is with that Dundas bus, so few of them for how busy it is.
Even in a city built around a single center (which is not that often in America) you need radial connections. And in grid cities, you should make your transit a grid, at least somewhat
@@jan-lukas You mean tangential connections, right? Radial connections are the ones that force you to drive to the city center first.
For how stupidly wide Mississauga stroads are, there's no reason the buses should keep getting caught in traffic. It remains my pipe dream to have the buses get dedicated, separated lanes and signal priority at intersections. There's *NO* reason, even with the amount of stops required, for a trip from one side of the city to the other, to take almost _twice_ the amount of time _or more_ by car
@@BirdmanDeuce26 I mean, they DO have a transitway...
Also, get a grip on reality bud, taking the TTC across Toronto takes FAR LONGER than 2x the time it does in a car, that's just a FACT of public transportation.
I must mantion Solaris here, our Polish manufacturer, that makes really great Buses that are being used by many cities across Europe.
Sadly they did not make any RHD for the UK.
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
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
The front door boarding is actually not that common in Europe: all of Eastern Europe, Switzerland, and a growing amount of other bus networks have all doors boarding. Here's a personal experience about the difference it makes: I live in Belgium, and 2 of the most crowded bus lines in the country are Brussels' line 71 and Liege's line 48. In Brussels you can board by all the doors, in Liège, only at the front. Both use 4-doors articulated buses. Well the time spent at each stop is much much longer in Liege where everyone boards at the front and the driver actually checks if everyone validate their card. In Brussels, for a similar amount of person, the bus only needs to stay about 10 seconds at each stop because people board by all 4 doors, and there are card readers at each door. In fact it took so much longer in Liege...that they decided to abolish front door boarding on bendy buses during the day. Also rear doors are usually automatic in both European and American buses: there is a button (or in America a bar or a strip) on the door that needs to be pushed to open it, and there are sensors that will close the doors automatically if no one is detected for a few seconds. The main difference is that European buses have sometimes this button both inside and outside to let people in by the rear, and also there is a doors closing buzzer on some (depends on the company bit it's becoming more common with every new version of accessibility rules)
Then there's Italy, where on a city bus, you get on at the front or rear, and get off in the middle
@@imaginox9 also I thought Liège was all door boarding - I went on a Citaro C2G on the 48 and the validators are located at all doors, plus people were boarding from other doors too
@@gabrielstravels-discoverin7368 They actually allowed all door boarding recently. With the pandemic and the fact that the front door was inaccessible, they've let people in by the rear and probably saw how much quicker it was so they've not returned to front door boarding now that the pandemic is over. And that's a good thing !
@@imaginox9 ah that explains it then. Good thing indeed!
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.
The busses here in los angeles California do that announce the upcoming stop, I think it's good they do that cuz there's been a few times when I been falling asleep. So that announcement wakes me up and like that I know I have to get off in the next stop.
My local buses announce the stops. The only minor problems I have noticed is that Cañon St. is announced as Canon St. Nothing is perfect.
Plenty of places in the us do this, definitely a very achievable piece of reforme for wherever you live.
This announcement is pretty much standard in most EU countries, and it has been for many years. Even here in Eastern Europe.
The announcements in the busses I usually use are a computer screen that shows other information and advertising. The ads mostly fund the screens, the lines make advertising money with advertising posters on the outside of the bus and on the bus stops, the stops are actually owned and designed by the advertising company and they have crews that drive around changing out posters and doing basic cleaning.
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.
Хорошо у вас там в мегаполисах. Надеюсь, что когда-нибудь все эти фичи дойдут и до нас, провинциалов.
Gotta love the marshrutka's ;) Was discouraged to use them in The Netherlands at a travelshop, but could not resist using one in Kyiv 5 years ago ;) . Fortunately, heavy evening traffic made for a slow ride, otherwise I would probably have gotten sick from the bad road surface. Liked the handing the money over-thing... that just would not work here...
Brisbane is a bit of a unique case for buses, even in Australia. We don't have a great rail system, our trams were all ripped up in 1969 and our ferries go up and down a fairly small stretch of the Brisbane River. So buses became the default public transport option. The major advantage that Brisbane has is that is is one of the very rare conurbations, having merged with surrounding areas to form the City of Brisbane in 1925. At 1,140 square kilometres it is the third largest city by area in the world. This also means it doesn't have to negotiate as much with surrounding local government areas and can use economies of scale for planning and purchasing. For example, stage 1 of the new Metro service bought 60 new HESS electric buses as their initial purchase.
Brisbane also kept overhead wiring for their buses when the tram (trolley) tracks were ripped up, so the buses could deviate slightly and get around obstacles like broken down vehicles. All this back in the day when the only viable rechargeable batteries were lead-acid wet cell batteries.
I'm in Brisbane ATM, favourably impressed by the transit system. The trains and buses integrate!
Here in Switzerland (and probably elsewhere), drivers on some buses can push a button to show "DANKE" (thanks) on the rear line info display for other road users that voluntarily yielded to them or slowed to let them exit a stop bay. It helps to motivate cooperation by other road users. It's fairly common for car drivers here to try to help buses get ahead.
Zurich sadly doesn't have that, I am pretty sure that Aargau has it tho
@@railwaystuff Yes I'm from Aargau. I wonder how they do it. Maybe it's just a smart hack that the local bus drivers share around. I doubt it though.
@@MrSaemichlaus I think there is just a button for the driver
@@MrSaemichlaus Not sure about CH, but here in A it is law that if the bus is indicating to the left traffic must stop and let it out
@@heybenjii5544in germany too
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.
In my city in northern Finland (its the winter video on "not just bikes") has park and ride - as in you cycle to the bus stop, lock your bike on the bike stand and get the bus to wherever.
in Toronto or Vancouver there are bike racks on the front. If you value your belongings sit up front and keep an eye on it or buy a quick lock to secure it.
Everyone wants to bring their personal transport vehicles ON the bus! Prams are the bloody worst, walkers, e-scooters, bicycles, mobility vehicles. FFS. where are passengers going to sit?!
Boarding and disboarding is slow enough as it is, especially during peak hours. And then people wonder why the buses are never on time.
Unbelievable.
Cities need to start putting bike racks on the front of busses, in Boston every single bus has a double bike rack on the front. It’s a wonder that this isn’t more widespread
Regarding the bike racks on the front of the bus, when I lived in California the buses had enough room for two bikes on the front. Out of a bus full of people, two can use a bike to get between the stops and where they need to go. In any American city I've lived in, the bus doesn't stop in enough places to really be useful to most people without a means of transport to areas where the buses run. I've been lucky enough to live in the city center a couple times, but that's incredibly more expensive. Most of that real estate is commercial. For getting from one business to another it's great, but how the hell are people supposed to even get to a commercial district? Of course mixed zoning and increased bus routes are part of the answer. But even with better zoning than 90% of the US it's still not really working for most people.
Regarding leaving your bike somewhere while on your trip, locked up or not, that's basically unthinkable in American cities. I've had more than one (cheap) bike stripped on all its parts when I've come back to it. After coming out of the library to find my seat gone one day, I started threading my lock through the seat and weels, but you can't lock everything, and locks can be picked, cut or broken. America is a place where people don't even put their sjopping carts away. Americans can't trust each other to not steal just because they can.
@@staycgirlsitsgoingdown2 in Europe we don't have any bike racks and mostly it is forbidden to take a normal bike on a bus.
When I lived in the Netherlands, the busses were amazing. One line used electric busses. It was incredible to see something that large coming down the street with only a whoosh of a sound. Those busses had very comfortable seats, fake wood look floors, LED lighting, USB charging ports, and nice display monitors showing the route and the upcoming stops. And they were not covered inside and out in annoying ads. In my opinion, the EV busses in the Netherlands were much, much better than any charter bus I have ever taken in the USA.
Interesting that you mentioned rattles on the North American buses. I drive Volvo and Mercedes buses in Brisbane, Australia and after a couple of years, they start to rattle as well, although the Euro6 Mercs are still nice and smooth. I'll be interested to see what our new Volvo eBuses are like in a couple of years, as they're a real pleasure to drive at the moment.
Same with the Scanias here in Adelaide, but they're bodied by Bustech so I can't really say where the blame lies. Great to drive though.
I’ve also noticed them with electric buses in Germany, both Mercedes and Solaris models. I have the suspicion they are tuning the suspension to be really stiff to try get more range out of them
@@bmortloff So, so incredibly recognisable... Since the first operator here got kicked out for Arriva in 2006 (In Europe, most areas are tender-based and the operator changes every 8-10-12 years, under the excuse this is cheaper for travellers because they get a choice... NOT), we have Scania Omnilinks... The current operator (EBS) and buses now serve the area for 12 years, 2 years longer than anticipated as covid got in the way during the end of the tender. But already during Arriva's time, the Scania's just kept being crackly, squeaky and what not. The current Omnilinks in service at EBS are still a horrible squeaky and crackly mess, even after 12 years. When the free newspapers were still a thing, you would regularly see drivers tear a page from it, to than fold it small and push it between a squeaky part somewhere: some buses were basically driving artwork with all the stuff pushed between windows and rubber seals and such, just to keep the drivers from going nuts.
I can't say that VDL Citea's (either electric or conventional) or Ambassadors are much better (the buses you see at 4:25 in the video are the ones I take to work on a workdaily basis and are in service for a number of years now), but their squeakyness is at another level and does seem to go down as they age.
Meanwhile in Singapore I find that MB Citaros rattle the least, maybe because they have independent suspension that's more sensitive to & thus better able to absorb bumps on the road, while ADL Enviro500s rattle & squeak the most, though some believe its due to lower build quality of the Zhuhai, China factory where they're assembled in (those in the UK that're assembled domestically are slightly better, from my experience). The Volvo B9L that's used on some shuttle bus services fall somewhere in-between, but also suffer from more inertia & sense of lurching forward when braking, which I suspect is because those buses use chassis/bodywork that're designed more for coaches than commuter buses, which are heavier (& thus maybe can ride out some road bumps better)
There's been times on american buses where my phone almost bounced out of my hand the suspensions are so bad. We need to change the law to allow importing better buses here. It's literally no different than importing wine or consumer goods, which is legal. If every American is already buying cheap china garbage, it won't make a difference in our economy to get busses from Europe
Australian here. I feel its important to point out that while buses in big cities are amazing, buses in more rural cities are only marginally better or on the same level as buses in the US and Canada.
will say in Canada small town busses are about the same as there big city ones except often OLDER models but also lower mileage likely so are still in good condition
I lived in a rural place, where it was low socio-economic and the buses (where it was the only form of public transportation) were absolutely terrible. I then moved to Brisbane where I am now, and the buses are amazing!
hey at least you have BusTech and BCI
Here in Scandinavia even city buses seem to be pretty much equivalent of the ones in US/CDN. I've yet to see a non-articulated bus here in Norway with more than two doors
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....
That is so kool. Rather than banning things, they accommodate for them.
They tried that in the US but the disabled protested saying they didn't want to be separated. Sow relented, it takers extra time to pick up or let off someone in a wheelchair, but it's not too bad. Personal vehicles are very affordable and convienant.
No they don't lol.
They often, not always, have spare room without seats, so you can stand there or put a bicycle or wheelchair there. But by no means is there one place of disabled people and one for pets.
How clean a bus or train is depends on where you are. I've been in lots of very dirty busses and trains. And how enjoyable a ride is has nothing to do with how clean the train or bus is anyways.
They do. But for bikes it goes only as long as the space isn't needed. Is there a wheelchair user or mother with stroller people with bikes are usually kicked out.
@@renesauer872 well, they have a bike. so it's no problem to get out and cycle.
she didn't have to ride the bike if you were taking the bus anyway ;)
and almost every city has its own bus colour
Love to see my country represented! Went on exchange for four months to Victoria BC and every bus ride made me think I was going to die.
The funny thing is, that in Copenhagen where most of the yellow busses from the video is from, we still avoid using the busses as much as possible. Even though they are 10x more comfortable than those I've tried in Canada, they are still not as comfortable to ride as our spacious trains and metros that go everywhere. That mainly applies for Copenhagen though, in the rest of the country busses are widely used.
Meanwhile in Singapore some of us actually prefer buses over trains as they have more seats (a rigid single-decker bus has 30-35 seats out of a total licensed capacity of ~90, while a train car has 36-50 seats out of a total licensed capacity of ~320) or because some train platforms are deep underground & take a while to reach from street level e.g. an out-of-station interchange between Bras Basah & Bencoolen station means ascending from the former's platform at B5 to its ticket hall/concourse at B1, then walking along an underpass at the same level to the latter station before descending to the latter station's platforms all the way at B6, with the stations' 20+m deep lifts running at only 1m/s!
In my homeland of Singapore, you can see many kinds of buses namely double decker buses, single deck air-conditioned buses, hybrid buses and even electric buses. We have 4 bus companies operating these buses. Most of the buses are powered by diesel engines and 2-door buses are common on Singapore roads. Recently we have 60 new 3-door buses but these buses are the last batch with diesel engines because the Land Transport Authority is going to bring in 400 new electric buses to replace the current fleet of old WAB single deck buses. By the year of 2024, new 3-door electric buses can be seen roaming on Singapore roads. Currently there are 18 bus-making companies tendering for the contract of 400 new electric 3-door single deck buses.
Thank you for recognizing Mexico city buses, it's always entertaining to see many brands on the same line: Mercedes, BYD, Yutong, Volvo, Alexander Denis, MAN. I wish more regular 12 or 15 m buses had a third door in the back. Can you talk about buses on elevated viaducts like the new one in Mexico, or the ones in Japán and Jakarta. Thank you
In turkey, even 10 metre solos have 3 doors. It's what the transport authorities have been demanding for the last decade. 10 metre buses are very flexible, they can be used on the narrower parts of big cities or smaller towns with less capacity.
Brazil may not be a reference when we talk about transit in general but the buses we make are great, I must say. Those buses you showed from Mexico are manufactured in Brazil by Caio and Marcopolo, the two biggest bus factories. Many cities here have simple buses (12m, high floor, no AC, front engine) due to lack of money or infrastructure or demand. However, the buses in major cities like São Paulo, Curitiba and Belo Horizonte are pretty modern and european-like, but none of them are imported. Also take a look at our coach buses which also are a good reference and exported to various countries. Search for Marcopolo coach buses, for example, they have great luxury, comfort and technology to make really long distance trips.
I was astonished when boarding a long-distance bus from Santiago (Chile) to Mendoza (Arg) in 1989 to find that the bus was going all the way to Northern Brazil. Mercedes, with a 'cabin crew' person, superbly-sprung, great seats.
I think the driving culture is also just different in Europe in this regard. It is fairly common for European drivers to flash their hazard lights to say thank you to other drivers. Having driven many thousands of miles all over the US, this is something that simply isn't done there. It would be interesting to see how something like that would or wouldn't work for US drivers
Eu comentei isso. Embora o Rio tenha um serviço mais amplo, os ônibus são comparáveis aos americanos em questão de conforto geral.
@@Scala64 the golden age of Chilean intercity buses, we used to have all sorts of makes with airplane-like service, mostly euro Mercedes O303 (some upgraded with Brazilian bergier-like seats, "leito/cama"), brazilian Marcopolo/Nielson coaches on Merc/Scania chassis, Neoplan double deckers with same upgrades as 303s, argie Magirus coaches, MCIs...
Nowadays its all Marcopolo double deckers, theres a great gap between the normal services and luxury ones, but its still a better experience than US coaches for long travels.
I used many of the busses in Japan, and the long distance one from Tokyo to Kyoto was almost as comfortable as the busses in Mexico. The weird thing was the seat layout; 2 seat rows on the sides and a 1 seat row down the middle with 2 walkways straddling it. The thing I wish Mexico had was the curtains tho.
The suburban busses in Kyoto and Nara (and the rural busses) were all not much better than American ones. They were slightly smaller, rattled, and looked fairly old. The only thing that made them better could be said to be the etiquette. Everyone got on in the back and exited in the front so there was no clustering.
I took a Nara bus in 2019 that was very nice, but it was on a tourist-friendly route so I don't know if it's representative of other buses. Very electronic, bilingual stop announcements (unlike any bus in Australia, with no stop announcements)
I remember Japan's commuter buses look more old-school too e.g. with large slab-like brake & indicator lights, & I was wondering if that's to maximise parts commonality with older models to minimize maintenance costs for operators. They may pack the latest technology though e.g. I saw a Nissan Diesel bus with stop-start technology i.e. the tachometer automatically dropped to zero once the bus pulled up at a red traffic light
Very well made video. I like to see young youtuber making just normal videos without unnecessary hype and expressions + very informative. Good job! 🙂 Greetings from Europe... 🙂
"Just do what the rest of the world does"
Isn't that the answer to a lot of problems in North America...
In Munich (and some other German cities) we even have non-articulated busses with trailers (called “Buszug” aka “bus train”) which allows to adjust the capacity of the bus to the current demand. 😁
in the 80-s they had bus-trailers in LA pulled by a "normal" semi tractor
@@jasonriddell Some of those vehicles and even busses with trailer have been used in Munich in the past (in the years after WW2 I think) as well, but we're then forbidden due to safety concerns and in fact they still *are* forbidden. It's only due to advancements in technology (cameras, detection if someone is in a door, etc.) that those cities that currently use trailers for their busses got a special permit and that only started 10 years ago or so.
Bus trailers aren't very good: Budapest have stopped using them in 1969. It has many problems, plus it puts strain on the towing bus, which isn't very healthy.
@@mozeskertesz6398 with the technology standard in 1969, yes.
But for a bus above built year 2000, there is no disadvantage
@@mozeskertesz6398 Munich (and Germany in general) also stopped using them around that time due to problems at that time (e.g. safety), but nowadays these problems have been addressed and since around ten years busses with trailers are a suitable alternative again when one wants the ability to increase the capacity on demand without having to use more courses.
I don't know if there are any known issues regarding the additional strain of towing a trailer with current generations of busses, but I can imagine that this improved compared to the 60ies as well.
I think you can extend this to pretty much all type of transport. The DC metro’s rolling stock is just horrible. Ambulances are way too large and heavy, meaning they are slow to accelerate and have a hard time breaking, therefore generally going slower than they otherwise could. I think there’s just a bias towards more bulk and, as you say, idiosyncratic solutions instead of just looking for international best practice and buying what works.
The first time I, as an American, rode a city bus was when I got to college. The buses on campus were run by a regional transit authority, and they were so loud and squeaky. Not very comfortable.
My hometown of about 30K people only has public transit services using small buses mainly meant to help elderly and disabled people get around.
that sucks man, doesnt matter how small a town or city here in europe everyone should have access to cheap and reliable public transport, all public transport is free for those over 65 throughout europe too.
yeah, my hometown of 25K in Hungary had (in the 2000s when I was regularly using them) like five routes running regular city buses, the one connecting to the train station going every 10 minutes most of the day. Plus regional buses, plus the trains for longer distance travel. And we call that "normal".
@WookieWarriorz I never heard of free public transport above 65 years. At least not in Switzerland or Germany. Where is that the case?
My rural part of America only has minivans, vans, and short buses for elderly and disabled people.
I used to take a bus to save money and let my parents use the car when I worked downtown Cleveland (I lived in the suburbs) I absolutely hated the bus so much because of the infrequency of them. I had to leave early from work to avoid possibly waiting 30+ minutes for the next bus. Also, my drive was 20 minutes. My bus route took over an hour normally too.
tell this to your council and they may have some idea do in future.
@@ulysseslee9541 Oh, trust me, they already have an idea...to further reduce service and frequency. 😒
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.)
2 Hours Ago?The Video Uploaded Seconds Earlier.
And the idea of having one doors, especially on busy intensive city routes like those run by National Express West Midlands (in Birmingham), for example, just make things completely inefficient as a result of increased dwell times. With maybe the exception of lightly used rural routes, I don't agree with single door buses at all.
Quite a lot of Italian cities have trolleybuses, including Rimini, Ancona, Bologna, Cagliari, Chieti, Genova, La Special, Modena and Parma. Naples is expanding its system - route 204 for example began trolleybus operation in 2021, and 3 additional routes are soon expected to begin trolleybus operation - including 168 (renumbered 206) and R5 (renumbered 205), with withdrawn route 203 also to return.
Yep Trolley buses are generally mostly found in Soviet blocs. Though I think we should build them more rather than using too much battery electric buses.
Arnhem in the Netherlands also has trolleybuses, so not that little cities. (And of course a lot in EASTERN Europe)
@@mr.fishmanman seconds earlier for the general public. The videos are visible much earlier for those with paid membership.
My grandfather was an “electric transit linesman” for Rotherham Corporation. Sadly, like most towns and cities in UK, they got rid of the trolley buses and trams. Now they’re wanting to bring them back. Utter madness that they scrapped them in the 60’s and wanted diesel buses.
Here's the thing, Europe is finding out the same things that the US did during the interwar years after WW2. While Europe decided to literally subsidize their transit to the point that it's _at least_ half-paid by taxes, the US went 'with the flow' of sorts. Cars are better than trams, so busses and cars replaced trams; rail is only really good as cargo transport overall outside of the 'Last Mile', so passenger lines were discontinued in general when rail got _genuine_ competition in the roads and air; that sort of thing.
I’m from Birmingham. We first installed electric trams in 1890. It’s so depressing to see how abysmal our rail and light rail infrastructure is now, considering it was so much better (and electric!) more than a hundred years ago.
@@user-ed7et3pb4o Yeah, no. The sad reality is that once rail got *_genuine competition_* in the form of air travel and roads/cars, their utility evaporates. The only reason that Europe still has a rail system is that they literally subsidize it to the point that around _half_ of the costs are paid by the state... and push most of their cargo traffic _off_ the rails.
Hearing about low floor buses reminds me of the early 2000s, when changing to low floor buses was a big deal in Finland.
It's simply shocking how anti-consumer public transport is in North America (not Mexico❤).
Oh yeah, just like it was here in The Netherlands! My dad had a weekly trip to his music teacher around that time and someday he told us how he saw a 'completely low-floor bus from front to the rear doors, only from the rear doors to the rear, the floor would go up' . We had normal-floor buses till the end of 2006, when they (sadly) were replaced by Mercedes Citaro, Scania Omnilinks (worst bus-type I can think of) and VDL Ambassador as Arriva took over operating the buses from Connexxion.
Rectification; For the Schiphol-Amsterdam Airport buses are only 42 buses, not 200. Orginally 51 were ordered, but over time 9 were transfered to the regular buslines. The whole Amsterdam/Haarlem/Haarlemmermeer/Schiphol is indeed over 200 electric buses, however these are from VDL and Ebusco, and are a bit problematic.
Greetings, a former connexxion busdriver and Mercedes Capacity instructor
yeah I was a bit surprised by this fact, 200 buses for an airport seems way too much.
Rectification; there are actually around 200 bussen at AMS Schiphol airport! These busses are from Connexxion and not from VDL or whatsoever.... And those busses are used for the airport (and around)
@@samboudarboe1776 you couldn't have a made it more clear that you don't understand what was written or said. There simply aren't 200 buses for the airport, there were 51 ordered, and as of now 9 of those are transferred to the regular buslines in this concession area. The grey VDL slfa-181 were specifically ordered for the Schiphol Airport part of the concession, the rest, the regular white buses, and the red RNet buses are aren't specifically operated for schiphol. In fact none of the regular lines run to Schiphol, and not all Rnet pass schiphol.
The fact that the buses are operated by connexxion, and VDL and Ebusco are manufacturers was clearly stated in my message.
You don't need to lecture me about my former place of work, and especially not with the same, very wrong information stated in the video, that there are 200 electric buses running at just schiphol airport is just false and misleading information
@@tripel7470 There are 200 busses that are used by the company Schiphol group those busses are also used by schiphol group but they are not driving AT the airport (I never said that btw). I know that the busses that drive for example from/to the gates are not those Connexxion busses but are different ones. That still not takes away the fact that schiphol has 200 buses used for bringing people from and to the airport.
@@samboudarboe1776 Schiphol group has 53 electric buses, connexxion operates only 42 electric buses on behalf of schiphol, regardless of how you count, that isn't 200 electric buses, and the statement is still false.
As a Serbian I can tell you rattling buses are a completely normal occurrence for me. It's not really the buses themselves, just the horrendous roads which haven't been renewed in years. What is more, we even still use buses from over 20 years ago. I guess if it hasn't fallen apart yet, it ain't broke! However, we do have some brand new buses that were delivered just a few weeks ago, along with some electric buses. So the roads are the major issue here.
I second this having ridden buses in Hamilton, ON which recently was awarded "worst street in Canada" and the buses rattle like crazy, whereas now in London, ON they hardly rattle at all as the roads are nicely surfaced.
Honestly rattling puts me to sleep, so I do not mind it that much. Unless its super hard rattling, when my head jumps up from the window and smacking it against the glass, that hurts.
@@visko6203 Oh, yes! That last part especially! That's why I try not to fall asleep on the bus as much because then my head lies against the glass, then as soon as the bumps come along, headaches xd.
Same, I'm in England and most busses rattle and shake, plus the roads are full of holes so that definitely doesn't help, also I swear some of our busses are from the 80s though I kind of like them they're vibey to ride
Revisiting this now the comments at the start about the Toronto Hybrid Bus actually perfectly describe the bus experience here in Serbia. Rough ride, screen displays from the 90's, hard seats, bus feels like it will fall apart any second. It's almost too accurate 😂
American cities have the most ugly vehicles for public transport, civil authorities etc. Last years there is a wave of change in this habit.
I grew up riding MAN and Mercedes buses in a country that is part of the greater European market, before moving to North America. I remember the ride being nicer on new busses, but it didn't take long for the busses to get all rattly. When I moved to Connecticut, I was amazed to find buses with nice plush seats. The condition of the roads have a lot to do with how the buses ride, if the roads are full of potholes and bumps the busses will ride poorly, if the roads are smooth and constructed well, the ride will be smooth. If you have dedicated bus lanes and rites of way that are constructed to handle a large volume of bus traffic, there will be a nice smooth ride. But if you drive the busses on roads that are not well maintained or constructed well, than they will develop potholes and ruts, and full of bumps that shake the parts of the buses loos.
The answer is simple, in North America buses are for poor people, and we don't want to spend money on "those" people.
Pretty much.
In my city, bus maintenance is neglected too. Oftentimes, there was trash and food on the seats and floors, and the windows are so dirty/vandalized that you can barely see outside.
Please what city? Mine too low maintenance. In Barcelona Spain
In Ottawa the articulated buses fishtail and get stuck going around corners in winter storms. I also had a bus driver tell me years ago that every driver wanted to drive the older buses in the fleet because they had much better traction due to being heavier.
Very interesting Video, I didnt knew the NA bus market was so silly, thank you for this great explanation. You got a new sub! Have you considered a mirror Teleprompter?
Most American cities had vast trolleybus networks in the 10 years or so after WW2. But by 1960, most of them converted to diesel. Generally speaking, the biggest problem with US busses (I can't speak to Canada. I haven't been to Canada since roughly 2003) is the bad scheduling and infrequent service. The actual vehicles feel fine.
Generally trolleybus networks came about when tram/streetcar networks reached a point of needing significant track work due to neglect, but the electrical infrastructure was still in good shape, and the desire for a vehicle that could do things like drive around obstacles was seen as a good idea. This led to a lot of networks taking up the tracks and buying trolleybuses instead. In the same way that the track of the streetcars was neglected to the point it needed massive expensive (unaffordable) overhaul, the same was allowed to happen to the trolleybus infrastructure, to the point where limited budgets meant diesel buses replaced them when the system needed new vehicles.
Agree, if only the frequency and being on schedule were better. This should be number one priority.
yeah, can't believe 15 minutes is considered frequent there
@@anindrapratama A bus every 15 or 20 minutes is frequent. I use such a route daily in Europe, but used to use a rural bus on the same network where 3 hours is a normal interval and detailed planning is needed to not get stuck waiting for the next day.
Yeah I have riden on buses in the USA and Europe and I never have thought about the actual buses being worse as the negative.
As a Mexico City native, I really appreciate you used footages of the Metrobús, which I agree Is a good bus system, however, Metrobús Is only a part of the massive transportation system of the city, which includes also many other bus lines, which most of them are not BRT, nor they are articulated buses. Many of those are regular buses in a miserable state that were made like 30 years ago. These buses are barely regulated and many are owned by private companies or unions, so the city goverment dont do much about them. But the worst part is that these buses are commonly the target of robbers, so many people who use the bus gets mugged on their way to work or to school.
And then there's the rest of the country lol most cities at best only get that other kind of buses.
Don’t even think about the Edomex public transport. You can lose your life there.
Exactly bro. Buses basically work when... they are able co-exist alongside other modes of transport that can carry greater volumes of people than a bus. When buses are required to do the heavy lifting, they consistently fail.
Chango, resumime lo que dijo este tipo que no entendí nada
A smackdown between the Metrobus in Mexico City and Istanbul would be an interesting topic. :)
When I used to work as a bus operator I drove Gillig H2000LF vehicles, they are very simple machines and we didn't even have power steering, but in my experience they were pretty reliable. At same time I also been driving HESS electric trolleybuses, and those were generally much nicer and more comfortable to drive, but were a bit more prone to malfunctions.
Let me guess: Seattle?
I literally just became a city bus driver. Those multiple articulating busses gave me extreme anxiety. I'm trying to imagine watching my inside mirror during a right hand turn with that monster.
If you were driving a bi-articulated bus you wouldn't even need to use the mirror to see the back of the bus on a tight left turn!
At least here in Budapest these buses generally run on major traffic arteries where there won't be too many tight turns, and usually on dedicated bus lanes in the inner city. Nevertheless there have been many situations where I wondered how the driver just managed to squeeze through a tight space with apparent ease. Bus drivers are the biggest pros when it comes to driving, much respect.
Mind you, those double articulated buses have a special steering system on the rear wheels, operating based on the distance travelled: if the driver turns his bus into a tight turn, the rear-wheels at some point will steer along as well, but not at the same moment as the front wheels. The 2 articulated parts basically follow the front like there's an invisible driver handling a just as invisible steering wheel. This is why they are quite easy to operate. I've been on a few in The Netherlands, especially the one line near the Utrecht university campus was something out of this world. Even when coming from a city where buses to Amsterdam run every 5 minutes during the morning peak (pre-covid numbers), the campus-line was just ridiculous at a 2 (or was it 1? I can't remember) minute frequency. And a double articulated bus everytime, which would get crammed the closer it got to Utrecht CS.
Downside: as soon as the driver nearly exits the curve, they usually accelerate again, which makes for a fair-ride experience when riding in the rear part of the bus.
To be fair to the old-looking UTA Gillig shown in the photo: it has clean ergonomic seats, nice digital everything, and massive doors. Pretty sure that style was an option chosen by the agency, which is a little baffling considering prior model years, but they are actually nice for a standard-length North American city bus.
Gillig phantom was a nice bus
Gillig, El Dorado National, New Flyer, and Novabus are what I have experience with. The Gilligs are my favorite ones to drive despite being the most square and plain looking on the outside.
And as part of their Gillig order, UTA is also acquiring a lot more full EV Gilligs. Interesting since their original small EV test fleet was New Flyer.
I think there is a lot to be said for a nice traditional looking bus. Here in the UK outside London many buses had coach seats in the late 80s and early 90s but this was discontinued with the low floors. Some places started having buses with leather coach seats but in London it's still basic seats sometimes hard and uncomfortable. No wifi or charging facilities either, features that have been commonplace in other parts of the UK for over ten years.
I really like our czech SOR buses. The 12m long ones actually have four full doors, which is incredible as the speed in which people get on and off is basically instant. In the Czech Republic we also have quite a few trolleybus systems, most of them using bus bodies made by either SOR or Solaris with the electric equipment and completation done by Škoda.
I live in Czech Republic, it's not just the town and city bus services that are good, but the regular coach services between towns is excellent, they are comfortable and not much slower than a car journey, I'm asleep after 10 minutes. Also a very reasonable price.
Living in Tallinn I can safely say that those Solaris trolleys are great. We are replacing trolley lines with fully electric or hydrogen buses, but Solaris worked well for a decade.
Prague was a wonderful city for transit, I lived there for three years, and never went near a car. For a city with under two million to have a comprehensive metro system was mind-blowing, considering any similar sized city in the US will have a terrible bus service at best. Certainly no trams or metros 😭
Also Czech Republic has great train system. Same for Hungary and Slovakia.
Stupid question but how do they pay for the bus tickets? There is someone on board who goes around and checks them? Most of the buses in Scotland only have one door at the front and you have to get the ticket there from the driver.
I know you covered Perth's (Westrern Australia) train network a while back but the Bus network is also getting some love from a State Government that is determined to make reliance on cars and freeways less dominant. From upgrades to bus fleets (Mercedes\Volvo) & routes to make them all disabled accessable, to inner city free zones and free CAT services, Perth is removing a lot of the stigma buses used to have. And the cherry on top is, because the entire network is government owned, the Metronet expansion includes integrated bus terminals to make a more efficient system. BTW our buses are fitted out locally to ensure there is still a economic benefit to the economy.
When something is worse or not working in the US, the answer is very often good-faith regulation that just kicks you from the back. For example, when I first moved here, I was shocked that the bus stops on literally every block. It made the journey so slow it was frankly faster to walk sometimes if you count in the wait for the bus. Then I learned it's an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) requirement. ADA influences bus design too. For example, ramps must be able to support 600 lbs - twice as much as in Europe. This makes this whole mechanism more bulky.
I think this good-faith regulation is usually bad faith. Regulation is usually for some evil goal otherwise the market would have provided it, instead of putting a gun to the back of your head.
"For example, ramps must be able to support 600 lbs - twice as much as in Europe." Do you have any evidence for this? Bus ramps in Berlin have a a much higher capacity than 300 pounds(more like 375 kg). Also do you have any evidence for the ADA requirement? That doesn't correspond with any experiences I know of.
Cheers,
Alan Tomlinson
Regulations are usually well-intentioned but have often unforeseen negative repercussions.
Dublin buses have the ramp at the front thank god the days of one door only buses are gone
As a German, I gotta say that I really loved the busses in Vancouver, Canada. First the fact that the city uses trolley busses, which I've never seen before and they had these racks in the front for bikes, which I've also never seen before. In Germany if you want to bring a bike on the bus, you have to take it inside, if it's even possible at all.
Seattle was the same experience for me with the trolleybuses. Definitely gives the city a different look for the better IMO. Bike racks for 2 on the front of buses are pretty standard even in car-centric cities, but you normally can't bring it on the bus. If the rack is full, you wait for the next bus...
I live also in Germany and around where I live we have a few lines with a bike rack in the back or a bike trailer. A front rack is not allowed because they are absolutely deadly when hitting pedestrians. There is no real option to solve this because the head will impact some random bike part, thus even a low speed accident can be fatal.
In France bikes are not allowed but there is an exception for folding bikes. In fact the common way to easy travel by transportation is to get an adult scooter you can carry with you.
@@lionec226 Are e scooters allowed on the road or pavement in France? In the UK they are illegal so it's a risk to use them (only the rental ones are allowed like Lime, Voi or Dott and restricted to certain roads).
@michaelcallummayaka you can ride your own e scooter since they are actually lots of bike lanes nowadays in most of big cities, they are even registered in the road safety rules as "EDPM (" Engin de déplacement personnel" in French)... you can use them in car lanes when there isn't bike lanes ... sometimes there are specific streets with car lanes where EDPMs are prioritized like if you drive a car and behind them you aren't allowed to overtake them till the end of the street or the ending sign.
In the US there is resistance to swipe-on/pay-off (to the point where systems will stick with old fashion conductor collected tickets because it's "wrong" to have a swipe card that doesn't charge 1 rate for any ride and they have to stay using the conductors to prevent customer pushback). This results in regressive designs on buses where there is only one payment site, so loading can only happen in one place (usually the front, in a throwback to when the driver had to manually monitor things) and thus added doors serves less purpose (in some places you actually have to get the permission of the driver by yelling to use the back door so they can watch to make sure no one gets in that way).
Also in the US most but not all systems insist on a single price/ride regardless of distance model, where fare variance is more about the routes (like the NYC 'Express' routes being more) than actual usage considerations.
In some areas like Pittsburgh that do do variable fares, this gets worse. You still only use one door, and the door you use depends on which way the route is going, where on the route you are, and the time of day, as you "pay on" in some directions (enter via front), "pay off" in others (enter via back) and sometimes switch (you get on in front, but you have to exit still front to pay more for distance). All of this because no one wants to have a two tap system because that is somehow inherently 'bad' and will lower ridership.
That and cash-only payments in the age of universal payment card usage
@@tonywalters7298 Still though cash should remain.
You talked a lot about South America, and while bus service is much higher in Rio than on most of the US, we're so far behind in terms of low flor bus and/or articulated bus availability that I actually related much more to the US lmao.
One really common configuration of buses in Latin America (using Rio as an example, but it applies to pretty much everywhere else) are the high floor buses; those have the huge manufacturing advantage of using the same chassis of common trucks, which usually saves companies a lot of money. While being cheap, they usually are the most uncomfortable to ride in.
Nao sei se foi oque voce quis dizer mas aqui em curitiba os articulados sao meio comuns, principalmente em terminais.
I don't know if I understood you correctly but here in Curitiba articulated buses are quite common especially on terminals.
As a european, it is mind boggling to see yellow school buses. Have they changed at all in 50 years!
yellow school buses actually do make sense, they are usefull in rural areas, and its genuinely just part of transit culture
For some reason the design hasn't changed much over decades. That's an interesting point I've never really thought about. Stepping into an American school bus is like stepping into the 1980s. Still has the same ugly mint colored metal they've been using since then. Ugly bench seats. Ugly windows. Unless they have finally made them nicer? I don't make a habit of boarding school buses now that I'm in my 30s. I'd imagine they're still the same obsolete junk clunkers they always were.
At least some American schools have opted for flat nose school buses now.
European bus manufacturers have tried getting in the North American market several times: first MAN and Ikarus in the 70's and 80's, then VanHool and Neoplan in the 90's, and finally Mercedes and Iveco in the 2000's. The only one that has had moderate success was VanHool. The other ones gave up because of those regulations.
Ikarus didn't fail because of regulations. They failed because of a shoddy product. The Eastern Bloc didn't care about reliability - if something broke someone had to fix it, which meant more people working, and more people working was a good thing. The more things broke, the more people needed to fix things.
@@spredelectric then again, some places like Budapest still have their (last) 1990s Ikaruses running even today.
@@spredelectric A school bus manufacturer called Crown was responsible for final assembly of the Ikarus buses in the US. Crown had no experience with transit buses, school buses were their bread and butter. I reckon that's at least partially to blame for the Crown/Ikarus not doing so well. Then again an Illinois transit system bought a few of them second-hand after Louisville was done with them and gave them at least a short second life.
Crown: *has no experience building transit buses*
"Let's build an *articulated* city bus!"
@@spredelectric "The Eastern Bloc didn't care about reliability" Actually they did. But they tended to implement simple, proven solutions (for, good and bad) and design things to last 40-50 years of heavy use. Crude but rugged. Here's an interesting observation from that design philosophy. In the mid 1990's a German car magazine tested 4x4 SUV's of all makes on a terrain test course. Guess what? The "Soviet" made Lada Niva was the only one which managed to pass the entire test. Expensive SUV's like the Range Rover, Jeeps and others either broke down or couldn't travel up a traverse.
And this expains why several European farmers used to buy the Lada Niva. Bad roads, pot-holes and the need to cross plowed fields etc meant you needed a car able to take that abuse. Oh, and that was British, German and Scandinavian farmers, not those in the old east-bloc.
Sure, the car lacked refinement and felt like driving a tractor but it got the job done.
Your whole "which meant more people working, and more people working was a good thing." political slant (why can't you just stick to the design and engineering?) means you can't make a difference between your own political bias and engineering.
"The more things broke, the more people needed to fix things." And this disqualifies you from any serious discussion. *No system in the world* - tyrannical or not - designs things just to break down, it makes *zero* economical sense. Perhaps it does to you.
@@dsevil Crown school busses were BASICALLY transit busses unlike the "other" brands but Crown has a track record of questionable BUILD QUALITY trying to build TRANSIT BUS quality school busses for the PRICE of a truck framed school bus
"Articulated buses with 3 doors"
Hamburg: "Hold my beer" *drives a CapaCity with 5 doors*
Yeah, I included them!
And 21 metre loooonggg😀😊😊😊
One thing I like about more recent buses in the US is that they are quieter machines, they used to be a lot louder, at least where I am. Having said that they replaced more comfortable seats, important on our rough roads, with basically sitting on a metal sheet (that has a thin layer of fabric on it!) Also there's less effective shock absorption in my opinion. I don't take the bus daily so it's not that much of an issue. If US bus manufacturers don't have much competition that means they work with the cities and towns to provide a cheaper product ie they cut corners where they can.
I've been riding New Jersey buses since 1953 ,never had any problems or complaints.
Many buses in the USA are known as Kneelers. When the bus comes to a stop, the bus lowers down to make boarding much easier.
@@scrambler69-xk3kvI think that is something not being mentioned in this video.
@@scrambler69-xk3kv This was something buses in the eighties in The Netherlands could do by driver command. Took longer than today (but hey, the suspension on a high-floor bus was also superior to anything low-floor built today) but it could be done.
Very interesting!! Thank you!!👏👏
Traveling by bus in Geneva a few years ago was a revelation. I think all of the ones I took were articulated. Low floors and huge doors made getting on and off quick and easy. They also felt much more spacious inside somehow, despite being very well used.
But beyond the bus itself, the dedicated lanes, the ticket machines located at the stops, and the high frequency service all added up to make the experience so much better than it is here in Vancouver, which already has one of the better bus systems in NA.
I'm pretty sure that if you take Geneva, or any other swiss city, as a reference, there will be very few places in the world that would beat that :D
This thing also applies to Japan and South Korea for me, although they don't have rules like buy-America, their bus designs do feel a bit stagnant if compared to Europe and even China (esp. South Korea until recently). Only recently Japan produced an indigenous Articulated bus design, Isuzu ERGA-Duo as most artics are imported (Mostly Mercedes Citaro G and some Volgren bodied Scanias).
feel free to add or correct this comment
And Taiwan follows Japan a lot in bus design
tbf korean buses are pretty comfy to ride on so personally don't mind their abundance
Japan had caps on bus size till quite recently, which was the reason there were no articulated buses. Once these caps were lifted the first imports arrived, followed by the indigenous product.
@@lunareunlar bus drivers in Korea drive like they are on NFS:MW!
After sedate pace of bus speed in London it was shocking how fast they get off the line over there.
Did get used to it by my third trip to Seoul.
@@AshrakAhmed Funnily enough, I'm just back from Buenos Aires and noticed how fast the buses were driven there, compared to in the UK! Great bus network and interesting metro system too. And so damn cheap!
I would love to see more detailed exposés on the barriers to great transit in North America… heavier isn’t safer, it just consumes more energy
The worst part is that, before cars, USA had a good bus systems, but they were bought out or otherwise put out of business by car companies - the same ones we‘re subsidizing, no doubt. My own preference is public personal transport, where someone picks you up and drops you off. Good for seniors who need help with the groceries, reduced parking, ridesharing, security, EV, fewer drunk drivers, integration with Uber and Lyft, etc. etc.
I didn't know about the whole "buy local" part, but I'm glad Viva decided to get better buses because compared to the older YRT buses, it was far more comfortable.
it's a $4 non transferrable fare though
Though a lot of European countries fleet would be made out by local manufacturers up until someone offer better price which push better quality across the board.
Bless your bus. I'm from India and Canadian buses look like a dream compared to what we have.
People here in Canada like to complain about everything no matter how good it is.
@@crushingvanessa3277 Sorry but those Busses Look horrible, I mean I am from Austria and complain about Busses from MAN & Solaris, but those are heaven against those you have in Canada!
@@heybenjii5544 New Flyer and NOVABUS are our 2 choices for the most part with a few Chinese battery bus options that are NOT proving to be reliable AND Mercedes Citaro is "rumoured" to be coming to the USA as Freightliner (large truck maker) is owned by Mercader's Benz again a "utilitarian" looking thing
@@crushingvanessa3277 improvement starts by complaining
@@jasonriddell stupid MB-USA thing not to look utilitarian... its the oposite thing. producing good trucks is a testimate to your engineering skills. vise versa, being a premium car brand, also sells trucks better.
Nowhere was it easier for me to use a bus for any conceivable distance, than in Latin America; from Mexico to Bolivia, and Colombia to Uruguay, I found bus infrastructure to be so common sense, cheap, and very accessible and convenient. Even tiny towns in the desert in Chile, had colectivos (upcycled busses and vans from the 1970s), that locals set up betweem towns and employment areas. And the amount of competing services between major cities makes for very cheap prices and a wide variety of service providers. One time, in 2012, I hopped on a bus from Quito to Guayaquil, going through jungles, the Andes, a whole bunch of small villages, and it cost like $22. In those cities, not only do you have city transit, but also local companies servicing rural and intercity connections. If countries with such constrained budgets and difficult geography can do it, I don't see why the USA cannot.
There is something about north american transit industrial design that is so uniquely utilitarian I kinda love it. Every fixing and fastener exposed where here it's all covered up with smooth plastic.
I think this is one of the best videos you’ve ever made! It explains most of Canada’s transit in only 10 minutes! I can share this video with anyone in Canada and they will instantly learn so much - just because most of our transit in Canada is buses.
What I love about electric buses is how unobtrusive they are. They make little noise and require very little infra apart from the road and some bus stops. You can walk in a city crawling with bus lines and only really notice them when you need one.
Yes, trams give more capacity for your money in the long run but buses are way easier to fit in most dense urban landscapes. Of course, nothing is cooler than a train, cant beat trains when it comes to being cool :D
Kind of a long term/short term thing. Major cities definitely should invest in Trams if they're serious about transit, but for the rapid expansion we need, plus with less dense areas, buses definitely have a big role to play
At higher speeds it doesnt matter if your vehicle is electric or not, beacuse the loudest noise then is tires rolling on the road. Electric buses have shorter range, and the ones without overhang wires have a reputation of caching fire in hot weather, and shorter range in cold weather. 'Adam Something' made a great video on electric buses
@@dav786 Roll noise is irrelevant because city buses rarely go fast. But they do idle a lot!
Ever sat in a bar with two diesel buses idling just outside? :)
No they're not. You need to have an integrated public transport and infrastructure policy. And of course there needs to be room for a lot of cycling
For frequent services, battery-electric buses produce a lot of road maintenance. Just look at the damage to the pavement around bus stops on a frequent diesel bus route, then consider that battery-electric buses are even heavier. For high-frequency routes, trolleybuses are the best solution, especially nowadays when they have batteries which enable them to travel off-wire to get around obstructions and avoid the cost of a bajillion wires in the bus depot.
5:29 Sometimes that’s not the case though. I had a wtf moment when I came to San Francisco for a business trip back in 2015 and spotted Czech Škoda trolleybuses everywhere. At first I thought they were just a similar looking model from a different brand, also because they had weird looking bumpers, likely due to different regulations. But then I looked up the details and was genuinely surprised. Considering that you find literally zero Škoda Cars in North America (in contrast with certain European countries where their market share exceeds 20%), it was surprising to see Škoda trolleybuses there. AFAIK they reached the end of their service lifespan soon after 2015 and have been replaced by a different brand.
The best Bus Service i experienced in the USA, was in the Seattle area. 😊
While King County Metro (KCM) Buses are a bit rougher, the Sound Transit ones have pretty nice padded Seats, and Community Transit (Everett) run Double Decker Buses.
Also KCM has electric bus since the 60s, the Rapid lines have multi door articulated buses, and aside from the fully electric ones, most buses are hybrids.
One of the many issues with busses in the us (in my personal experience), is that they do not keep tightly to the schedule. I recall that I would have to go to the bus stop to ride to university 15 minutes before the scheduled arrival, because the bus can and does arrive early... if you come at the scheduled time, the bus may have come and left 10 minutes earlier, but you had no way of knowing that... and in my case the next bus wouldnt be until 2 hours later (this was in a densely populated suburb)... Murphy's law being what it is though, most often the bus was late, so you stand there usually for 20 minutes or more waiting... in the sun, the rain, the wind, the snow...
In addition, there was always the possibility that the schedule or route would suddenly change without warning... this once resulted in me walking about 15 miles and arriving home at around six in the morning...
In many eu countries in my experience people aren't much concerned with the schedule, because there's a bus every 5 or 10 minutes on a big city route... and often the routes and bus numbers were the same for decades....
and nowadays they have mobile phone apps that show exactly where the bus that you are waiting for is... and the exact time that it will arrive at your stop... there are displays and computer voices that announce the stops and upcoming stops... they even often have USB ports for charging your phone in the bus...
I wouldn't say it's all roses in the UK to be honest. Buses within London are great (apart from having to deal with the traffic). Outside of London they are significantly worse. The main issues are single door models, low frequency and lack of modern integrated and contactless ticketing (although that is improving now). In London, the Oyster card, double doors and every 5 minute (or less) frequencies, with real time information makes it so much easier to just jump on and off. I can't comment on the comfort of North American buses, but I would say it is so-so over here. I still think trams are more comfortable and trains are a league ahead, but then I'm comparing apples with oranges so it's not totally fair.
We really need a common payment system in the UK like the OV Chipkaart in the Netherlands. There's three different bus operators serve my town and two train operators. And if I went anywhere else, same problem.
For my town frequency ranges from every 10-30 minutes depending on the line according to the schedules that are still on paper and the fleet is nearly 20 years old though still in quite good condition and usage isn't a big enough issue to require double doors since most of the time busses only really have 10 ish passengers on average outside of rush hour.
You know what's funny? The 4 axles bus you show at 2:31 is in Aachen, which was also famously using the 45m "Öcher Long Wajong" (Long Vehicle of Aachen) with the 2 "bendy bits". But those have been abolished since, because they were using too much fuel compared to newer options such as fully electric busses which have since been ordered as a replacement.
Heck I’ve been a bus rider for quite a many years and I have just come to expect the US standard. Thanks for openings up my eyes to the aesthetic and comfort differences. It could be so much bettee
1:41 Was kinda stunned about that "even Mercedes" haha
The Mercedes Citaro are EVERYWHERE in Germany. They make up like about 60% or so of ALL Busses in Germany
I thought the same 😅 Still, my hometown is getting rid of the citaros and buying buses from MAN now, I don't know why
Bis companies make ad that say "want a 500hp mecedes as you company vehicle?"
We have loads of Citaros in both Italy and the UK too.
Mercedes Citaro is THE reference city bus in Europe, despite being full of excellent busses from other manufacturers
That's about as surprising as Novas being everywhere in Quebec or, prior to folding, Orions being everywhere in Ontario.
Great point about the definition of safety, especially in regard to N American trains. That 'bulletproof' approach to crashworthiness just seems to be a response to poor infrastructure, where resilience has to be built in the wrong parts of the system (the passenger cars) to compensate for poor track, terrible signalling, dire train regulation, and far too many grade crossings. I couldn't believe how many unguarded grade crossings we went over on the Hudson Valley line when we visited a few years back.
Incidentally, buses in London ≠ buses in the rest of the UK. Outside London, we've been contaminated by Reaganite thinking since the 1980s, with soaring fares, mostly old and broken buses, and poor service. Buses themselves are usually second- or third-generation cast-offs from London. I'm afraid to say that driving private vehicles is as natural outside London as taking the bus or the tube is in London.
I agree, even here in Slovakia, a very small country, you can travel by buses, that are super comfortable, fuel efficient and safe no matter if it's a line bus driving from one city to another or an airport bus, that takes you to your plane. European bus manufacturers just care more about how buses drive and feel from the perspective of a passenger. I remember travelling in one of the first Iveco Crossways, that thing is super quiet and comfortable compared to the old noisy rustbuckets from former Chechoslovakia made since the 70's or 80's.
I agree too as a Slovak, but those new crossways ( not the ones with the delfín) are quite loud compared to those delphine ones of the last decade.
As an Austrian, our state owned operator ÖBB has gotten the trend of buying crossways and they really suck. We used to mostly have Mercedes and MAN busses on those lines, now those
Great video!
I don’t think the manufacturers themselves are the problem, but the way agencies spec the buses are. All the main bus manufacturers in NA offer configurations with reduced seating in the low floor half, seating with and without upholstery, and wide rear doors. Unfortunately many agencies choose to go with plastic seats and narrow doors, making getting off a crowded bus extremely difficult (I’ve seen too many people miss stops because people had to shove their way off the bus). As for the ride quality, I feel like Gillig and New Flyer have gotten this down pretty well with their newer models. Proterra however, is a very different story. Their rigid buses are as rough as articulated buses, which are also still very rough.
Sadly, in the USA, there is also a massive problem that nobody talks about; the people with serious mental problems that get in the buses. In the rest of the developed world, these people get a free (or very cheap) medication, but in many places in North America, they are left to their own devices and half the times I got on a bus (in California and Boston), there were several people screaming at or even assaulting other passengers without any reason (aside from the demos in their heads).
Which is part of why nobody in the US likes mass transit, and why they never will. It’s a zoo.
Yup, people value safety and reliable transit over anything else. Failure to meet those criteria and people will drive their cars, it's simple. The US will always be car-centric and there is nothing the urbanists can do about it. I will always drive my car, whether to work or elsewhere.
@@elfrjz Indonesia never messes around. They do what they know needs to be done.
@@thekrimsonchin6023 Or you can say corporates in NA will make sure that no one uses or supports public transit by making them as terrible as possible
Very well put together.bravo.
Was interesting watching this, our government recently introduced free bus travel for all under 22’s meaning I can go from a small town in the Scottish Borders to the furthest north bus stop point on mainland Scotland for free. Definitely a right step and America needs to take notes from every other country
Comment from bus use in the Netherlands: too many seats. To get refused access to a 30-min interval bus because your stroller can't fit in the space where there's already another one is frustrating as hell. That flaw is throughout the Dutch public transit system. The 3rd door removes seating space, but it's also not stroller space. The seats are soft and comfortable, however, almost like a coach.
In Paris, where I am now, there's more open space, like buses in Québec. They're all low-decked, though.
lived in Vancouver for years, and now in GTA. The busses here shake SO much. The stops and starts are so jerky its easy to lose your balance when standing room only. The road feel sucks so bad, its as if there is no suspension at all. I had a slipped disc one time and my back was in bad shape and the bus experience was really unbearable.
Yep, there is quite possibly is an accessibility argument to be!
Mmm, that also has something to do with how the buses are driven. I've found that most drivers in North America and Australia are terrible with smooth braking and acceleration. It's like they have almost no additional training on how to manoeuvre them comfortably.
Part of this also has to do with the fact that they drive different vehicles at various times, which is another reason why consistency in machinery and setup is also important on a bus network.
I wonder how much of this is actually North American roads being in worse condition, as due to the sheer amount of roads governments have to maintain it's impossible to keep up with the maintenance backlog.
I work as a mechanic at TriMet in Portland Oregon and we bought our first NOVA articulated busses this year. We’ve had nothing but problems with them. More than half that fleet has consistently down for about 5 months for serious issues.
I've heard that from the city bus drivers in my city. Basically, NOVA only gets orders because they're one of the few bus makers in North America not because they're any good
I think your friend would have a heart attack at my city's busses. They're getting an upgrade.. by making the seats plastic. Plastic! They went from a decently soft, comfortable metal/fabric seat (with that standard stain-camouflaging texture you'll see at arcades) to a seat that is literally just hard plastic. Yay!
They also don't have a display. The only display is the "stop incoming/arrêt demandé" that pops up when you pull the cord.. and half of the busses are the Nova Bus LFS 40ft with the raised rear and the engine taking up the whole back, and the other half is some other version where the engine's in the corner. All of them rattle like hell. They also come only every half-hour or hour.. so if you miss your bus you're boned. And we don't even have a fifteen-minute at peak, it's a half-hour no matter what. And to top THAT off our "bus station" is literally just the street in front of a dying office-commercial urban core mall that wiped out a city block. Concrete pillars and concrete walls. Very inviting. Nice that it's in the middle of what we have for an urban core but god it's ugly. And don't get me started on the other two interchanges.. they're both just mall parking lots. God our bus systems suck, huh?
Edit: from other comments some things to add. There is no inter-suburb bus for the northern half of the city. The bus stops are usually a card-sized metal sign on the side of the road, or further out.. literally plastic wrapped around a wood power pole. Although, they are adding proper glass shelters & benches finally, and they have bicycle racks in front, and they're getting security cameras/bus trackers (and the fifth attempt at making a municipal bus app) so there's progress. It's just devastatingly slow and it all sucks right now.
Sounds like OC Transpo.
What is not plastic today.wel. the same for body/platform.Chassis mostly steel aluminium but that May change. Carbonfibre like the newest Dutch Ebusco.s 3.0 in 12 and Artic18metre 40 to 60feet and ZF AxTrax wheelhub electricdrive i like it as bus publictransport lover 😊😊
(I'm Hungarian and) no matter how nice is the Mercedes eCitaro I take for my commute, is a rougher ride than any American bus I've ever taken.
Roads are way more important and what we have here is more pothole than road.
Homeland of the mighty Ijarus :) What happened to the company ? In the past they had a near regional monopoly on articulated buses.
maybe we should brag more about public transportation. if we made "longest bus", "biggest capacity", "efficiency per person per km/mi" and "system punctuality" international competitions we'll soon hear "we choose to go by bus in this decade and do the high-speed rail things, not because it is easy, but because they are hard..."
I'm from Australia (the rest of the world) and our buses are more or less the same as yours, there may be very good reasons why Canada and America don't have a lot of the buses you mention.
Also I've been to latin America and especially southeast Asia. The buses around the airport andd the big city are really incredible but most of the country has repurposed minivans and pickup trucks & small trucks with a roof over the bed for a bus.
In Australia’s case we import the chassis and build the bodies locally - mainly driven by the fact that our buses have to be 2.5m wide not 2.55 (protection racket much)
The first thing I noticed when riding busses for the first time in the US, was how bumpy and shakey the ride was! I was terrfied that something was wrong with that bus, but then quickly every bus in my city was like this. Then on a trip to another city, I realized all NA busses were rattly and spooky. Was are they so damn shakey over here??
Well, aside from how they're built, the pavement tends to be in pretty poor shape from all the traffic.
I bet road quality is a big part of it. US roads are in a pretty bad state of maintenance compared to Europe.
@@mdhazeldine And that gets exacerbated when cheap materials are used...
Road quality is definitely a factor.
It’s because buses in the US are for poor and minorities who are hated, so money for better equipment is not going to happen.
I am a Canadian bus driver who has traveled extensively. Here's the thing... North Americans treat their buses roughly, vandalising, trashing and breaking them. Our roads are also terrible, IF we invested in European style buses, the frames would quickly bend and the seats would be slashed in no time. Sad, but true.
Well in europe (for example Vienna) busses run with reduced or no padding, it works quite fine. For the road quality, thats probably true, however to be fair some countries roads also suck...
You've neglected to mention alot.
Agencies are heavily responsible for the specs they get on their buses, especially interior and exterior wise. It is very much possible, albeit rare for an agency to order their buses with things like wooden floors or soft, cushioned seats. Or better airbags to improve ride quality.
The Orion VII NG and EPA10 took direct inspiration from the citaro. Daimler (Mercedes Benz) owned Orion.
Novabus is owned by Volvo.
Gillig produces the gillig brt, a modern looking bus.
ENC Eldorado is a pretty big player in the market as well.
@@jacktattersall9457 you are wrong. So wrong. LACMTA operates 40 foot eldorados, same for pace in chigaco. Before you comment at least do a search on RUclips.
@@AviTheWolf Thank you. My memory must be mistaken. How do they compare to Nova Buses and New Flyers?
Doing further search, I notice that both Gillig and Eldorado don't make any articulated buses.
@@jacktattersall9457 enc eldorado is like Gillig. They're a smaller bus manufacturer but are gaining influence. They produce lots of models with various specs specified by the agency. They can make a traditional model like Gillig with square headlights and they can make a modern model with circular headlights and more curved, just like gillig. They offer various powertrains and various lengths too.
That's true. I frequently travel with older MAN lion city busses and it's presumably the most basic line because the seats are very hard and the suspension properties are horrendous. The thing almost causes concussions as it rattles over the potholes...
@@thecon_quererarbitraryname6286 I'm not surprised. I really wish RMTransit would offer corrections to his video and mention how far more complicated bus specs are, it's kind of a shame how he would let this substandard level of misinformation persist without doing the slightest of research
I totally agree on the quality of buses in North America. Vancouver streets have virtually no potholes (hardly any freeze/thaw cycles) and yet even on virtually smooth streets, local trolley buses, crash, bang, and rattle along as if they were on unpaved roads. It's bad enough for passengers, but I can't think what an eight hour shift must be like for a driver. Every now and then an old GM diesel bus will be in service, and the ride on them is like a cloud compared to New Flyer vehicles.
even from the 90s (school days) the drivers here in vancity already had air ride equipped seat bases with Recaro seats.. the one sole driver is riding decently- but less so for standees. and, the remaining pax had to contend with the then metal seats with a cheese thin layer of vinyl!
Freeze thaw cycles only punish existing defects in the road, as it happens. If water can get inside and freeze, bad news for the surfacing. The blemishes that result in this though result in proportion to traffic. High traffic road get their cracks and such sooner. And if they are not repaired quickly (i.e. before snow starts) then the water gets in and it becomes a much worse defect, i.e. resulting eventually in a significant pothole, which if STILL left alone just gets even worse. It is possible to prevent the pothole stage with proper maintainance.
But this is an area where the North American (USA + Canada) "American Dream" has essentially accidental-ponzi-schemed itself into a no win situation with its suburban sprawl and a very excessive number of roads that must be maintained. Thus many are not. And cracks become holes. Holes become things that make you wonder if you broke your suspension. And then they need to redo the road from the very foundation instead of a simple re-cover of the upper layer. Some places go full in even when a re-cover would work too.
Canadian cities are partly insulated from a portion of the woes of the long term costs of the "American Dream" due to legislation differences. But they still build the same way as the "American Dream" suburb when they can.
One thing that really helps road longevity is to convince fewer vehicles by total mass and number to use it. Canada has some benefit there as people actually see the bus as something that anyone can use. Even if they have buses that merely beat out the USA overall (specific cities may vary). Every single thing that makes mass transit more appealing to everyone makes the roads easier to maintain.