Am I the only one who actually enjoys travelling by bus? People can be so negative about it!

[Wisteriabloom]

For context, I can't drive. I'm dyspraxic, (not everyone knows this), have struggled through a lot of lessons/tests over the years, to find my spatial awareness & hand/eye co-ordination just isn't up to it. I obviously found this frustrating, but accepted I'd never be a driver back in my 20's, I'm in my 40's now! So public transport is second nature to me!

I work part-time, 3 days a week somewhere that is half an hour bus ride away. (Bus stop is only 5 mins from my house). It's fine, I get on the bus, coffee in hand, and arrive at work 10 mins early. If it's been a particularly stressful day (sometimes it is!), I'm glad of the half hour ride home, just to gaze out of the window and de-stress!😀

My parents live 20 mins away by bus (coastal route, bus stop 5 mins away from their house). Nice easy journey.

Town is walking distance from us, but sometimes we like to go over to a City Centre, approx 40 mins train journey. (Dh does drive, but likes a day out without worrying about parking) so taking the train is an easy option!😀

I don't generally mention how I get to places, but if a driver knows I've caught a bus or train they seem to pity me/say how awful it must be🤔 It's really not, and I feel quite patronised at times!😲

Obviously if time is short/emergency/stuff to carry etc I'll take a taxi, and have done at times, but generally find public transport works fine for us! Do any other non-drivers have this issue?

I don’t like public transport because people always try and talk to me, he last time I was sat on a crowded bus the man who came and sat next to me was drunk and smelt of pee.

I like buses and also trains (not been on any since pandemic) and we live where we live because it has reasonable public transport and is also walking distance to shops.

No point buying a car to sit unused 95% of the time, car clubs are much greener if you just need an odd trip somewhere. Drivers always make a fuss getting into town with parking etc - bus users spend 30% more in town centres.

Exactly TabbyM! We're lucky here with frequent, reliable public transport too (I appreciate it's different for those who live more rurally).

A friend of mine who I sometimes meet in town for lunch, seems to make a big thing of it (OMG that means you need to come all the way on the bus, shall I pick you up etc), but I'm always there before her whole she's driving around finding a parking space!

For me it's 5 mins walk to bus stop, (buses come every 10 mins), 15 mins ride direct to town centre and I'm there, so easy!!

I'm off on the green line bus to St Albans Market tomorrow and I can't wait. It takes 90 mins through market towns and lots of countryside and it's a 5min walk to stop this end and stops in the middle of the action (car takes only 30 mins but expensive to park and quite a walk). It runs every hour and is a limited stop one which eventually gets to Heathrow. My time is my own and I have a bus pass - I wasn't keen when I worked and had to pay - always the same drivers and they are very kind and chatty. I suppose it depends what stage you're at with time constraints and commitments as to whether you love buses.

That sounds lovely Billandben, enjoy! 🚍

Thank you Wisteria! X

I much prefer buses. Now I no longer travel distances for work I really don't like the tube. I am not fond of taxis either but had to rely on them recently but am back to the bus now.

It can take an hour to do a five mile journey here where I live. 2 different buses
.
Buses here stop running at 6 and start running at 7 which is no good if you work evenings or early morning
Half the time buses don't turn up, cancelled or are late.
I've also witnessed some horrendous behaviour on buses. My 13 year old daughter was sexually assaulted on a bus coming home from school

Best thing I ever did was learn to drive

It can take an hour to do a five mile journey here where I live. 2 different buses

Same here. There are no direct bus routes between our village and any other villages in our area, nor is there a direct bus route to the hospital. The buses and trains go from our village to the towns either side of us, but nowhere else.

We both own and drive cars, otherwise we wouldn't have chosen to live here.

Love a bus! I miss my 30 mins of peace and quiet on my commute. When the kids were little it was an opportunity to read a book uninterrupted. Yes sometimes they can be unreliable but so can a car journey, an accident last week made a car journey of five miles take more than 1hr...

Hello Londoners. I can see why you like buses. Here in the countryside, buses suck. They run relatively frequently and reliably between 10 and 3 on weekdays, but try and commute on one (as I did for many years) and you discover that:

• most drivers think the timetable is optional. Sometimes the bus just won’t turn up. There is no tracking system or “bus due in 10 mins” sign so if it doesn’t turn up you don’t know if you’ve missed it or it’s late or it’s not coming.
• there are 3 bus companies and you can only get a season ticket for them individually, so if your bus doesn’t turn up but another company’s one does you have to decide between paying extra or being late for work.
• whatever ticket you get, the bus driver will regard it suspiciously and tell you it’s not valid. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
• did I mention the cost? £4.50 for a one way to the nearest city, 3 miles in total. That’s £1.50 a mile.
• the air con is full blast october-March, then heating comes on in April and stays till September.
• if a route doesn’t fill up, it gets cancelled, so commuter buses are inevitably packed, meaning you get every cold going.

... so no I don’t like the bus near me. Love the buses in London!

Yes sometimes they can be unreliable but so can a car journey, an accident last week made a car journey of five miles take more than 1hr..

But thats rare

My car is far more reliable than our local buses
If I'm having to stand in the pouring rain for a bus that is frequently late, overcrowded (drives straight past so ill have to wait another hour) for a 5 milejourney that takes an hour every day then ill take my chances in my nice warm car that will take me ten minutes to get there every single day

Seems like the services are really different everywhere you go.
I live sort of rurally (on the edge of a national Park) and they're really quite good. In fact they upped the services before lockdown and they have been reinstated now, since schools, colleges and hospitality went back, in stages.
The train service locally hasn't returned fully yet, but it was fairly good too.
There's an app you can use to see when the next bus is, if it's delayed etc, but in all honesty, considering the frequency I use them, I rarely have a problem. The only time recently was during local floods - but roads were closed and no one was moving, so unless I'd had a helicopter, I wasn't getting anywhere anyway.

It is though, a fairly 'poor' area, a lot of people can't afford cars, so there's a demand and people use them.
The prices for single journeys are quite high, but I get a monthly ticket for £80, I can travel to the local big town on that, but it gets me to work and back and to places like the hospital or shops too.
And we're miles outside London. I guess it's a vicious circle for some places, low services mean people use alternatives so that means lower demand.

I don't drive and use public transport. I have to say though that I MUCH prefer the train to the bus, even a tram is better. I suppose that's because I can get car/bus sick on long journeys. I wouldn't want to do a coach trip holiday, for example, and I only ever take coaches for longer journeys if the train is too expensive.

The only time I don't like getting public transport at all is when it's very cold and I have to wait at a bus stop or in areas where transport isn't very reliable.

When my daughter worked in London, I visited her every couple of months and she would always plan a long bus-ride for us. We sat upstairs and I got to see so much of London, just the people and the places - the normal places, not the touristy bits.

Absolutely loved it. If we could get the front seats at the top we'd be in heaven, with a coffee and a snack. We never took the tube if we could help it. Happy days!

I don't mind doing buses either op

I do drive but I hate it and parking can be expensive and stressful as can being stuck in traffic. I have an invisible car so can practically garuntee some twat in an audi or BMW or van will be lracticalky trying to impregnare me. And I mean you can have a car park that's half empty but you know full.well the selfish parking thats taken place means that u will come back to find a tank making it impossible to get in your car.

.quite happy sat on a bus with head phones MNetting . If I'm.gonna be stuck.in traffic I'd rather be stuck in traffic on a bus so I can text or listen to music etc amd with family explorer tickets available it don't come to much nore cost than petrol and parking would.

I wish public transport was good everywhere.
I do drive out of necessity, but would much prefer to travel by bus, tram or train.

Well I can’t stand public transport personally and have very grim memories of it as a teenager. Now that you mention it, I suppose I would be suprised to see someone I know waiting for a bus (apart from the teens/ uni students) and I’m not sure why really as obviously not everyone can drive. I guess it’s just unusually not to drive as an adult?!

I like to get the bus now-and-again to see how the service in my area has improved and what’s new onboard (so probably once a year, I’d get the bus to town instead of driving) however once I’m onboard - I’m immediately reminded why I’m grateful I’m not reliant on the bus.

The bus is full of questionable characters, smelly people, youths thinking it’s some sort of school playground and traipse around the upper deck of the bus! Also the buses are often quite unreliable. Last time I used it, I went to meet up with DP who happens to work in another city (circa 50 miles away from our home) after work for our night away in a hotel so to save him dropping me off at our local station and we could go straight home - I decided to get the bus to the railway station. I put my hand out to flag the bus as it’s approaching the bus stop and he goes straight past me there were only two or three people on board! I had to walk twenty minutes to another bus stop in the rain (the next one would have been in an hour otherwise) to get that one! It’s safe to say I won’t be getting the bus again for a very long time after that.
So no I don’t enjoy using the bus where I live. I do enjoy using a double decker in London sat at the top on the front going through all the touristy bits though! The DLR is good for that too!

What I do love is: long distant train services! I often forgo driving somewhere to sit on an Avanti train instead as it’s so comfy and enjoyable. I love it when the train tilts . Thankfully a parkway station of theirs is only 10 minutes away from me by car with plenty of parking so I can use it often .

I love driving but I had to give up for health reasons. It's kinda important to be in control of your body behind the wheel 😏

Bus services where I live is dire so while I am happy to travel on it, it doesn't suit for many things. Two large "cities - official city status but not very big" within a distance, buses go from my town to both 8am, 11am 2pm and 5pm, to get back to the town in each case 9am, 12.30pm, 4pm and 6.15pm. No service at all on a Sunday or bank holiday.

Before I was medically retired, I worked out to go by bus to work would entail leaving at 2pm one day to be there for 11am the following day but was 50 minutes in the car.

To move closer to work was going to cost a lot more in rent than I would save in bus fare and wouldn't have been viable as I needed to travel to various sites.

We used to have a park and ride into the nearest city. I used it a lot (if I didn’t need to buy much) but they closed it and built a school on it.
Public transport here especially buses is awful.
I like a long train journey though, staring out of the window or reading. As long as it’s not too busy with people standing etc.

Lottie - I've sometimes had people reacting surprised (and even mocked me🤔) when they see I'm waiting for a bus, not sure why!

Recently I was at the bus stop, waiting for a bus to visit my parents. These buses come every 15 mins, and it's a lovely half hour ride along the coast. Just before it came I was suddenly aware of a friend of ours, shouting across the road from his car window, for me to cross over and he'd give me a lift!

Across two lanes of traffic I eventually got him to understand I was fine, bus was approaching the corner (I could see it!), and waved him on. He seemed frustrated, threw his arms up and shrugged, then drove off. I felt a bit bad at refusing, as it was nice of him, BUT -

I had headphones in (listening to podcast), just picked up a Costa coffee and was actually looking forward to a peaceful journey!

He DOES mean well, but I've accepted the odd lift from him before, and he always lectures me about not being able to drive! He knows I've given it a good try (due to my Dyspraxia it proved impossible), ok he doesn't KNOW I'm dyspraxic, (I don't think he'd understand🤔)

I'd rather relax on the bus than go through all the questioning though!

I have to say if I saw a friend waiting at the bus stop and i was passing in the car I'd offer a lift. Would seem rude not to. And we could have a nice unexpected chat while i drove.

The downside to the bus for me is basically other people and the waiting. That may have improved with social distancing though. I don't find it as relaxing as the train, but that's generally a longer trip anyway.

Now that social distancing is in place, space is no issue! If you're travelling alone you always get a double seat to yourself! To be honest though, buses where I live have never been crammed full anyway, and most are double dockers, so getting your own space has never been a problem!😊

I don’t drive and I am rarely on buses anymore, but like you OP I love a bus journey. Sitting by the window, watching the scenery, the interesting people who get on.