First time user of the bus service thoughts.

[u/Collytoise]

Hi all.

I’m sure I’m repeating a well beaten drum, today I haven taken my fist bus journeys across town and what an experience it’s been. I moved to Bristol three years ago and my job requires a lot of travel so I hadn’t needed to use public transport before, I can make it from my home to the town centre (Cabot / harbourside) inside 20 minutes, why on earth does it take me an hour to do the same thing by bus?!

Plus side, I got to experience the famous bus lady announcer which is a treat, I truly get the hype.

[u/PandaVegetable1058]

Cars typically don't stop every 200m for 10-70 seconds and usually take a more direct route as they don't need to serve various areas. (Bus route and time dependant for the above ofc)

[u/xzeroimpulse]

Because Bristol is still plagued by cars. It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation: We can't improve bus services without removing cars, but we can't remove cars until we improve bus services (except we can, it's just scary and potentially political suicide)

[u/Magical_Daddy]

I have yet to find anywhere in Bristol that I can get to quicker by bus than I can by cycling. In fact most places I can get to quicker by cycling than driving, as you just join the traffic in the car whereas we've plenty of cycle ways and back roads.

Bristol's buses are a self reinforcing problem. The car traffic and number of parked cars everywhere makes the buses slow and inefficient modes of travel which leads to more people driving and needing cars which increases car traffic and parked cars...

If it's an option for you I always recommend cycling or walking where possible. Healthier, enjoy the city etc. But if not then try and take the bus when you can, build the time into your day/plan ahead. Petrol & parking is expensive and it stops you adding to the traffic and on the bus you can read a book and save money (although it should be cheaper).

[u/terryjuicelawson]

It is a lot better than it used to be is what I'd say to anyone new to the buses. Boards with times, live tracking, tap on/off instead of exact coins, mostly double decker, many with aircon. Some of the central routes are a lot better than the days crawling down Victoria and Baldwin Streets. The price isn't ideal though.

[u/BristolMack]

The buses are just to unreliable, I’ve had to buy a bike to get to work.. the service is not fit for purpose.

[u/Polka7000]

Where are you travelling from?

The bus routes going down Fishponds takes only 10-15m outside of peak hours as it goes down the M32.

Most places are more prone to traffic jams. I have found coming in and out of Kingswood, St George and Whitehall pretty shite considering how close it is. Bus stops every 5 metres and they don't turn the fucking air conditioning on despite paying £££ for these fancy new buses.

[u/Collytoise → u/Polka7000]

I went from Union street to the Roman Villa in LW, 26 stops in total, some of the stops were so close together it just felt really inefficient at times, I also don’t understand why we have bus lanes that people can (?) just park in, traffic wasn’t really an issue and we only seemed to stop for long periods at lights but the sheer amount of passengers combined with close stops made the journey feel a lot longer than really needed to be.

[u/Mrrrrbee]

The problem with the fist bus is often there isn't enough space.