I was at a meeting this week about public transportation in my town—what we have of it—and during one of our many tangents into how we could actually get viable transit throughout the valley, at least among the three main cities, I happened to mention that my car had broken down over the weekend, and that I had jury duty later in the week. At the county courthouse in the next town over, about 15 miles away.
I love that you think about buses this way. Me too - and also ferries, the buses of the waterways here in Scotland.
Every time I'm travelling on either, I had an opportunity to strike up conversation with strangers and do a bit of people-watching, both of which are good for my soul in ways I don't quite know how to verbalise. No buses? None of that path-crossing serendipity, or the reminders that we don't live in feudal pockets of lonely isolation, we're part of communities (and if we don't feel like part of those communities, well, why not make more of an effort, starting with an awkward hello?)
So on top of the eroding of access to places, there's also the loss of access to people. Which is...not a good thing for us in the long run. See: pandemic. (And I wonder if *that* will put even more pressure on buses. I feel very lucky to be in a country where buses and ferries are so entrenched as ways to get around that there's currently no question of limiting their use just because COVID-19 isn't yet under control.)
Thanks for the link to my piece on Jo Kibble's wonderful, absurd adventure. That idea for a personal challenge was everything I love about the British amateur adventurer spirit of "let's go do this somewhat everyday thing to wild excess and document the whole thing in a gently self-mocking way". So much fun, and truly inspiring, because, well, any idiot could do it, because look, one just did! I am proud it's so deeply baked into British culture in a lot of the right places.
I've never ridden a bus as an adult ... except maybe in Chicago a couple times, now that I think about it. I see people using the bus in Missoula but I've never used it, though I would happily do so if it came out to where I live and it doesn't. It is frustrating. I would love to be able to reduce how much I drive but given how massive vehicles (and the texting drivers behind the wheel) have made my narrow country road I have to take for at least a dozen miles at a time a death trap, I don't think I'll be that person for a while yet.
I was really struck thinking about so many of the things you discuss here, Nia, when I was in Tucson recently. Talk about a city that seems to be moving farther and farther away from any kind of walkability. Most of the main thoroughfares have been widened so many times and are so packed with speeding cars that crossing them at all for many people probably takes two lights and some dangerous waiting at the midpoint. It's disappointing how little progress has been made culturally related to this.
I used to provide strategic oversight for a youth government funded public forum that offered a space for young people to discuss everyday social issues that affect them. Through the 4 years I spent with them, I identified a sense of weariness and disillusionment when staff were made to explain the actual utility (positive externalities) of the public service they were offering - there was a major disconnect between doing the job and doing it meaningfully. This sentiment did eventually cascade into the quality of service that was delivered.
I suspect a public good or service is only worth its value when there is a sense of solidarity behind its operation, where everyone is motivated and convinced that it will make an enduing change to local communities. Unfortunately most public initiatives (where I live) do not have long lifespans and the quick turnaround (often attached to the presiding electoral cycle) does little to motivate those working on it.
I'm reminded of Thornton Wilder's words:
“Leadership is for those who love the public good and are endowed and trained to administer it.”
We need passionate leaders who believe in the virtues of the public enterprise rather than just paying it lip service.
I have tried and failed many times to decipher the occult tables that are the City of Billings MET Transit schedule. I am not at all certain that if I find a bus stop near my house and get on the bus, I will ever get back to my house. They paid for a service that tracks the busses on a GPS so you can see where they are, but nothing showing where they are going, or, more crucially, how to connect various bus routes to get across town to a destination. I'm sure this has nothing to do with only 10% of the MET Transit's revenue comes from bus fares, that the few times I see a bus in the wild it is carrying no more than four passengers at a time, or that I have never heard of any of my friends or associates taking the bus. As one who grew up walking and biking all over my little home town, and didn't get a driver's license until I was 20 years old, because there was a decent transit system that could take me between my home and the state university where I spent my freshman year, I am disturbed by how difficult it is to navigate this town. But, at least we have those new, dump-methane powered busses. More grant money pouring in to buy more carts when we don't have any horses.
In many cities, the bus routes can be planned out through Google maps. I took a moment recently to see what it would take to get Billings "on the map", and found that, for Google, it appears to be merely an issue of putting the route data in a particular text format and submitting it to their transit program. They have a radio button to select what kind of user is submitting the data, and among the various professional transit officials, one selection humbly indicates "end user". I haven't had a chance to follow through, yet, but I am hopeful that this opens the door for normal transit activists to submit data that would simplify access to the system.
Well said.
I love that you think about buses this way. Me too - and also ferries, the buses of the waterways here in Scotland.
Every time I'm travelling on either, I had an opportunity to strike up conversation with strangers and do a bit of people-watching, both of which are good for my soul in ways I don't quite know how to verbalise. No buses? None of that path-crossing serendipity, or the reminders that we don't live in feudal pockets of lonely isolation, we're part of communities (and if we don't feel like part of those communities, well, why not make more of an effort, starting with an awkward hello?)
So on top of the eroding of access to places, there's also the loss of access to people. Which is...not a good thing for us in the long run. See: pandemic. (And I wonder if *that* will put even more pressure on buses. I feel very lucky to be in a country where buses and ferries are so entrenched as ways to get around that there's currently no question of limiting their use just because COVID-19 isn't yet under control.)
Thanks for the link to my piece on Jo Kibble's wonderful, absurd adventure. That idea for a personal challenge was everything I love about the British amateur adventurer spirit of "let's go do this somewhat everyday thing to wild excess and document the whole thing in a gently self-mocking way". So much fun, and truly inspiring, because, well, any idiot could do it, because look, one just did! I am proud it's so deeply baked into British culture in a lot of the right places.
I've never ridden a bus as an adult ... except maybe in Chicago a couple times, now that I think about it. I see people using the bus in Missoula but I've never used it, though I would happily do so if it came out to where I live and it doesn't. It is frustrating. I would love to be able to reduce how much I drive but given how massive vehicles (and the texting drivers behind the wheel) have made my narrow country road I have to take for at least a dozen miles at a time a death trap, I don't think I'll be that person for a while yet.
I was really struck thinking about so many of the things you discuss here, Nia, when I was in Tucson recently. Talk about a city that seems to be moving farther and farther away from any kind of walkability. Most of the main thoroughfares have been widened so many times and are so packed with speeding cars that crossing them at all for many people probably takes two lights and some dangerous waiting at the midpoint. It's disappointing how little progress has been made culturally related to this.
This was a brilliant read thank you!
I used to provide strategic oversight for a youth government funded public forum that offered a space for young people to discuss everyday social issues that affect them. Through the 4 years I spent with them, I identified a sense of weariness and disillusionment when staff were made to explain the actual utility (positive externalities) of the public service they were offering - there was a major disconnect between doing the job and doing it meaningfully. This sentiment did eventually cascade into the quality of service that was delivered.
I suspect a public good or service is only worth its value when there is a sense of solidarity behind its operation, where everyone is motivated and convinced that it will make an enduing change to local communities. Unfortunately most public initiatives (where I live) do not have long lifespans and the quick turnaround (often attached to the presiding electoral cycle) does little to motivate those working on it.
I'm reminded of Thornton Wilder's words:
“Leadership is for those who love the public good and are endowed and trained to administer it.”
We need passionate leaders who believe in the virtues of the public enterprise rather than just paying it lip service.
Spot on, Nia; thank you!
I have tried and failed many times to decipher the occult tables that are the City of Billings MET Transit schedule. I am not at all certain that if I find a bus stop near my house and get on the bus, I will ever get back to my house. They paid for a service that tracks the busses on a GPS so you can see where they are, but nothing showing where they are going, or, more crucially, how to connect various bus routes to get across town to a destination. I'm sure this has nothing to do with only 10% of the MET Transit's revenue comes from bus fares, that the few times I see a bus in the wild it is carrying no more than four passengers at a time, or that I have never heard of any of my friends or associates taking the bus. As one who grew up walking and biking all over my little home town, and didn't get a driver's license until I was 20 years old, because there was a decent transit system that could take me between my home and the state university where I spent my freshman year, I am disturbed by how difficult it is to navigate this town. But, at least we have those new, dump-methane powered busses. More grant money pouring in to buy more carts when we don't have any horses.
In many cities, the bus routes can be planned out through Google maps. I took a moment recently to see what it would take to get Billings "on the map", and found that, for Google, it appears to be merely an issue of putting the route data in a particular text format and submitting it to their transit program. They have a radio button to select what kind of user is submitting the data, and among the various professional transit officials, one selection humbly indicates "end user". I haven't had a chance to follow through, yet, but I am hopeful that this opens the door for normal transit activists to submit data that would simplify access to the system.