Worst transit system in America?

[C40LF_2464]

Ok after watching this video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_6o8Qv-Hns
I started to think San Anonio VIA was the worst system in the US. WMATA had the tragic rail crash some months back and people are saying WMATA isnt safe anymore but it was the 1st major accident. I havent heard about any other major accidents from other companies but im thinking VIA is the unsafest one.

[Perry]

You do realize that these types of accidents happen with WMATA everyday; this isn't a collection of one day's worth of accidents, thhey just aren't published like this one.  Also, if you look at the types of these accidents, a lot were the results of cars cutting the bus off.  I don't think we should start ranking systems by how unsafe they are based on a Youtube video. 

[Antozilla]

06/22 was not WMATA's first accident at all

[79MetroExtraMD]

06/22 was not WMATA's first accident at all

I'll leave my response for you to decide.

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

From what I heard, it seems that TheBus is the worst one, but there probably is something worse out there, who knows.

And just because a TA has lots of accidents doesn't mean they all have bad drivers. As Perry said, a lot of those accidents from the San Antonio TA were caused by other cars cutting the bus off, no fault of the bus operator whatsoever. I see that happen around here as well, but not as often and I haven't seen an accident out of that yet.

[aznboy4305]

Why do you think The Bus is so bad? Please elaborate.

[Tritransit Area]

I dunno about you all, but I think CityBus in Lafeyette, IN is the worst one out there.  All of that woodgrain in their interiors kills it for me, lol. 

[Scrabbleship]

Why do you think The Bus is so bad? Please elaborate.

The consensus seems to be that it is undersized and undercapitalized for its service area and provides a lot of redundant service (outside Upper Marlboro, is there any area served solely by TheBus)? The lack of night/weekend service plays into it too as did the poor equipment they had pre-Gillig orders.

Rideonrulez and a couple of others know this, but TheBus has no match on the double duo of Dutchess County, NY (Poughkeepsie Transit and LOOP). Both have poor route routings, a low ridership base, surly drivers, iffy equipment, and have done questionable decisions when it became time to make cuts. The fact that they share a garage but have different contractors/unions/fares and have had several failed merger attempts adds to all this. The one plus is that they have Saturday service and TheBus doesn't.

[Tritransit Area]

I never realized VIA had NABIs.  Anyway, I'm not sure what the "worst" transit system is out there, but I'm sure it must be one of those where the bus only runs once a month.

[mrpete]

What criteria are you using to determine what's best or worst? And in comparison to what? You can only do this credibly with both objective (quantitative)measures and subjective (perceptual) measures in comparison with some commonly accepted standard. Acceptable performance in a small system may be terrible in a large system and vice versa. Financial resources, management quality, local/state government committment all figure into this.

IMO The Bus has a problem primarily due to Prince George's being unable to sufficiently raise tax revenues to provide sufficient funding. TRIM is still in effect in a liberal Democratic jurisdiction. Until residents and the business community change their attitudes about taxes, The Bus will continue to be what it is; better than nothing, but just barely. It's interesting to speculate on what The Bus could be if the prevailing attitude was like that of Montgomery or Arlington?

All TA's go through peaks and valleys during their existence. For example CTA and TTC were "model" systems until the late 70's/early '80's when both went off a cliff due to their local economic and political climates. Today TTC is on a roll while CTA is still on a roller coaster. The travails of SEPTA, MBTA, NYCTA have been well documented.

Without agreed upon standards and criteria "best vs worst" are at best seat of the pants assessments of a TA at a particular point in time: The day we rode it.

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

Why do you think The Bus is so bad? Please elaborate.

I never said it was bad, I said from what I heard, it was pretty bad, but until recently I never rode it, and when I did ride it that one time, it was on a Gillig Phantom and it wasn't bad at all.