

Should you Walk or Bus? - martian
http://visualmotive.com/walk-or-bus/

======
jlees
Of course, you also have to take into account the cost of the bus, whether you
have a bus pass/travelcard, proximity of stops at either end to required start
point and destination, and whether or not you can stop on the way (if you're
walking) and get a Starbucks.

For all these reasons, plus the usual carbon footprint and travelcard, I don't
take the bus anywhere unless it's more than an hour's walk. (Before I moved to
Edinburgh I hated, hated hated hated, walking. Selling one's car does
fantastic things to the mindset.)

Still. It's a pretty graph!

~~~
jrockway
Wow, an hour walk!

I bike or take the bus or train for anything more than a mile. Walking is very
boring. (I have never owned a car either.)

BTW, Chicagoans are lucky to have estimated arrival times for every bus stop
in the city (<http://ctabustracker.com/>). It is very accurate and makes
deciding between walking and waiting for the bus an easy decision. (Usually I
commit to taking the bus and just sit in my apartment until a few minutes
before it is scheduled to arrive. It's wonderful.)

~~~
martian
Several cities seem to have services like the CTA Bus Tracker. Very useful.
San Francisco has NextMUNI (<http://nextmuni.com>), Minneapolis has NexTrip
(<http://nextrip.metc.state.mn.us/NextripFull.aspx>).

~~~
jrockway
Very nice. Services like this should be considered a basic human right :)

~~~
martian
Agreed. Also just remembered that Google Maps has public transit route-finding
in major cities. I'm not sure if this is based on scheduled times or actual
times (as reported by services like NextMUNI), but it's a fantastic service.

------
far33d
There's no way a city bus travels an average speed of 30mph. I would be lucky
to travel at an average of 30mph driving a car in most cities, and I don't
stop every 3 blocks for 30 seconds to pick people up.

------
tlholaday
Buses rarely travel at 30 mph in Manhattan.

~~~
martian
I haven't spent much time there. How fast do they travel?

~~~
jsackmann
They travel at 30mph often, but not over very long distances. Imagine your
stereotypical cab driver, with excessive acceleration and lane changes, and
insert a stop every two blocks to add/drop passengers.

Actual average speed depends a lot on the number of passengers. At rush hours,
if you're walking at a fast pace you can outrace a bus. Only so much the
driver can do when 20-30 people get on the bus at a stop.

------
leviathant
I feel like I keep a fairly brisk pace when I walk the mile and a half to
work, and it takes me 45 minutes. I feel like I'd have to jog to break that
pace.

It takes me 20-30 minutes to make the same trip on the subway, 20-25 minutes
by bike, and less than ten minutes if my wife drops me off via car.

~~~
masomenos
Do you live in the Alps?

Assuming reasonably flat ground, it's not hard to walk a mile in well under 20
minutes. Bicycling around 15 mph ain't too hard, either -- which would get you
1.5 miles in 10 minutes.

~~~
smokey_the_bear
Maybe he has to stop at a lot of intersections

------
diN0bot
why walk when you could use wheels to go fast! i bike or blade everywhere!
(and i mean literally use wheels as in exertion. it's so much more fun than
sitting on a machine.)

buses suck. they are biker killers. i always thought this was a shame since
public transportation and self transportation are on the same environmental
team. i've had buses seriously try to run me over (turn right even though i'm
sitting in the bus lane making eye contat with the bus driver who is yelling
at me, honking and not slowing the turn). to say nothing of the accidents that
have put my friends in the hospital (bus smoosh).

~~~
anamax
> buses suck. they are biker killers. i always thought this was a shame since
> public transportation and self transportation are on the same environmental
> team.

That's not how humans work.

------
kierank
This table should be connected to live bus data.

