Would you "dump the pump" if it meant an hour less sleep?

Today is "Dump the Pump" in Lawrence--an annual day where the local bus system ("the T") is free, in an effort to encourage more people to try riding. 

I thought it might be a fun adventure.  Although we walk and scoot quite a bit, I've never ridden the bus in Lawrence before.  While there's a regular ongoing debate about whether the T is really cost-effective, I certainly support the idea of public transportation in general.  Especially when Sweet Husband and I first moved to Lawrence and hadn't made a lot of friends yet, it was comforting to know that if the car broke down we wouldn't be without other options.  In addition, with gas getting more expensive by the minute, taking the bus every now and then just seems to make sense.

Kind of.

In defense of the T, for people that don't have to juggle between routes (like Sweet Husband) the bus is a really good option.  He could get on at roughly 8:15 a.m. and be at work 5 minutes later. 

On the other hand, for me to get to my carpool drop-off point by 8 a.m., I would have to be at the bus stop around 6:45 a.m.  For reference, I'm rarely even awake yet at that time, and on a normal day it takes about 10 minutes to get to my carpool from my house.  I'm not positive--because Lawrence is really hilly--but I think I could probably walk the distance in less time.

Sleep outweighs most other considerations in my world, especially at that time of the morning, so I will not be dumping the pump today.  But this whole exercise has made me curious.  Is this the norm for public transportation?  I know there are a lot of variables at play, but I'm particularly interested in experiences people have had in places that are of the large town/small city size. (Lawrence is roughly 100,000.)  Do you have to live in a big city to have really convenient public transportation?

(Photo c/o the Lawrence Transit System.)

Comments

[StacyH]

My brother-in-law works in Houston (10M not including illegals which are estimated at 3-4+M) lives in a suburb. He takes 2 or 3 buses to get to work and has to get up before 6:00 to make it on time.

Houston is kind of a bad example, because they are working on better public transport, but it's not there yet.

Boston was better, New York's works but was so confusing! I'd learn if I lived there of course. And I think DC's is the best. Never tried LAs.

I think buses, in general, have these kinds of issues.

[Meryl]

Maybe it is a bus thing.

I remember trying to catch the night bus in London--where the Tube is actually pretty awesome--and having a lot of difficulty. (On the upside though, I understood exactly what J.K. Rowling was poking fun of in Prisoner of Azkaban without having to be told!)

[Melissa]

Ha! Los Angeles public transportation is completely laughable. Sadly, it's pretty much non-existent and NOBODY uses what does exist. And we have pretty much the worst traffic in the country to show for it. It took me an hour to get 6 miles yesterday on the 405 at 4pm. At 8pm, when I returnd home, it took me 15 minutes.

[Sarah]

Minneapolis and Madison both had good, quick, reliable bus transportation when I lived there. I took the bus to work in downtown Mpls for many months with no issues, and I perhaps feel even more strongly about sleep at 6:45 than Meryl.

In Madison, I once had to take a class at 8 a.m. I could get up at 7:50, catch the 7:55 bus, and still have 30 seconds to stop at the coffee machine in the law school vending room. I was never late to that class. Madison is probably twice the size of Lawrence.

[Meryl]

After talking with a friend about this, I wonder if the problem isn't that Lawrence has too few bus riders, therefore the buses just can't afford to run often enough?

[Janet]

I do think city size is a factor. I rode the bus regularly in KCMO and in Denver. I almost never ride the bus in Lawrence primarily because it runs too infrequently or quits running to early in the evening. I can (and do, at least sometimes) walk to most places I need to go, and the bus just doesn't run often enough. In NYC, by contrast, you can stand on a corner at 10 p.m. and be pretty assured a bus will come by in short order and take you up the road.

[Janet]

Sigh. Make that "too early in the evening."