Why Not to Take the Bus

To commemorate Earth Day, Memphis television meteorologist John Bryant decided to try riding the bus to work. Normally, his home-to-work journey takes about 15 to 20 minutes. His effort to protect the environment ended up taking 2-1/2 hours. Part of the problem was his unfamiliarity with the bus system, but the fastest he might have been able to make it was at least 90 minutes, partly because he had to walk a half mile from his home to the nearest bus stop and another mile to work from the nearest bus stop to his office. The few other passengers riding the bus with him were mostly too poor to own an automobile.

Despite this, he concluded more people should ride the bus. “These are the kind of sacrifices right now that we need to think about doing, even if you only do it one time,” he said, both for “reducing our carbon footprint” and for “connecting on an emotional level with citizens [who couldn’t afford cars] in the city I grew up in.”

Not surprisingly, I think he learned the wrong lessons. First of all, almost everyone in Memphis has a car. Just 4.2 percent of Memphis workers lived in households without cars in 2019, and less than 10 percent of those people took transit to work. Overall, less than 1 percent of Memphis workers who earn less than $25,000 a year rode transit to work in 2019. If Bryant cares about those people, he would help them buy a car.

Second, Memphis transit doesn’t reduce greenhouse gases. I suppose if you ride an empty bus that is already going somewhere, the additional greenhouse gases from being on board that bus will be pretty small. But Memphis could do more to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by simply eliminating its transit system, which hardly anyone rides, and helping the few people who depended on it to acquire fuel-efficient cars.

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About The Antiplanner

The Antiplanner is a forester and economist with more than fifty years of experience critiquing government land-use and transportation plans.

5 Responses to Why Not to Take the Bus

  1. LazyReader says:

    Buses are great for cities whom they run massive circuits around the clock to move thousands of daily riders. Memphis is a hicktown with a population density 1/35th of Manhattan, 1/13th NYC average, 1/6 Chicago.

    Not far from memphis Nashville is running Open Air, Bus shuttles…

    https://honkytonkpartyexpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/mobile-parade-558×325-1.jpg

    Proof, exotic aspects, new color schemes… attract more people than spending money……..

  2. rovingbroker says:

    “ … connecting on an emotional level with citizens [who couldn’t afford cars] in the city I grew up in.”

    So it is a religion … or a cult.

  3. kx1781 says:

    LazyReader, people don’t just ride party buses in Nashville ( aka Nashvegas ) for the purpose of partying and drinking, they rent them. Has nothing to do with the conversation about auto vs transit in getting around.

  4. CapitalistRoader says:

    These are the kind of sacrifices right now that we need to think about doing, even if you only do it one time…for “connecting on an emotional level with citizens [who couldn’t afford cars] in the city I grew up in.

    Yep. Connect on an emotional level with meth addicts who use the bus as a rolling shelter. They can get very emotional.

    RTD union calls Denver Union Station a ‘lawless hellhole’

    I had another operator tell me that she considers it a great day when nobody is seen smoking methamphetamine or using heroin on her bus,” Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001 President Lance Logenbohn said.

  5. JimKarlock says:

    He could quit making a fool of himself is he researched some history:

    THE CLIMATE HAS ALWAYS CHANGED!

    5000 years ago, there was the Egyptian 1st Unified Kingdom warm period
    4400 years ago, there was the Egyptian old kingdom warm period.
    3000 years ago, there was the Minoan Warm period. It was warmer than now WITHOUT fossil fuels.
    Then 1000 years later, there was the Roman warm period. It was warmer than now WITHOUT fossil fuels.
    Then 1000 years later, there was the Medieval warm period. It was warmer than now WITHOUT fossil fuels.
    Then 1000 years later, came our current warm period. You are claiming that whatever caused those earlier warm periods suddenly quit causing warm periods, only to be replaced by man’s CO2 emission, perfectly in time for the cycle of warmth every 1000 years to stay on schedule. Not very believable.

    The entire climate scam crumbles on this one observation because it shows that there is nothing unusual about today’s temperature and ALL claims of unusual climate are based on claims of excess warmth caused by man’s CO2.

    http://www.debunkingclimate.com/warm_periods.html
    http://www.debunkingclimate.com/climatehistory.html
    http://www.debunkingclimate.com

    Feel free to disagree by showing actual evidence that man’s CO2 is causing serious global warming. (Or show your unwillingness to learn by posting a laughter emoji.)

    Learn more & stop worrying about climate –
    1) Climate Alarmist Claim Fact Checks: http://icecap.us/index.php/go/political-climate/alarmist_claim_rebuttals_updated/

    2) Frequently argued climate issues in one- or two-page summaries: https://climateataglance.com/
    Book version: https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/Books/CaaGbook30vWeb2021.pdf

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