My bus commute went from 47 minutes to 32 minutes after one simple change

Used to sit near the back of the bus, traffic lights kept hitting us. Moved to the front row near the driver doors last Monday. Turns out shorter lines at those first few stops plus getting off before the big cluster at Union Station saves serious time. Anyone else notice seat position actually changes your arrival time?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_nathan28d ago

That bit about "shorter lines at those first few stops" is something I read in a traffic study once. They said bus dwell times at stops can add way more time than people realize, especially when the back gets packed and everyone shuffles. It makes sense that sitting up front would shave off some of those extra seconds per stop.

wendy39128d ago

I gotta say, I've read way too many of these "studies" that try to make us think some tiny time savings actually matter. You quoted "bus dwell times at stops can add way more time than people realize" but come on, we're talking about maybe losing 20 seconds over a whole trip if you sit in the back. That's nothing. The real time killer is when you're stuck behind some guy arguing with the driver about a transfer, and you can't even get off because the bus is packed. I've sat up front plenty and gotten home maybe 2 minutes earlier, but I've also had days where the front was just as slow because of some passenger issue. Honestly, worrying about seconds per stop feels like overthinking a ten minute bus ride.

hayes.joel28d ago

Ha, okay I gotta push back on that. Those extra seconds per stop are nothing compared to the time you lose when someone up front can't figure out their fare or asks the driver a million questions and you're stuck waiting.