I know you've always talked about being Dutch, but I never really looked much into it beyond that. Just looked back in the TRA archives to your Dutch and Japanese videos. Wow, major respect. You've been at it a long time and in multiple languages, fluently. Keep up the good work.
As someone who goes to Calvin University in Grand Rapids. I honestly still haven't used any of the buses, I just bike or walk everywhere, it's kinda sketch but it works.
Bus o'clock....I'm gonna start using that! You said it, trains are of course awesome, and buses are just as awesome and important whether it's intercity, within cities, or suburbs for the places that trains don't go, so it's great to see you showing more buses! Grand Rapids has a solid system with good coverage! Love the shade and design of their central station, even better that it was the first to be LEED-certified! I'm not a fan of ad wraps that cover windows, but I do admit that Mountaineer Plumbing wrap is pretty cool! Whenever wraps cover the windows of a bus or a train, it makes the passengers inside feel like an afterthought. But WMATA wraps like their gingerbread wraps or wraps on NYC's 42nd Street Shuttle shows you can still have a creative wrap without covering the windows! In my case, like you, I was into trains before buses due to living near a Metro-North station around Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow the first eight years of my life. What first got me into buses as well was really both classic American school bus culture and the Tappan Zee Express (which became Hudson Link) which we used to get across the Hudson to Palisades Center mall, so with Tarrytown being extremely walkable for errands, convenient MNR service, and bus service across the Tappan Zee, one could easily live around Tarrytown without a car! But then living in Jersey City for a bit really made me bus-pilled with seeing how the Journal Square Transporation Center worked with its bus lanes and the insanely frequent jitneys along the Palisade Ave and JFK Blvd corridors taking people to NYC, Bergen County, Journal Square, and Newport!
GR resident here. The Rapid is really limited in its reach. The more urban/residential areas are really underserved and it needs to expand (Caledonia, areas of Walker, Comstock park and more). Not to mention them being understaffed. The delays in the system, the cancelled buses stranding you at Central for hours at a time plus the limited operating hours which make it difficult for 2nd and 3rd shifters, you can not reliably count on the Rapid. When my car broke down and was in the shop for repairs, I figured the bus system would work temporarily. Depending on where I was going, it would put me anywhere from 20 mins to an hour walk of my destination. It ended up causing my commute to be 2 hours long in the morning, and 2 hours in the evening on top of a 12 hour workday. And the weekends (especially Sundays) were even worse. I was never happier to get my car out of the shop! 😂 I am sure it works great for some, especially those that live closer to downtown but it is a system in major need of staff, upgrades, and expansion.
Those reliability issues you mention must be recent. I was a car-free, daily user for 4 years and used the rapid to get around everywhere. Not once did I ever have a no-show or a big delay. It was much more reliable than Chicago. I do wish they ran earlier and later. I could never use to take Amtrak, would have to bike.
I'm sure Grand Rapids appreciates a Dutch ambassador like you! Love the livery of their buses, really embracing their namesake! Some Grand Rapids history: In 1806, French trader Joseph La Framboise and his Métis wife Madeline traveled by canoe from Mackinac and established the first trading post in West Michigan in present-day Grand Rapids. By 1810, Chief Noonday, an Odawa chief, established the village of Bock-a-tinck (from a word that means "at the rapids") on the northwest side of present-day Grand Rapids near Bridge Street. During the War of 1812, Noonday was allied with Tecumseh during the Battle of the Thames. Tecumseh was killed in this battle, and Noonday inherited his tomahawk and hat. The first permanent European-American settler in the Grand Rapids area was Isaac McCoy, a Baptist minister, in the 1820s. During the second half of the nineteenth century, the city became a major lumbering center. Logs were floated down the Grand River to be milled in the city and shipped via the Great Lakes. By the end of the century, it was established as the premier furniture-manufacturing city of the US. It was the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia that brought attention to Grand Rapids' furniture on the national stage, providing a new growing industry to help the city recover from the Panic of 1873. In 1880, the country's first hydro-electric generator was put to use on the city's west side!
You see the logs in rivers all over Michigan still. I grew up on the Platte River in the summer time and you could see all the milled logs from when they would float them down the river
I'm from GR, and I do have to say - it's really well maintained. I am originally from a town in Michigan that had no public transportation at all, and coming to GR, I had no idea what I was missing out on
As a guy who often uses the busses to get home from work, the Rapid always comes in handy and the bus station is conveniently right next to one of my favorite antique stores, Warehouse One
I have a son who is a fan or trains and buses. We live in Grand Rapids, so he doesn't get a ton of opportunity to scratch the train itch (though today we were on a bus and had--I mean got--to wait for a train). But he loves buses, too, and has ridden all the routes and has them memorized. It's a lot of fun to ride route 100 to Big Rapids with our bikes on the front, then ride them home the 65 miles to Grand Rapids on the White Pine Trail State Park. Thanks for this fun and informative video. BTW, my son also loves classical music, so he got a thrill out of the Grand Rapids Symphony bus wrap.
We sure do appreciate our Dutch ambassador! Thank you so much for amplifying our system, and of course, for riding with us. You are welcome aboard anytime!
Thanks everyone! I want to recognize all the hard work you all do. You were my second home when I lived in GR. Let me know if you ever need any promotional work done, I’d love to be a part of the team.
Please do better with your drivers, they are responsible for transporting us around the city and I do not appreciate the nasty attitude from them when requesting them to lower the bus so I can get on safely without hurting my knees. The ableism is unnecessary. Also your schedule sucks, it needs major improvement as we are the second largest city in Michigan and yet Kalamazoo and Lansing has better bus systems than us.
I’m from Kzoo and only really go up to GR for the malls or art prize, still it’s one of my favorite cities and I’m happy to find videos about it when I’m scrolling through TH-cam
My dad did a lot of the electrical work on a lot of the bus stops near downtown (the covered ones, like on Division & Eastern). Really happy this video came across my feed!
Resident of Hudsonville area here. Also went to Grand Valley for my Bachelor's degree, so seeing the Laker Line was something that instantly took me back to being on that campus and watching the buses go by every day.
I live in Grand Rapids and went to school to GVSU. I rode the Rapid everyday to get to school. The connection between the Allendale and GR campus is great. It runs like every 10 minutes.
Used to take the 6 and the 50 every single day for ~5 years. Now I live too far outside of city limits to take the Rapid, but I always think back on those days fondly and recommend anyone visiting to take advantage.
Nice look at the bus network in Grand Rapids but also at the town itself. I hadn't realized the extent of the coverage and how easy it is to get around. I don't get over there often enough. Usually I zoom by on the way to Holland and Saugatuck, but I've been planning to spend more time there. My mother was born and raised there and rode the Interurban to Lake Michigan. We went there a lot when I was a kid, remembering Wurzburg's and Herpolshimer's downtown. Amtrak's Pere Marquette is a nice route, but it takes a long time and as you pointed out it leaves early and returns late. A second midday run would be nice to have. And it doesn't help us get around Michigan. Enjoyed the video and your channel! Especially the segments on places and routes around Michigan. (And every Michigander knows it's "Meijer's"!)
Super informative! And I’m amazed at your multinational background and language fluency as also seen in other videos! I also have a special spot in my heart for Grand Rapids, as one of my hobbies has been visiting all the US presidential libraries. As you know, Grand Rapids is home to one of them!
@@Thom-TRA I must say that, as the President with the shortest term who has a Presidential Library, that the library is very interesting and well done!
Good to see more Thom - TRA lore. Thom and I have been on two bus adventures, hopefully we will do more of them in the future. Im curious are people who take the bus looked down upon in Japan or NL as much as they are here in the states sometimes?
Lifelong GR resident, I currently live less than a block from a stop on the 6, and my privileged self has never once taken the bus. Great to know it's there if I ever need it, though! Cheers.
This is quite the timing as I’m moving to Grand Rapids this summer! Visited there recently and I loved it. Even cooler is I’ll actually be near the 6. Also can confirm heritage hill is amazing, had the best scone of my life at Nantucket bakery, can’t wait explore the area even more once I get up there especially on the bus and bike
Very interesting story , i never heard a experience like that from a bus enthusiast. I'm from Chile, Latin America, and here's a ton of variety of buses that are manufactured in Brazil by bus manufacturers like Caio, Marcopolo, Neobus and Mascarello. And in the past until 2015...16... were manufactured here but the demand of Brazilian buses since the 2000 was more and more and the demand for locally manufactured buses was decreasing and in conclusion all of our bus brands are gone. So as you can read buses are a big thing here in Chile and many bus enthusiast (including me) we like a lot of things of the buses around here, the different engines and chasis of each type of bus, the different aesthetic of each bus, the different tuning parts and accessories that bus drivers put into him bus.
Hello from Kalamazoo!!! CATA, which serves the Greater Lansing Area in Michigan was very good when I lived in that area. Award winning back then too. I'm not sure about the Metro in K-zoo as I don't use the system. Really cool that you covered the GR system, again, never have used it, but good to know that it is a good system.
This video hit home for me. There is no train in Madison, WI but our bus system was redesigned last year. We now take buses regularly and it’s been life changing.
Your story with learning to love the bus in college is similar to mine. I had to ride the LANTA bus (in the Lehigh Valley area) to the grocery store every week and gradually started exploring neighboring towns on their other routes. One notable thing they have is the "EBS Blue Line" route which is a 25-mile long local bus. It's still the longest local route I've ever ridden. When I moved back to the DC area I started exploring the buses a lot more.
More busrelated videos would be awesome. I hope you do not only public transport buses, but also longer distance buses. Can't wait. Groeten uit Eygelshoven, Ralf
So many of us depended on buses to get around as young teenagers and it opened our local world. It was efficient, inexpensive and SAFE. We didn’t have a parent to drive us around as most families in the 50/60’s had only one car in the family. It was a good time and contributed to our becoming self-sufficient independent adults.
Grand Rapids local here, always felt like we've had a decent transit system based on what I hear about transit elsewhere in the country, glad to hear that seems to be accurate! Slight note depending on how pedantic you want to be - 12:20 2023 may be when they expanded contactless to include standard credit/debit cards, etc, but they started contactless in I think 2018 via the Wave card
Love being bus obsessed as well, luckily in the UK we generally have a fairly decent bus network. We have mostly double decker buses, but have noticed that Alexander Dennis build Enviro 500 double deck buses for the US market
@@pavld335 Ottawa, Canada as well, but they are all being retired in 2026 being replaced by nothing, maybe XE60s if Council actually gives OC Transpo money and doesn't privatize it (which will happen under Poilievre)
i’ve lived very close to grand rapids my entire life, very much within the vicinity of one or two routes, and ive seen these buses around more times than i can count. definitely not interested in driving because my paranoia wouldn’t let me, so i get the feeling that this video is actually going to be a huge help when i actually need to get around more. it’s honestly a bit crazy watching this video, seeing a bunch of places that i’ve seen frequently around. learning more about the city’s history is really interesting too!
This is an awesome video about the awesome bus transit in Grand Rapids! I especially enjoyed your historic information and love that the people sued the city to historically preserve the beautiful houses that still stand today. That’s awesome!!!
Thom, thanks for your videos and the greater view of the world you offer us through your rider experience. Appreciate your insights, the background and unusual facts, and your passion. As your interest in bus systems grows let me share an improvement which is occurring with the RAPID system. During your time in Grand Rapids you no doubt noticed the sparse audio/visual announcements made by the bus automated system as the bus moves along its route (thinking of the regular fixed route system not the BRT's Silverline or Lakerline). While the RAPID met the current ADA standards for types of announcements and frequency of announcements the level of announcing upcoming stops, points of interest, landmarks, etc was far below what should be expected from a modern consumer friendly system. The rider either needed to be familiar with the route, be using a smart device, or asking for driver assistance to easily and stresslessly reach their destination. The system was far from user friendly compared to some other similar sized cities or larger transit systems with onboard bus rider navigating tools. After nearly 4 years of persistently (and insistently) encouraging the RAPID to modernize route orientation announcements we are seeing significant enhancement of navigation tools for the rider as they make their way to a destination. There are more audible/visual announcements during the rider's transit so it is easier to know exactly where one is along the route as well as knowing when an upcoming stop is approaching. When you return to GR and ride route 6 take notice of the improvement. This is also an example while change may be arduously slow and face reluctance, consumers advocating for improvement can be a catalyst for change. It takes involvement, commitment, and the desire to see a system better servicing its riders. Looking forward to more of your videos. Keep up going on adventures !
Route 6 is my favorite line too! Kentwood station is near a few hobby shops I love and theres a stop not far from my house. I love going on adventures using the bus line to drop me off places to explore. Really glad i found this video.
I’m following your timeline too, Thom! I’m also slowly becoming much more interested in busses than I ever was, probably since I finally started actually riding them!! Truly excited for the most phenomenal bus content on TH-cam.
Great show Thom! Once again, I love your candor concerning the adventurous routes you take in an imperfect infrastructural world. Maybe you will go back to NYC and ride the route I took to elementary school back in the seventies- the M4 & M5! There are so many bus routes in New York that it would take you a whole year and then some to ride all of them!! Continue to enjoy your journey and Godspeed to you and your wife.
I found this quite an interesting video! This story reminds me of my own public-transit experience: since August 2023, I've been taking the San Diego MTS (specifically bus route 35 and the Blue Line trolley) to and from college. Although I haven't been on buses much before college, now, I enjoy the buses a lot. I've even collected many paper schedules for other bus routes on the MTS! Thanks for the video!
You did your excellent coverage again! This time about 😛 buses. I confess, like most railfans and rapid transit fans, I'm not much interested in buses. I've ridden my share of them, and have a nodding acquaintance with my local bus system, even to the approval of its storage-battery electric power system which is far less stinky and noisy than diesel. So keep riding trains, trolleys, and buses, and I'll look forward to your excellent videos!
It’s quite interesting when you mention about the transit centers and routes as I do kind of the same thing! Lol Bus O’ Clock I’ll start to use that term, as someone who rides the bus and train somewhat often. Can’t wait for future bus videos, hopefully you’ll do some of LA’s Buses as we have plenty of agencies and routes that you’ll probably find interesting
As someone from the area the busses are nice and work good. Though I’d love to see a return to the old street cars and interurbans that used to run all throughout west Michigan at the turn of the last century.
This video came very useful for waiting the almost 30 minutes for the next train. The only noise is the platform clock scraping on the glass and the noise it makes every minute when the hands move.
@@Thom-TRA your clock isn’t making a horrible scraping noise like the one in the station yesterday. The time of the platform clock is probably numbered because everyone has a clock on their phone. They used to be on the passenger information displays in trains to but they are now a digital clock because you couldn’t actually read the traditional analog clock. I don’t know why our station clock is so popular with people there are way nicer clocks like the ones that SNCF or DB uses.
Growing up I always considered the bus a lamer version of the train, for poor people who could not afford to live near train station. Then, I moved to a part of town that wasn't served by the train and I had to start taking the bus to work. To my surprise, the bus was pretty nice! I was very impressed by the ability of bus drivers to weave in and out of traffic, around obstacles, etc. I'm glad to see a lot of bus content on your channel these days. Keep up the good work.
No good public transport system without busses. Nice to see something about american bus systems. I was forty years busdriver and twenty of them also tramdriver here in Germany. And, of course, I´m a train and a rail fan. I´m completly on the right place here on your channel. Thank you for your work.
@@Thom-TRA For me, tramdriving was the easy´st way to get my money. You have the rails, you know how much place u have and you know that there is no more chance to come to a stop before the crash. God thanks, i had just some little ones. Bus driving is much more chellanging. You have to know, where your wheels are. You need place in front of your front axle and the end from the bus is around three meters behind the rear axle. At every corner you need extra place. I loved it. Both. Tram and Bus driving. I´m a born driver. The greatest fun was, drive with a travel coach throu the Alps. Or at the mediteranien coast roads. A special plce for bus driving is the road around the Lake Garda in the north of Italy. Very tiny and twisty corners and small tunnels. A funtastic experience.
I love a city with a good bus line. I am visually impaired and rely on public transportation to get around. This one looks pretty good! Thanks for sharing.
@@Thom-TRA No, it is very inaccessible. I went to the University of Dayton and used their system to do some of my clinical work. Those folks were great.
Great tour of your college town! I've also mostly depended upon trains rather than busses in the towns and cities I lived car-free. Berkeley had a few lines that were an exception, their service is extensive and very good. The smaller college town of Davis, CA has a remarkable bus service -- it is entirely operated, including and especially the drivers, by undergraduate students! I'll be interested in what you come up with in the new series of videos. Cheers!
That was such a surreal viewing experience for me. I was born in Grand Rapids ... on August 21. (I'm a relatively new subscriber and did not know that you had a connection with Grand Rapids.)
It's always weird to me when I watch a video that's made in my city. I'm not used to seeing stuff that I know exactly where they are, like 0:14, that's right by Central Station. Also at 15:26 this is where the Silver Line ends, and returns to Central
Noticed saying hello to the bus driver at 7:16 . This honestly was a big culture shock when I moved from Michigan to DC! the bus drivers in DC look at me like I'm crazy when I try to say hello to them. I learned to love the bus by being a CATA rider in Lansing.
Thank you for the video. My love for buses came at very early age. My great aunt did not drive. I would spend at least 1 weekend a month at her place in Easton, PA (we lived near by). To go places, we would take the LANTA Bus. It got us everywhere; the mall, the city's center square (lunch, shopping and transfers) and the south side (to visit my uncle and cousins). We would even transfer to a NJ Transit bus and go across the Delaware River to visit her brother. It was always a fun time on the bus. Now that I live in the DC metropolitan area, I get to occasionally take an express bus to my office (if I am not carpooling). In previous jobs, I took DASH in Alexandria and Metrobus between 2 job locations. In college, I used the Fairfax CUE to get to the Vienna Metrorail station. BTW: When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a bus driver. A city bus driver; not a motor coach.
It's very cool that the university shuttles are public buses! In my city, the university operates their own shuttle, which I assume isn't open to the general public. My local system also attempts pulsing, but it doesn't work when they are always late. :(
Love your videos! Will you be doing any videos on the MCTS in Milwaukee? Just moved to MKE and there do not appear to be many videos reviewing the bus system here. Like most US cities the bus system has seen better days but I find it to be not all that bad in certain neighborhoods. Thank you!
Interesting stuff. As a fellow train enthusiast and transit advocate I will also admit Ive taken a liking to buses too. Though the Grand Rapid ones are odd. Im from Denmark for context, and the buses in Grand Rapids look like ones that would've run in Denmark 20 years ago. But the bus sector here is also quite interesting with a lot of different models now, especially with electric buses becoming more and more common, and chinese manufacturers entering the market! The country's largest transit agency, Movia, now has 42% of their bus fleet electric right now with over 500 electric buses. We have Yutong, Golden Dragon, Ebusco, MAN, Volvo, BYD, VDL, Mercedes, Solaris, Scania, Van Hool, Isuzu, Iveco, we have the whole menu for bus content here. I know my own local route got some Volvo 7900 Electrics. A surprisingly rare bus type here in Denmark but those buses are great.
This is a great video for Grand Rapids Bis network. Wish it was titled so since I like putting my urbanist videos in the category by their transit types and when they have their city names and network name it makes it easier to find! Great overview video! would be cool if all transit had cab views...
I used to commute to work and college via the Rapid and/or via bike. I appreciated the bike racks on the front of the busses. The rapid is pretty good, but it could be so much better.
I grew up in GRR and my younger brother went to GVSU. Service back then was 11 routes with #1-8 having pieces on both sides of downtown. #1 Division/76th became #1 W. Leonard/Richmond. Hours were 6 AM to 6 PM Monday-Saturday. GRATA depended on money from Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids, Kentwood, Walk, Wyoming, and Granville so service was frequently cut/replaced depending on how "generous" these cities were every year. That changed in Fall 2000 when GRATA became The Rapid with an independent property tax levy. Gradually evening service and new Sunday service was added. The reason 29 service was cancelled was Cascade Township didn't want to fund the route anymore. Any service outside of The Rapid's boundaries must be paid for by *someone* - i.e. Laker Line and 37/48 are paid by GVSU. Transit service even with COVID and driver shortages is still much better than when I was young. Also Amtrak Pere Marquette had more civilized times in the past, leaving GRR at 7:30 vs current 6 AM and leaving Chicago between 4:30 and 5:30 PM, getting back before the last buses at 11:15 PM (now 10:15)
I’m a train guy myself and I’ve been interested in buses when I rode the pace bus more often. That was when I still lived in Illinois but now that I don’t, I want to mention the buses we have here in Chattanooga which is called CARTA. They use Gillig Low Floors just like the ones in this video which I do like the most. If I read the three digit numbers on them, I know what year they are and when they were built. They have a roster on Wikipedia just like they do with most bus companies.
@@Thom-TRA Yeah they could be even though they don’t work the same as many bus systems in the U.S. They have some old buses called a Gillig Phantom and some newer electric buses in the fleet.
I appreciate bus videos. I would ride the bus with my Dad when we lived in the Washington DC Area. When we moved up to New Jersey, I would have to use New Jersey Transit Bus to get back and forth from school and work. We lived in Cape May and the local line was the 552 which ran from Cape May to Atlantic City. We moved to the St. Louis area and I had to rely on bus and train to commute to and from school and work.
I loved this video, having visited there myself! A few of my friends went to GVSU. I seem to recall that Holland and (maybe?) Kalamazoo also have a bus'o'clock system. It does make for a very easy to understand and use system, even if it isn't always the most efficient way of getting from A to B. I would be very happy to see more bus videos. What do you prefer as a seating surface on buses? The plastic-stuff seems easier to clean, at least in theory, but not as nice to sit on.
Oh, shoot, I recognize some of these roads! Lol Trying to see if I can spot my car in the Woodland Mall parking lot 😆 As a former Muskegonite turned Grand Rapidian, when I lived to GR, I was surprised at how much more infrastructure for buses this city has. I have yet to ride the Rapid, but this video got me considering it just to explore more of the city. The potholes in the East Brooke strip mall are still just as massive as ever, and 28th Street is still the scariest road outside of the city-proper. I usually take 29th Street to get to Sam's Club just to avoid it.
I've been a bus nut or enthusiast for probably 30 or 40 years since I was a teenager I rode buses and a lot of different cities. My first train or rapid transit experience was Toronto in 1990 when I rode the young University Spadina. I even rode the Detroit people mover if that counts.
Even though I grew up on the PRR main line/ Paoli/Thorndale line and had used it as a kid and teenager, never really took it for granted like I have since 2021 when I spent a summer working at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio and its own 6-line system called the Sandusky Transit System or STS which connects downtown, the employee dorms, the Amtrak station (although like in Grand Rapids, the buses do not run when Amtrak serves it. Although a westbound Lake Shore LTD can be late enough for a transfer though), and a major fast food/big box boulevard with a Great Wolf Lodge and Kalahari Resort in the mix as well. The Orange line only operates Monday-Friday as it is intended for the Ride and Attraction Management program students at the Bowling Green State campus-which has a dorm downtown and a campus area in the far east near Cedar Point's sports complex and Sawmill Creek Resort. Sandusky has good bones, it just needs more frequency and Purple line service on Sunday's, although I would down to extend the Yellow line into Huron and 30mins service most of the day
@@Thom-TRA It really changed my path. I have a weird relationship with Top Thrill Dragster since I was stationed near the ride on the day of its August 2021 accident. The ride has had a layout change and technical upgrades and is now called Top Thrill 2 as of this season
I have a relationship with TTD too but bur I don't like to think about it anymore now that they remade it. I don't know how I feel any it so I just think about Millennium Force now. I was OBSESSED with that ride when I was little. The first time I rode it it was so young and scared it like I was seeing GOD! That's crazy that you were there that day. I hope that women and her family are doing okay.
Have you heard about the Dutch Den Oudsten bus company, which was by times owner of the NewFlyer bus company? The popular D40LF is a low floor derivate of the Den Oudsten B86 Low Floor bus.
As a current bus driver and bus fan, I greatly appreciate your bus videos! On a side note though: when you say, "first time I drove a truck..." Is that a CDL truck? I used to drop at Meijers in Grand Rapids regularly.
As someone from the Grand Rapids area, the system has really heavily downgraded since the pandemic. Busses are typically late (even BRT lines), some are no-shows, money is being poured into the system around downtown while other areas are being stripped of infrastructure, and I've noticed an uptick on heavy drug usage on the busses themselves. I've heard some talk about potential light rail installations around downtown, but I honestly think downtown is well served enough already. Money needs to be spent connecting people outside of the center too.
Bus system in GR isn’t bad I suppose. I’ve lived in the area my entire 40+ years so I know a thing or two about transportation in the area. The RAPID hasn’t had the funds it used to this past year or two so some of its services have been cut or limited. I wish some streets such as Leonard had a line that went from one side of the city to the other. But it is nice that they’ve made it easy as pie to pay for.
To be Dutch born, have a Japanese childhood, and then go to the small town of Grand Rapids for a college education is so shocking to me. I am self-aware there are many Midwest colleges that have a decent-sized minority of foreign students but it's still hard to imagine someone from a developed country coming to small town America, even if their family had connections to a specific town beforehand. It's humbling!
I know it’s not the intention, but when people make comments like this it always comes across as a little judgmental and insensitive. Like I wouldn’t know what’s good for me or something.
The problem I find with the GR bus system is it doesn't run in the off hours. Like most Americans I use the bus only when my car breaks down or I'm drunk. The buses don't run at 5 am so I can't get to work on time. They also stop running by midnight so I can't take the buses home from the bar on the weekend. Listen I spend nearly as much on a car payment & insurance, I'd love to stop, but if it can't get me to work or home from the bar what's the point.
I know you've always talked about being Dutch, but I never really looked much into it beyond that. Just looked back in the TRA archives to your Dutch and Japanese videos. Wow, major respect. You've been at it a long time and in multiple languages, fluently. Keep up the good work.
Thank you! It’s been a great journey so far
As someone who goes to Calvin University in Grand Rapids. I honestly still haven't used any of the buses, I just bike or walk everywhere, it's kinda sketch but it works.
Go Knights!
Bus o'clock....I'm gonna start using that! You said it, trains are of course awesome, and buses are just as awesome and important whether it's intercity, within cities, or suburbs for the places that trains don't go, so it's great to see you showing more buses! Grand Rapids has a solid system with good coverage! Love the shade and design of their central station, even better that it was the first to be LEED-certified! I'm not a fan of ad wraps that cover windows, but I do admit that Mountaineer Plumbing wrap is pretty cool! Whenever wraps cover the windows of a bus or a train, it makes the passengers inside feel like an afterthought. But WMATA wraps like their gingerbread wraps or wraps on NYC's 42nd Street Shuttle shows you can still have a creative wrap without covering the windows!
In my case, like you, I was into trains before buses due to living near a Metro-North station around Tarrytown/Sleepy Hollow the first eight years of my life. What first got me into buses as well was really both classic American school bus culture and the Tappan Zee Express (which became Hudson Link) which we used to get across the Hudson to Palisades Center mall, so with Tarrytown being extremely walkable for errands, convenient MNR service, and bus service across the Tappan Zee, one could easily live around Tarrytown without a car! But then living in Jersey City for a bit really made me bus-pilled with seeing how the Journal Square Transporation Center worked with its bus lanes and the insanely frequent jitneys along the Palisade Ave and JFK Blvd corridors taking people to NYC, Bergen County, Journal Square, and Newport!
One day I want to dive deep into the wold of jitneys!
As a resident of Byron Center, I always love to see Grand Rapids content on this channel!
I visit several times a year so there will be more!
GR resident here. The Rapid is really limited in its reach. The more urban/residential areas are really underserved and it needs to expand (Caledonia, areas of Walker, Comstock park and more). Not to mention them being understaffed. The delays in the system, the cancelled buses stranding you at Central for hours at a time plus the limited operating hours which make it difficult for 2nd and 3rd shifters, you can not reliably count on the Rapid. When my car broke down and was in the shop for repairs, I figured the bus system would work temporarily. Depending on where I was going, it would put me anywhere from 20 mins to an hour walk of my destination. It ended up causing my commute to be 2 hours long in the morning, and 2 hours in the evening on top of a 12 hour workday. And the weekends (especially Sundays) were even worse. I was never happier to get my car out of the shop! 😂
I am sure it works great for some, especially those that live closer to downtown but it is a system in major need of staff, upgrades, and expansion.
Those reliability issues you mention must be recent. I was a car-free, daily user for 4 years and used the rapid to get around everywhere. Not once did I ever have a no-show or a big delay. It was much more reliable than Chicago.
I do wish they ran earlier and later. I could never use to take Amtrak, would have to bike.
@@Thom-TRAit is a recent thing, there has been a shortage of bus drivers of all types in gr, I guess starting around/after the pandemic
I'm sure Grand Rapids appreciates a Dutch ambassador like you! Love the livery of their buses, really embracing their namesake! Some Grand Rapids history: In 1806, French trader Joseph La Framboise and his Métis wife Madeline traveled by canoe from Mackinac and established the first trading post in West Michigan in present-day Grand Rapids. By 1810, Chief Noonday, an Odawa chief, established the village of Bock-a-tinck (from a word that means "at the rapids") on the northwest side of present-day Grand Rapids near Bridge Street. During the War of 1812, Noonday was allied with Tecumseh during the Battle of the Thames. Tecumseh was killed in this battle, and Noonday inherited his tomahawk and hat.
The first permanent European-American settler in the Grand Rapids area was Isaac McCoy, a Baptist minister, in the 1820s. During the second half of the nineteenth century, the city became a major lumbering center. Logs were floated down the Grand River to be milled in the city and shipped via the Great Lakes. By the end of the century, it was established as the premier furniture-manufacturing city of the US. It was the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia that brought attention to Grand Rapids' furniture on the national stage, providing a new growing industry to help the city recover from the Panic of 1873. In 1880, the country's first hydro-electric generator was put to use on the city's west side!
That’s why my favorite ice cream place in GR is called furniture city!
Supreme Leader please come back to the states
You see the logs in rivers all over Michigan still. I grew up on the Platte River in the summer time and you could see all the milled logs from when they would float them down the river
They have had that design for a long time. I can't remember them ever not having it.
I'm from GR, and I do have to say - it's really well maintained. I am originally from a town in Michigan that had no public transportation at all, and coming to GR, I had no idea what I was missing out on
17:31 I used to play on these when I was a kid too! I also thought that was the coolest thing.
They were the coolest thing. Kids these days will never know…
As a guy who often uses the busses to get home from work, the Rapid always comes in handy and the bus station is conveniently right next to one of my favorite antique stores, Warehouse One
The good ol’ Rapid
From the Grand Rapids Area. it's recently been getting even nicer.
😂
I know right
I have a son who is a fan or trains and buses. We live in Grand Rapids, so he doesn't get a ton of opportunity to scratch the train itch (though today we were on a bus and had--I mean got--to wait for a train). But he loves buses, too, and has ridden all the routes and has them memorized. It's a lot of fun to ride route 100 to Big Rapids with our bikes on the front, then ride them home the 65 miles to Grand Rapids on the White Pine Trail State Park. Thanks for this fun and informative video.
BTW, my son also loves classical music, so he got a thrill out of the Grand Rapids Symphony bus wrap.
Waiting for trains on the bus can be a long wait! And i bet that’s a beautiful bike ride!
We sure do appreciate our Dutch ambassador! Thank you so much for amplifying our system, and of course, for riding with us. You are welcome aboard anytime!
Thanks everyone! I want to recognize all the hard work you all do. You were my second home when I lived in GR. Let me know if you ever need any promotional work done, I’d love to be a part of the team.
Please do better with your drivers, they are responsible for transporting us around the city and I do not appreciate the nasty attitude from them when requesting them to lower the bus so I can get on safely without hurting my knees. The ableism is unnecessary. Also your schedule sucks, it needs major improvement as we are the second largest city in Michigan and yet Kalamazoo and Lansing has better bus systems than us.
Sorry about the bad experience, luckily in San Diego Ca the bus drivers will kneel the bus for me and cause no problems.
I’m from Kzoo and only really go up to GR for the malls or art prize, still it’s one of my favorite cities and I’m happy to find videos about it when I’m scrolling through TH-cam
I really love the variety in the colour of the buses! I'm pretty jealous, actually!
They have a great livery!
My dad did a lot of the electrical work on a lot of the bus stops near downtown (the covered ones, like on Division & Eastern). Really happy this video came across my feed!
Awesome! Thank him for me
Resident of Hudsonville area here. Also went to Grand Valley for my Bachelor's degree, so seeing the Laker Line was something that instantly took me back to being on that campus and watching the buses go by every day.
I live in Grand Rapids and went to school to GVSU. I rode the Rapid everyday to get to school. The connection between the Allendale and GR campus is great. It runs like every 10 minutes.
Love the laker line! Featuring it in a dedicated video in October
Used to take the 6 and the 50 every single day for ~5 years. Now I live too far outside of city limits to take the Rapid, but I always think back on those days fondly and recommend anyone visiting to take advantage.
Ooh the 50, which route was that?
Thanks for the video. I have been in Grand Rapids for ~20 years and I have almost zero knowledge of the bus system. This was great info for me.
I’d definitely take the opportunity to ride it
Nice look at the bus network in Grand Rapids but also at the town itself. I hadn't realized the extent of the coverage and how easy it is to get around. I don't get over there often enough. Usually I zoom by on the way to Holland and Saugatuck, but I've been planning to spend more time there. My mother was born and raised there and rode the Interurban to Lake Michigan. We went there a lot when I was a kid, remembering Wurzburg's and Herpolshimer's downtown. Amtrak's Pere Marquette is a nice route, but it takes a long time and as you pointed out it leaves early and returns late. A second midday run would be nice to have. And it doesn't help us get around Michigan. Enjoyed the video and your channel! Especially the segments on places and routes around Michigan. (And every Michigander knows it's "Meijer's"!)
Super informative! And I’m amazed at your multinational background and language fluency as also seen in other videos! I also have a special spot in my heart for Grand Rapids, as one of my hobbies has been visiting all the US presidential libraries. As you know, Grand Rapids is home to one of them!
Ah yes, unelected Ford, the pride of Grand Rapids!
@@Thom-TRA I must say that, as the President with the shortest term who has a Presidential Library, that the library is very interesting and well done!
I also have memories on the rapid. Thanks for remembering Grand Rapids!
Good to see more Thom - TRA lore. Thom and I have been on two bus adventures, hopefully we will do more of them in the future.
Im curious are people who take the bus looked down upon in Japan or NL as much as they are here in the states sometimes?
I don’t think they are looked down on as much
Also, love the vid!
Glad to see some love for the Rapid!
Lifelong GR resident, I currently live less than a block from a stop on the 6, and my privileged self has never once taken the bus. Great to know it's there if I ever need it, though! Cheers.
Life time GR resident here and my Mom is a Rapid driver. Great video man.
This is quite the timing as I’m moving to Grand Rapids this summer! Visited there recently and I loved it. Even cooler is I’ll actually be near the 6. Also can confirm heritage hill is amazing, had the best scone of my life at Nantucket bakery, can’t wait explore the area even more once I get up there especially on the bus and bike
Nantucket and Martha’s are the best place in all of GR and maybe even in all of Michigan
Very interesting story , i never heard a experience like that from a bus enthusiast. I'm from Chile, Latin America, and here's a ton of variety of buses that are manufactured in Brazil by bus manufacturers like Caio, Marcopolo, Neobus and Mascarello. And in the past until 2015...16... were manufactured here but the demand of Brazilian buses since the 2000 was more and more and the demand for locally manufactured buses was decreasing and in conclusion all of our bus brands are gone. So as you can read buses are a big thing here in Chile and many bus enthusiast (including me) we like a lot of things of the buses around here, the different engines and chasis of each type of bus, the different aesthetic of each bus, the different tuning parts and accessories that bus drivers put into him bus.
Hello from Kalamazoo!!! CATA, which serves the Greater Lansing Area in Michigan was very good when I lived in that area. Award winning back then too. I'm not sure about the Metro in K-zoo as I don't use the system. Really cool that you covered the GR system, again, never have used it, but good to know that it is a good system.
This video hit home for me. There is no train in Madison, WI but our bus system was redesigned last year. We now take buses regularly and it’s been life changing.
Madison has some exciting stuff coming though!
Your story with learning to love the bus in college is similar to mine. I had to ride the LANTA bus (in the Lehigh Valley area) to the grocery store every week and gradually started exploring neighboring towns on their other routes. One notable thing they have is the "EBS Blue Line" route which is a 25-mile long local bus. It's still the longest local route I've ever ridden. When I moved back to the DC area I started exploring the buses a lot more.
Oh my lanta! Haha
More busrelated videos would be awesome. I hope you do not only public transport buses, but also longer distance buses. Can't wait. Groeten uit Eygelshoven, Ralf
I have a bus trip from NYC to DC on the schedule!
So many of us depended on buses to get around as young teenagers and it opened our local world. It was efficient, inexpensive and SAFE. We didn’t have a parent to drive us around as most families in the 50/60’s had only one car in the family. It was a good time and contributed to our becoming self-sufficient independent adults.
I’ve been taking public transportation by myself ever since I was a kid and now I feel comfortable going anywhere!
Nice to see a video showing love to buses for a change! 😃 Good Stuff!
Thanks!
Grand Rapids local here, always felt like we've had a decent transit system based on what I hear about transit elsewhere in the country, glad to hear that seems to be accurate!
Slight note depending on how pedantic you want to be - 12:20 2023 may be when they expanded contactless to include standard credit/debit cards, etc, but they started contactless in I think 2018 via the Wave card
When talking about transit fares contactless means debit/credit. Idk why they chose that vague terminology, just the way it is.
Love being bus obsessed as well, luckily in the UK we generally have a fairly decent bus network. We have mostly double decker buses, but have noticed that Alexander Dennis build Enviro 500 double deck buses for the US market
Yes, I will actually release a video on those doubledeckers in the not-too-distant future!
I know DD buses are used in Seattle and Oakland I believe.
@@pavld335 Ottawa, Canada as well, but they are all being retired in 2026 being replaced by nothing, maybe XE60s if Council actually gives OC Transpo money and doesn't privatize it (which will happen under Poilievre)
i’ve lived very close to grand rapids my entire life, very much within the vicinity of one or two routes, and ive seen these buses around more times than i can count. definitely not interested in driving because my paranoia wouldn’t let me, so i get the feeling that this video is actually going to be a huge help when i actually need to get around more. it’s honestly a bit crazy watching this video, seeing a bunch of places that i’ve seen frequently around. learning more about the city’s history is really interesting too!
This is an awesome video about the awesome bus transit in Grand Rapids! I especially enjoyed your historic information and love that the people sued the city to historically preserve the beautiful houses that still stand today. That’s awesome!!!
And that’s how I got to live in one of those houses!
@@Thom-TRA Wonderful!!!
Thom, thanks for your videos and the greater view of the world you offer us through your rider experience. Appreciate your insights, the background and unusual facts, and your passion.
As your interest in bus systems grows let me share an improvement which is occurring with the RAPID system. During your time in Grand Rapids you no doubt noticed the sparse audio/visual announcements made by the bus automated system as the bus moves along its route (thinking of the regular fixed route system not the BRT's Silverline or Lakerline). While the RAPID met the current ADA standards for types of announcements and frequency of announcements the level of announcing upcoming stops, points of interest, landmarks, etc was far below what should be expected from a modern consumer friendly system. The rider either needed to be familiar with the route, be using a smart device, or asking for driver assistance to easily and stresslessly reach their destination. The system was far from user friendly compared to some other similar sized cities or larger transit systems with onboard bus rider navigating tools. After nearly 4 years of persistently (and insistently) encouraging the RAPID to modernize route orientation announcements we are seeing significant enhancement of navigation tools for the rider as they make their way to a destination. There are more audible/visual announcements during the rider's transit so it is easier to know exactly where one is along the route as well as knowing when an upcoming stop is approaching. When you return to GR and ride route 6 take notice of the improvement. This is also an example while change may be arduously slow and face reluctance, consumers advocating for improvement can be a catalyst for change. It takes involvement, commitment, and the desire to see a system better servicing its riders.
Looking forward to more of your videos. Keep up going on adventures !
I noticed there seemed to be more announcements already! Back when I commuted they only announced the very big roads.
Route 6 is my favorite line too! Kentwood station is near a few hobby shops I love and theres a stop not far from my house. I love going on adventures using the bus line to drop me off places to explore. Really glad i found this video.
The 6 has the nicest drivers too
I’m following your timeline too, Thom! I’m also slowly becoming much more interested in busses than I ever was, probably since I finally started actually riding them!! Truly excited for the most phenomenal bus content on TH-cam.
Next week: NH2
WAAAHOOO
In Brisbane we converted diesel buses to gas buses many years ago, soon getting electric buses🎉
Bus O'clock works so well!
It rolls off the tongue
I'm a student at Kendall and I'm learning the busses for the first time!!
Let me know if you need any help!
Great show Thom! Once again, I love your candor concerning the adventurous routes you take in an imperfect infrastructural world. Maybe you will go back to NYC and ride the route I took to elementary school back in the seventies- the M4 & M5! There are so many bus routes in New York that it would take you a whole year and then some to ride all of them!! Continue to enjoy your journey and Godspeed to you and your wife.
It’s been over a decade since I’ve been on an MTA bus. Any suggestions of where to start?
Nice! Buses are everywhere, so we're lucky!
I found this quite an interesting video! This story reminds me of my own public-transit experience: since August 2023, I've been taking the San Diego MTS (specifically bus route 35 and the Blue Line trolley) to and from college. Although I haven't been on buses much before college, now, I enjoy the buses a lot. I've even collected many paper schedules for other bus routes on the MTS!
Thanks for the video!
I collect printed schedules too!
You did your excellent coverage again! This time about 😛 buses. I confess, like most railfans and rapid transit fans, I'm not much interested in buses. I've ridden my share of them, and have a nodding acquaintance with my local bus system, even to the approval of its storage-battery electric power system which is far less stinky and noisy than diesel. So keep riding trains, trolleys, and buses, and I'll look forward to your excellent videos!
It’s quite interesting when you mention about the transit centers and routes as I do kind of the same thing! Lol Bus O’ Clock I’ll start to use that term, as someone who rides the bus and train somewhat often. Can’t wait for future bus videos, hopefully you’ll do some of LA’s Buses as we have plenty of agencies and routes that you’ll probably find interesting
Just moved to the GR area last year! Havent used the bus but ive heard its a great system!
You should! I lived in GR car free thanks to them
Love it, thanks for sharing
As someone from the area the busses are nice and work good. Though I’d love to see a return to the old street cars and interurbans that used to run all throughout west Michigan at the turn of the last century.
This video came very useful for waiting the almost 30 minutes for the next train. The only noise is the platform clock scraping on the glass and the noise it makes every minute when the hands move.
Glad it gave you something to do! Did you see my Swiss clock?
@@Thom-TRA your clock isn’t making a horrible scraping noise like the one in the station yesterday. The time of the platform clock is probably numbered because everyone has a clock on their phone. They used to be on the passenger information displays in trains to but they are now a digital clock because you couldn’t actually read the traditional analog clock. I don’t know why our station clock is so popular with people there are way nicer clocks like the ones that SNCF or DB uses.
A love story for the ages
Though I still prefer the first story of course
Great Video of the City Of Grand Rapids as well! Keep up the good work!😊
Subbed so I can hear about the upcoming video showing off the Laker Line!
Planning to release it late August / early September (if nothing more urgent comes up). Thanks for subbing!
yeah more bus stuff please. I love them!
Growing up I always considered the bus a lamer version of the train, for poor people who could not afford to live near train station. Then, I moved to a part of town that wasn't served by the train and I had to start taking the bus to work. To my surprise, the bus was pretty nice! I was very impressed by the ability of bus drivers to weave in and out of traffic, around obstacles, etc. I'm glad to see a lot of bus content on your channel these days. Keep up the good work.
Love to hear this
No good public transport system without busses. Nice to see something about american bus systems. I was forty years busdriver and twenty of them also tramdriver here in Germany. And, of course, I´m a train and a rail fan. I´m completly on the right place here on your channel. Thank you for your work.
What did you like better, driving buses or trams?
@@Thom-TRA For me, tramdriving was the easy´st way to get my money. You have the rails, you know how much place u have and you know that there is no more chance to come to a stop before the crash. God thanks, i had just some little ones. Bus driving is much more chellanging. You have to know, where your wheels are. You need place in front of your front axle and the end from the bus is around three meters behind the rear axle. At every corner you need extra place. I loved it. Both. Tram and Bus driving. I´m a born driver. The greatest fun was, drive with a travel coach throu the Alps. Or at the mediteranien coast roads. A special plce for bus driving is the road around the Lake Garda in the north of Italy. Very tiny and twisty corners and small tunnels. A funtastic experience.
Brilliant video sir!
Thank you!
I love a city with a good bus line. I am visually impaired and rely on public transportation to get around. This one looks pretty good! Thanks for sharing.
You're welcome! Do you use the system in your own city a lot?
@@Thom-TRA No, it is very inaccessible. I went to the University of Dayton and used their system to do some of my clinical work. Those folks were great.
Great tour of your college town! I've also mostly depended upon trains rather than busses in the towns and cities I lived car-free. Berkeley had a few lines that were an exception, their service is extensive and very good. The smaller college town of Davis, CA has a remarkable bus service -- it is entirely operated, including and especially the drivers, by undergraduate students! I'll be interested in what you come up with in the new series of videos. Cheers!
I really want to go to Davis to ride the buses. Especially those old London buses!
Yeah number 6 bus mentioned!
Best bus
Thom since you live in Washington, you should make a video on the H street streetcar, Washington’s only streetcar. Keep up the awesome content!
I have plans to make that video. Been on it several times, haven't filmed much yet.
That was such a surreal viewing experience for me. I was born in Grand Rapids ... on August 21.
(I'm a relatively new subscriber and did not know that you had a connection with Grand Rapids.)
Wow, what a crazy coincidence!
It's always weird to me when I watch a video that's made in my city. I'm not used to seeing stuff that I know exactly where they are, like 0:14, that's right by Central Station.
Also at 15:26 this is where the Silver Line ends, and returns to Central
Cool to see that you are going to make bus videos too
Love the SBB clock in the background :)
Found it in a thrift store in Grand Rapids doe $15!
Noticed saying hello to the bus driver at 7:16 . This honestly was a big culture shock when I moved from Michigan to DC! the bus drivers in DC look at me like I'm crazy when I try to say hello to them.
I learned to love the bus by being a CATA rider in Lansing.
I do it here all the time and usually don’t get too many weird looks. It’s just polite in my opinion.
Thank you for the video. My love for buses came at very early age. My great aunt did not drive. I would spend at least 1 weekend a month at her place in Easton, PA (we lived near by). To go places, we would take the LANTA Bus. It got us everywhere; the mall, the city's center square (lunch, shopping and transfers) and the south side (to visit my uncle and cousins). We would even transfer to a NJ Transit bus and go across the Delaware River to visit her brother. It was always a fun time on the bus. Now that I live in the DC metropolitan area, I get to occasionally take an express bus to my office (if I am not carpooling). In previous jobs, I took DASH in Alexandria and Metrobus between 2 job locations. In college, I used the Fairfax CUE to get to the Vienna Metrorail station. BTW: When I was a little kid, I wanted to be a bus driver. A city bus driver; not a motor coach.
It's very cool that the university shuttles are public buses! In my city, the university operates their own shuttle, which I assume isn't open to the general public.
My local system also attempts pulsing, but it doesn't work when they are always late. :(
Some bus videos are fine. Looking forward to them.
Glad I have your approval
Love your videos! Will you be doing any videos on the MCTS in Milwaukee? Just moved to MKE and there do not appear to be many videos reviewing the bus system here. Like most US cities the bus system has seen better days but I find it to be not all that bad in certain neighborhoods. Thank you!
East Grand Rapids is also where the movie American Pie takes place, although they call it East Great Falls.
I did not know that
@@Thom-TRA Yeah, not the most family friendly movie unfortunately. If you haven't seen it, don't watch it.
Interesting stuff. As a fellow train enthusiast and transit advocate I will also admit Ive taken a liking to buses too. Though the Grand Rapid ones are odd. Im from Denmark for context, and the buses in Grand Rapids look like ones that would've run in Denmark 20 years ago. But the bus sector here is also quite interesting with a lot of different models now, especially with electric buses becoming more and more common, and chinese manufacturers entering the market! The country's largest transit agency, Movia, now has 42% of their bus fleet electric right now with over 500 electric buses. We have Yutong, Golden Dragon, Ebusco, MAN, Volvo, BYD, VDL, Mercedes, Solaris, Scania, Van Hool, Isuzu, Iveco, we have the whole menu for bus content here.
I know my own local route got some Volvo 7900 Electrics. A surprisingly rare bus type here in Denmark but those buses are great.
Number 6 bus mentioned!
This is a great video for Grand Rapids Bis network. Wish it was titled so since I like putting my urbanist videos in the category by their transit types and when they have their city names and network name it makes it easier to find! Great overview video! would be cool if all transit had cab views...
I’ll probably change it eventually
I used to commute to work and college via the Rapid and/or via bike. I appreciated the bike racks on the front of the busses. The rapid is pretty good, but it could be so much better.
Hopefully many of their future plans are carried out
One of these busses comes all the way up to big rapids mi an hour north
Yeah, I’ve done a video on that one before
Guess what time it is! Bus o' clock! That's a great name in all honesty.
I would like to visit Grand Rapids, MI now. Walkability in that town sounds like a Vacation !🎉
Walkability is limited to certain areas, though
Still trying figure out what type of bus Kzoo uses (brand & model)
Very interesting to see how you got interested in buses
Interesting indeed
Another bus o'clock in America the Wonderful is 6-6-6 Service. 6AM to 6PM 6 Days per week.
I grew up in GRR and my younger brother went to GVSU. Service back then was 11 routes with #1-8 having pieces on both sides of downtown. #1 Division/76th became #1 W. Leonard/Richmond. Hours were 6 AM to 6 PM Monday-Saturday. GRATA depended on money from Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids, Kentwood, Walk, Wyoming, and Granville so service was frequently cut/replaced depending on how "generous" these cities were every year. That changed in Fall 2000 when GRATA became The Rapid with an independent property tax levy. Gradually evening service and new Sunday service was added. The reason 29 service was cancelled was Cascade Township didn't want to fund the route anymore. Any service outside of The Rapid's boundaries must be paid for by *someone* - i.e. Laker Line and 37/48 are paid by GVSU. Transit service even with COVID and driver shortages is still much better than when I was young.
Also Amtrak Pere Marquette had more civilized times in the past, leaving GRR at 7:30 vs current 6 AM and leaving Chicago between 4:30 and 5:30 PM, getting back before the last buses at 11:15 PM (now 10:15)
Great to know some historical context!
I’m a train guy myself and I’ve been interested in buses when I rode the pace bus more often. That was when I still lived in Illinois but now that I don’t, I want to mention the buses we have here in Chattanooga which is called CARTA. They use Gillig Low Floors just like the ones in this video which I do like the most. If I read the three digit numbers on them, I know what year they are and when they were built. They have a roster on Wikipedia just like they do with most bus companies.
CARTA sounds so fancy
@@Thom-TRA Yeah they could be even though they don’t work the same as many bus systems in the U.S. They have some old buses called a Gillig Phantom and some newer electric buses in the fleet.
I appreciate bus videos. I would ride the bus with my Dad when we lived in the Washington DC Area. When we moved up to New Jersey, I would have to use New Jersey Transit Bus to get back and forth from school and work. We lived in Cape May and the local line was the 552 which ran from Cape May to Atlantic City. We moved to the St. Louis area and I had to rely on bus and train to commute to and from school and work.
I’ve been having fun exploring the DMV bus system
I live in Kalamazoo, and we have a decent bus system, but they don't run nearly frequently enough.
I do like how the buses in Kalamazoo leave from the same facility as the trains
I loved this video, having visited there myself! A few of my friends went to GVSU. I seem to recall that Holland and (maybe?) Kalamazoo also have a bus'o'clock system. It does make for a very easy to understand and use system, even if it isn't always the most efficient way of getting from A to B. I would be very happy to see more bus videos. What do you prefer as a seating surface on buses? The plastic-stuff seems easier to clean, at least in theory, but not as nice to sit on.
Some pace buses in the Chicago suburbs use the bus o’clock system too! I prefer the cushiony bus seats like on WMATA buses in DC.
Oh, shoot, I recognize some of these roads! Lol
Trying to see if I can spot my car in the Woodland Mall parking lot 😆
As a former Muskegonite turned Grand Rapidian, when I lived to GR, I was surprised at how much more infrastructure for buses this city has. I have yet to ride the Rapid, but this video got me considering it just to explore more of the city.
The potholes in the East Brooke strip mall are still just as massive as ever, and 28th Street is still the scariest road outside of the city-proper. I usually take 29th Street to get to Sam's Club just to avoid it.
You could fill those potholes up with water and charter cruises in them
I enjoy that video👍👍
I love busses too!
I truly wished my city’s transit system was better like your town.
I've been a bus nut or enthusiast for probably 30 or 40 years since I was a teenager I rode buses and a lot of different cities. My first train or rapid transit experience was Toronto in 1990 when I rode the young University Spadina. I even rode the Detroit people mover if that counts.
I love the Detroit people mover
Even though I grew up on the PRR main line/ Paoli/Thorndale line and had used it as a kid and teenager, never really took it for granted like I have since 2021 when I spent a summer working at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio and its own 6-line system called the Sandusky Transit System or STS which connects downtown, the employee dorms, the Amtrak station (although like in Grand Rapids, the buses do not run when Amtrak serves it. Although a westbound Lake Shore LTD can be late enough for a transfer though), and a major fast food/big box boulevard with a Great Wolf Lodge and Kalahari Resort in the mix as well. The Orange line only operates Monday-Friday as it is intended for the Ride and Attraction Management program students at the Bowling Green State campus-which has a dorm downtown and a campus area in the far east near Cedar Point's sports complex and Sawmill Creek Resort. Sandusky has good bones, it just needs more frequency and Purple line service on Sunday's, although I would down to extend the Yellow line into Huron and 30mins service most of the day
How cool you got to work at Cedar Point
@@Thom-TRA It really changed my path. I have a weird relationship with Top Thrill Dragster since I was stationed near the ride on the day of its August 2021 accident. The ride has had a layout change and technical upgrades and is now called Top Thrill 2 as of this season
I have a relationship with TTD too but bur I don't like to think about it anymore now that they remade it. I don't know how I feel any it so I just think about Millennium Force now. I was OBSESSED with that ride when I was little. The first time I rode it it was so young and scared it like I was seeing GOD!
That's crazy that you were there that day. I hope that women and her family are doing okay.
Have you heard about the Dutch Den Oudsten bus company, which was by times owner of the NewFlyer bus company? The popular D40LF is a low floor derivate of the Den Oudsten B86 Low Floor bus.
I’ve heard of them!
As a current bus driver and bus fan, I greatly appreciate your bus videos! On a side note though: when you say, "first time I drove a truck..." Is that a CDL truck? I used to drop at Meijers in Grand Rapids regularly.
Like a Uhaul truck. Basically something bigger than a personal automobile or a pickup. I don’t have a CDL.
As someone from the Grand Rapids area, the system has really heavily downgraded since the pandemic. Busses are typically late (even BRT lines), some are no-shows, money is being poured into the system around downtown while other areas are being stripped of infrastructure, and I've noticed an uptick on heavy drug usage on the busses themselves.
I've heard some talk about potential light rail installations around downtown, but I honestly think downtown is well served enough already. Money needs to be spent connecting people outside of the center too.
Bus system in GR isn’t bad I suppose. I’ve lived in the area my entire 40+ years so I know a thing or two about transportation in the area. The RAPID hasn’t had the funds it used to this past year or two so some of its services have been cut or limited. I wish some streets such as Leonard had a line that went from one side of the city to the other.
But it is nice that they’ve made it easy as pie to pay for.
To be Dutch born, have a Japanese childhood, and then go to the small town of Grand Rapids for a college education is so shocking to me. I am self-aware there are many Midwest colleges that have a decent-sized minority of foreign students but it's still hard to imagine someone from a developed country coming to small town America, even if their family had connections to a specific town beforehand. It's humbling!
I know it’s not the intention, but when people make comments like this it always comes across as a little judgmental and insensitive. Like I wouldn’t know what’s good for me or something.
I've never heard of Grand Rapids being called a small town, for my whole life I've considered it a big city.
The problem I find with the GR bus system is it doesn't run in the off hours. Like most Americans I use the bus only when my car breaks down or I'm drunk. The buses don't run at 5 am so I can't get to work on time. They also stop running by midnight so I can't take the buses home from the bar on the weekend. Listen I spend nearly as much on a car payment & insurance, I'd love to stop, but if it can't get me to work or home from the bar what's the point.