Suburban Bus Options

Both Urbanophile and Circles and Squares have recently written posts on improving Bus service in Indianapolis. Meanwhile, this article in the Indianapolis Business Journal hints on something that my wife has mentioned as a possible solution in the suburbs. You see, my wife spent two years in Guatemala in the Peace Corps. Guatemalan buses are everywhere (I went there 2 years ago and saw this for myself). Generally, they’re brightly-painted old American school buses that are past their prime and badly pollute the air. Of course, the people in these rural and suburban areas really have no choice but to rely on public transportation, as they can not afford their own vehicle along with it’s inherent costs. Guatemala is obviously a completely different world; however, I always look for learning options, regardless of the culture that practices them. So, I think that larger fleets of buses could be a future option for American suburbs.

The recent financial crisis has shown us that we are more vulnerable to events that are out of our control than we’d like to admit. To add insult to injury, there have been gas shortages in the Southeast. We’ve placed ourselves in a precarious position with regards to our current energy intensive lifestyles. The sooner we get serious about reorganizing ourselves, the more we stand on solid ground.