Is it too much to expect an on-time, reliable public bus service?
Due to employment parking restrictions, I have needed to catch the bus to work for the past month. The upvalley bus is consistently nine to 13 minutes late at my local stop except for once when it was three minutes late.
If I was consistently nine to 13 minutes late for work, I am quite sure I would be out of a job! Headed back downvalley the bus is consistently six to 10 minutes past schedule. If the posted schedule was determined before buses got busier, why not just amend the schedule to reflect an accurate representation of when we can expect the bus to arrive?
Why do BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) buses not pick up local passengers when RFTA (Roaring Fork Transportation Authority) is aware that the local buses are substantially late?
Perhaps there should be extra local buses scheduled? One per 30 minutes seems a bit scarce given all the BRT and express buses. In the time that I wait for my past due bus every morning, I could have driven to the intercept lot and caught a free BRT. What sort of public transit system do we have that encourages people to drive?
How do other countries allow for the time it takes to load/unload passengers on trains, buses, ferries and still manage to be on time?
A fellow passenger remarked that “he has been a prisoner of the transit system here for the past five years” … given the money we pay through our property taxes and the fares do we not deserve a system we can be proud of? Or at least rely on to be on time?
Bronwyn Anglin
Basalt