Despite the Obama’s support of high-speed rail, it’s buses that are the real transportation success story of the last few years.
“At a time when flights have been cut and ridership on trains has been relatively flat, traveling by bus has been on the rise,” reports the New York Times.
Last year, bus service increased five percent, and it rose nearly 10 percent in 2008, according to Joseph Schwieterman, a DePaul University professor who has studied the decline and comeback of bus travel.
In fact, in 2007, when he and his team of transportation researchers began studying why travelers shunned buses, they found themselves in the midst of a turnaround.
“While 18-to-35-year-olds were the first to embrace new bus lines like MegaBus and BoltBus, which offer cheap express service between major cities in the Midwest and Northeast, the appeal of bus travel has expanded to include business travelers and riders older than 35 who want to avoid the stress of driving,” said the Times.
“Even the older generation has abandoned their disdain for the bus,” Schwieterman said. “They don’t even think of it in the same vein as Greyhound.”
By David Wilkening
