Can someone tell me why the Oklahoma City area does not have a real bus system? I hear people tell me that no one will ride them but how do they know? If the bus only runs twice a day two miles away, it is no wonder no one rides it.

The gas is getting so expensive, we definately need an alternative and buses are the most practical. I hear people suggest light rail but that is not practical for the whole city. I think it may be nice for certain areas but we need buses to cover every main artery street North, South, East, and West in the core of the metro. It may be slow to get people to use at first but if it actually works, word of mouth would get around. I have lived in Tucson, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Denver with the Air Force and all of these places had a better bus system than Oklahoma City does.

I am not asking them to cover streets out in the fringe areas. If you look at the Metro Transit map, you will see that the East side of the metro has very little coverage. I do not believe that it is too expensive for us to be able to afford. If Tucson can do it, then I know we can. Also I find it peculiar that the same organization that runs the inferior bus system also runs the parking garages downtown. They are the "Central Oklahoma Transportation and Parking Authority" and shows it right on their website Welcome to www.gometro.org. This sounds like a conflict of interest. If people rode the bus to work, they would not be parking at their garages. We need a real bus system. One that actually puts the concerns of their customers a priority.

You should probably check out the lightrail/amtrak thread.

Hey, read my posts on the mass transit you can see where and why we're at this juncture.
Lightrail is for cities with higher population densitys.
NOT OKC, KC proved it overly expensive for Citites our size and SLIGHTLY larger is just plain stupid waste of money.
Oh and by the way most in the City believes only the homeless, the elderly and the minorities are riding "no one important".
Our Little Micky, he's the mayor, once rode the bus one day only, after swearing he will ride daily for a month, the bus he and I was on broke down 3 times. It was route 8 for those who wanted to know which.
His car and driver was following the bus and he got "frustrated", we didn't hear anymore how dedicated he was to mass transit since.

I looked one time, before my oldest turned 16, to see if he could take the bus to go to the malls etc. What a joke. He'd have to walk a mile just to get to the stop.

The few buses I've seen around Quail Springs mall are usually empty.

My nephew used to take it once in a awhile from the mall to southside, it was a looonnnngggg trip he said.

When I was younger than a teenager 11-12, we used to get on a bus with my girlfriends and ride it all day long wherever it took us - from morning to night ..

I can't believe my mom let me do that - I'm surprised we weren't harmed or kidnapped ... I have a 15 year old boy, I wouldn't dream of letting him even walk to the bus stop today, let alone ride one alone all day!

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" You've Been Thunder Struck ! "

I ride on occasion from Norman to the main terminal, and then to the southside. If I could adjust the timing of the morning bus to a wee bit earlier, and if there was a later bus back to Norman, I'd become a near daily rider.

I've not ventured out on other routes, but I've thought of taking a day and doing so just to better see the options up close and all that.

I agree with the light rail not being practical but I put it in my original post because I knew someone would bring it up eventually. I know there are not that many people that use them here but that is mainly because it is not dependable transportation. I am hardly poor but I would ride it, if I could reliably get where I want to go. I really think it would be worth the money but, for some reason it does not seem to be a priority.

More people would ride a commuter or light rail line than they would a bus, IMO. A bus has the stigma that it's for the poor and minorities, while light rail is the prefered method of transport for young professionals. The fact that two forms of mass transit are so different in who will ride them is strange but unfortunately true. That is why rail is a better investment, and BRT will never work like rail would.

And OKC has the population density to support rail...in certain areas. For example connecting OUHSC (huge employment center) to the Triangle/Deep Deuce (future high residential density) to Midtown (future medium residential density) to the CBD (huge employment center) to Bricktown (entertainment center) and to the Blvd. (entertainment/future retail center). You are connecting places in a fairly compact area that people want to go to whether it be their office, their loft/condo, a sporting event, restaurants and retail, and also hotels and the convention center for tourists. Tie it in with a commuter rail system that is pulling people from north and south parts of OKC, Edmond, Moore, and Norman off I-35 and getting them straight to the heart of downtown (Santa Fe Depot) and it will be used even more. And then eventually plan for it to connect to other "centers" in urban parts of central and northwest OKC i.e. OCU, Asian District, Paseo, Penn Square, Crown Heights, Belle Isle, and Nichols Hills. Fortunately all of those districts can be reached using Classen, where a rail trolley once ran...