I started this discussion on mastodon, but want to here too. If you could create the perfect bus stop, what would it have? Here are some of my ideas:
β Safety:
- Shelters: no advertisements blocking views. Enclosed shelters must have 2+ exit points.
- Solar lights
βΏ Accessibility:
- A space in shelters for wheelchairs.
- Marked wide paved section for wheelchairs & those with mobility difficulties to board a ramp onto the bus.
- Braille on bus stop signs & tactile pavement.
π²Other:
- Bike racks
- Vending Machines
- Public water fountain
- Tiny library
Do you have more ideas?
Edit: realized the photo i added is ai, but i can't seem to get rid of it so π€·ββοΈ
The ideal bus stop is one where buses stop so frequently you don't actually need the stop to be a microcosm of city life because you're at most five minutes away from the next bus.
Mmm, back in the 200Xs there was one bus stop like that near my work. It was incredible. You didn't even have to think about "catching the bus" you would just go to the bus stop and wait around for a few minutes.
To give you an idea, it was never even worth it to light up a cigarette at that stop - you'd barely ever get to finish it.
Now imagine living in a city where all bus stops are like that (well, most anyway).
That's actual "public transit".
It's so frustrating because all the infrastructure and willing workers are right there. We just don't do it (because of money) - at least in my city.
I hated public transit in Ottawa when I lived there. It was so bad that I bought a car, something I'd at first thought I'd never need, just so I didn't have to take OC Transpo anywhere. (OC Transpo is optimized for taking people from the suburbs downtown for work in the morning, and take them home in the evening. For literally any other use case it is worse than any other form of transportation other than, sometimes, walking.)
At least I thought I hated it.
Then I moved to a place that has reliable, frequent, fast public transit. 16 years after that I returned to Ottawa for a trip ... and found that beforehand I only mildly disliked OC Transpo. NOW I really hate it!
And why is it so bad? Because the City of Ottawa has made two fundamental errors:
And what's especially annoying about all this is that they have all the pieces to have a world-class public transit system in place. The Transitway is roads that only buses can drive on, allowing them to slip past traffic jams. The buses themselves are astonishingly comfortable (kicking complete ass against the buses I ride in that regard). Bus stops are generally located in smart places and are frequent enough that you're probably within walking distance of a bus stop even in the middle of the suburbs.
And yet the system is so incompetent that despite those advantages only the truly desperate use it outside of two hours in the morning and two hours in the evening.