The Feds vs. the Chinatown Bus: The Glorious Rebirth of Bus Travel & Why the Gov't May Ruin it Again
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ค. 2024
- The long-distance busing industry was originally dominated by small scrappy companies competing fiercely to win over customers, only to become a government-protected cartel with declining ridership and all the competitive spirit of Ma Bell. A half-century later, busing returned to its glorious origins, but today it's in danger becoming a ward of the state once more.
In the 1910s, the very first American bus companies started picking up passengers on main streets all across America. There were few barriers to entry; entrepreneurs without much capital could buy or lease a motorcoach and then start doing regular pick-ups in front of a hotel or on a street corner.
Within a few years, local governments intervened to protect established companies from new competition. By 1925, most states required that bus companies apply for permission to service particular routes. The Motor Carrier Act of 1935 put the federal Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) in charge of regulating bus travel. The ICC did everything from set ticket prices to grant established companies the exclusive right to operate between certain cities.
Protected from competition, bus companies grew indifferent to the changing tastes of their customers. Americans relocated to the suburbs, while car and air travel exploded in popularity. As inner-city depots became dangerous and decrepit, bus companies failed to alter their business models. After World War II, U.S. bus travel fell by half in just a decade and then it kept declining.
The industry languished for the next half century. In 1982, President Reagan deregulated intercity bus travel, which cleared the way for new companies to get into the business and start fighting to win back passengers, but for the next decade and a half not much changed. Then in the late 1990s, a group of immigrants from Fujian Province, China reinvented the bus industry in New York City's Chinatown. These entrepreneurs brought busing back to its roots of picking up passengers right off the street instead of from a traditional station. (The Chinatown bus companies became known as curbside carriers.) Once again, pretty much all you needed to start a bus company was a bus.
The Chinatown operators also figured out a way to win over customers that had eluded the established carriers for decades: charge really low prices. In short order, companies like Greyhound, Peter Pan, and Coach USA started opening their own curbside services, and today intercity busing is the fastest growing form of intercity transit in the U.S.
Today, history is repeating itself. An onslaught of new safety rules are forcing many small bus operations out of business, allowing the corporate carriers to grab more market share. On May 31, 2012, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration shutdown 26 bus companies in a single day, and since then it has forced an additional 15 closures.
For a case study of the government's incompetence at regulating motorcoach travel, read "Why the Government Was Wrong to Shutdown Fung Wah Bus Company:"
reason.com/archives/2013/07/16...
Over-regulating bus lines actually makes passengers quite a bit less safe. Since all the shutdowns, ticket prices have spiked considerably. This means fewer people will be enticed to take the bus and leave their cars at home. Because buses are orders of magnitude safer than cars, travelers are far more likely to die on the highway.
Hosted by Naomi Brockwell. Written, shot, and edited by Jim Epstein.
About 9 minutes.
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those poor passengers. when they walked out and saw here they were probably thinking "Gweilo wtf you doing?"
5:16 The irony is it's safer to ride in a bus than it is to drive.
Preach.
7:17 So they shut the entire company down? How do you manage to justify that? How are they any more dangerous than a city bus?
7:33 What they didn't know? ... If they don't know that, 1. how are they evaluating 'normal' tour buses? 2. how are they authorities on bus safety if they are unaware of that basic fact?
The Elven Jedi basic physics? The bus is much larger and can absorb a greater impact than a small car can.
Because goverment bureaucrats never were in the business or industry to know anything about how it works. Just like
politicians like know it all Mayor De Blasio. The worst mayor in NYC history. And I am a NEW YORKER! I lived there from the 1950s thru 1980s.The I moved to Jersey City across the Hudson River. I had a real education in NYC school
1961....1974.
@@user47362 I actually don't understand what your point is.
What does bus vs. car size have to do with bureaucratic hypocrisy?
My only issue with Fung Wah Buses?, the bathrooms smelled like hell. Other than that it was totally fine with me. $10 was a dealbreaker.
Chinese buses are great -- I recently took Bus2NYC from Columbus Ohio to NYC and it saved the day for me -- had missed a Friday night flight home and next one Delta could book me on was a day and a half later -- for a $250 penalty to switch planes. Instead I got a Bus2NYC that night for $60 -- left at 10:30pm and was in NYC 7:30 am the next morning. Bus was excellent -- big, comfortable, bathroom on board. Ride felt safe. Cheap and direct to NYC -- much shorter time then Greyhound which wanted $130 and was going to take 14.5 hours (they route thru Philly) and get me to NY by noon. The people that operate Bus2NYC were very professional and really, really nice. What a great ride.
Isn't it great how competition makes things better for the customers?
Government strikes again!
Odd, I've never had a bus driver point a gun at my head and force me to ride his "dangerous" bus.
I wonder how many "campaign contributions" Greyhound paid to get this done.
leave it to the government to ruin a good thing.
We must prohibit the government from banning things (except violence), regulatory function should only be informative, each chooses the rest at your own risk.
Why not treat adults like adults?
Word!!
You sound like a Socialist twat.
Why are Americans losing their job?. SAFETY,LICENCES and PERMITS. This course doesn't include high taxes on property and high rents.
I have a feeling that one of the biggest mistakes that these small buses did was not getting in bed with the lawmakers. If they have lobbyist (which means cost goes up), then they probably will still be in business now.
The government just seems jealous that the private industry did what they couldn't figure out: Keep the bus fair affordable so more people take the bus...
You hit that nail right on its head!
That was good. I like how deep we went into the story and how much more information I got than a normal ReasonTV quickie. Not that I don't like those too, it is just nice to see this longer, more in-depth video.
"I'm optimistic about the big players, they know how to play the game, they have lawyers. But I do worry about the small campus run bus operations." 8:29 -- Government regulations help to create/maintain big businesses and hurt entrepreneurs/small businesses. Entrepreneurs are the source of innovation.
great report, thank you for uploading.
Im actually surprised they were able to fend off the Greyhound attacks via the Government regulation for so long. My Grandmother used to pay $40 round trip from Philadelphia to NYC. Then she discovered the Chinatown Buses. $10 each way. Greyhound after some time then offered an online discount that took tickets down to $25 round trip. That was the free market at work. Now they finally succeeded in limiting competition. Prices will go up and service quality will go down. shame
I've gone across North America and everywhere with Greyhound. I love bus travel.
best Reason documentary in a long time! awesome
Thank you, Reason
Great video, thanks!
Hello from thelibertarienne show Naomi. GL on your new gig.
I've never had a problem on Fung Wah. Best deal in Boston.
now that's journalism... by the way Naomi Brockwell is drop dead gorgeous thank you Reason TV
Fantastic!
4:50
Anyone else notice that the BOLT bus is using the British Union of Fascists symbol as their logo?
Government involvement..bad outcome. Free competition... good outcome. That is it in a nutshell.
Nice report
Why am I not surprised, the government doesn't like the compitician.
I know exactly what you're talking about and what you're saying is making my point. Simply saying regs don't work over and over again won't do anything. That's why demonstrating why they don't work is the best solution to this problem.
These criminal Democrats again.
Not really, criminal corporations that pay both parties.
@@tallthinkev I'm with you on this.
The trend toward independent bus operations between major city centers is likely to continue. Megabus has recently started serving the W. Coast of the US to great acclaim, but some municipalities like SF have implemented steep fines for private bus services that utilize public MUNI bus stops & union/public safety officials are beginning to organize against such private services.
I've taken China buses and they were a major pain in the ass. When Bolt came they were forced to tighten up, because Bolt/Megabus ran on time, had new buses, and had wi-fi.
Thank you
CAPITAL LETTERS MAKE ME MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVERYONE ELSE!!!
I imagine customers would have taken action as well -- stopped buying tickets and Fung Wah would have gone out of business naturally :-)
The problem is that some people think working "for the people" means that if a majority hold a particular opinion, that gives the government a mandate to enforce that opinion, regardless of the rights of the individuals holding the minority opinion.
Thank you big gub'mint.
Pride and Envy. The scourge of humanity........and governments.
One reason to take a bus? No tsa grope fest.
They defiantly did not intend to say that small buses are dangerous.
When did I ever say that simply saying something over and over, works? From the very beginning I said that conclusions should be drawn that "regulations do not work, and useless waste of money" after examples.
They never said a word about regulations being useless and waste of money. All they said is, bus companies got regulated out of business, then they gave examples of regulations such as safety, and explained that the buses were safe. Not a word about ALL regulations being a waste. "They never said the regulations were good" And here your putting words in my mouth, since I never claimed that Reason thinks that regulations are good. My whole point is that Reason needs to go deeper.
If standard of living, vehicles and interstate killed the bus line, not gov regulation, then what killed the Fung Wah and Chinatown buses?
Because people stopped riding it in order to drive themselves? Or because gov shut it down?
Seriously, ReasonTV should be on television. You guys really have to try to work your way into some channel somehow. The quality of your videos is really good and they're really critical yet always nuanced. I just find it strange that so few people now about this gem. This should be prime time material. (Yes, I know TV is getting less and less relevant, but it's still the main source of information for most people)
Senator Schumer, without his hard work, the Glass-Steagall would have NEVER been killed.
I can only hope.
There is still Eastern Shuttle. Back in the day, the main competitor for Greyhound was Trailways. Today, Greyhound has different curbside brands (Yo! Bus and BoltBus), but they all have the same USDOT # (44110). Greyhound now has a true national competitor in Stagecoach Group's Megabus brand, but they really do need a third nationwide competitor. Might it be yet another British company (National Express) that could provide it?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Government supposed to work FOR the People, and not Against? We The People Run the Government, not the other way around, right? So, whats the deal here?
Hey Gov'ts got to protect their monopoly. What's next? Private FD, PD and EMTs? Sounds good to me!
Government is irrefutably the most inefficient way to deliver or manage a service. Historically, deregulation of senseless government policies & regulations has an immediate effect on economic prosperity.
Yep I am Mad as Hell & I am not going to take any More! and neither should anyone else.
Whether you like this administration or not is irrelevant because the next one or the one after that will be damned near the same if we last that long. How do you know if a politician is Lying? By watching their mouth move.
I was in Macau this summer and it's amazing how much more free they are in so many aspects of their lives. Sure, there are bribes, and yeah the taxes are robbery, but there isn't this incessant nannying.
I usually travel Wong Wei
Lots of bus like this in Orange County and they pick people up at all random unsafe spots.
If you haven't already, read "No Treason" by Lysander Spooner. It's not very long. You can also listen to it on TH-cam. He rips the heart out of the US Constitutional model in a very methodical way.
Not that I expect Reason to be balanced about anything, but there's a very good reason the government is taking action--Fung Wah buses have HAD THEIR FREAKING WHEELS FALL OFF EN ROUTE.
High speed rail works so much better.
Is that banjo song just saying bingbong bingbong?
Go Home government, You Are Drunk!
Great story! I'd like to see more from this journalist! She didn't have any of that Libertarian smarm that you usually see from the other reporters. Seriously ReasonTV, you can be a little tiring when you're making faces and using condescending tones all the time.
I don't get it. It's better for the environment to ride buses. Environmentalists have been pushing public transport for decades on the grounds of CO2 emissions. And how that the private industry tapped into it, all of a sudden it's "unsafe". Have these people not been on the CTA buses in Chicago? How are those buses any safer?
6 taxi drivers watched this video
It would have been nice if in the title you put 3 letters there after the word Chinatown : N.Y.C .
I had to read towards the bottom of the description before I knew you were talking about New York .
don't forget there's Chinatown San Francisco and I don't know if they have a Greyhound terminal at the Edge of Chinatown there . There's also Chinatown Philadelphia and Chicago... Philly does have a Greyhound terminal at the Edge of it .
I don't know if this has the jurisdiction of all of those bus places everywhere or not even though you said fed I don't know if you actually mean the federal government because maybe it's still very state from State ? I don't know .
Cracks in the frame?, it's not an airplane.
I am not misunderstanding, we live in a representative democracy. A direct democracy? ask Switzerland (you know, that fiercly independent, gun toting, free and prosperous country in europe)how bad direct democracy is.
Don't mess with my emotions, it's cruel. So uhh have you heard something?
Holy shit!!!
You literally said that they said the regulations were justified. Also, they didn't give any examples of the regulations making the buses safer. However, if you're now saying that your problem with this video is that Reason didn't say all regulations were bad then there's two things. 1.) With the subject of this video, that's a given. 2.) The focus of this video is this bus issue. They're using this issue to demonstrate the folly of regulations in general. It's called, "context."
Yes the power to regulate industries was given to the government by the people they didn't just magic it out of a hat. Buying out something does not in fact work unless that something is perfectly willing to be brought out it is impossible for the corporations to be the root cause of the corruption. and no there was never anarcho-capatilism.
Love the new host
I'm sure she's looking in the TH-cam comments for potential dates.
In its entire existence Fung Wah had only caused one fatality indirectly, a woman was injured and had died of a heart attack later. They have only caused under 100 minor injuries in their existence. So lets say you are 100 out of what, idunno more than 1,000,000 passengers in it's entire lifetime, seems pretty sade to me, i'd take that "risk" for a cheap ride.
Yes, by stating that regulators simply came to the wrong conclusion, says nothing about abolishing all regulations. And here is my exact words about regulations and not environmental concerns Quote" The buses are safe, meaning you are saying that regulations in this area are justified, but the decision was simply wrong" You may be able to draw the conclusion from context, who told you that other will draw the same conclusion? Someone might simply think that this particular regulator was wrong
Moar Naomi!
Welp, thats a true free market for you.
Quite the endorsement.
Yeah NYC, no surprise there.
hahaha i kno right.. government is inneficient as fuck, time to do this for schools...
chip chip cheerio!
damn $10 to go from NYC to Boston?
Exactly how 'unsafe' can a REGULAR BUS SERVICE BE?? I mean, unless the co. INTENTIONALLY BOUGHT OR HAD CUSTOM-MADE REALLY-CRAPPY BUSES THAT BREAK DOWN OR EASILY OR CAN BARELY SURVIVE AN ACCIDENT, I don't get it... Are they "hiring just anyone who applies, regardless of whether they know how to drive"?
i wonder if that spike in bus usage before world war 2 had anything to do with gasoline rationing. if it did, maybe the peak of bus usage isn't the most honest place to use as your baseline for comparison.
still. good and interesting video.
I do worry about the safety of these Chinatown buses, more the drivers than the buses themselves. I've seen enough close calls involving these buses where more often than not the bus driver is texting while driving instead of paying attention to the road. I know someone is going to come along and tell me I'm wrong but that's my opinion based on what I've seen with my own two eyes.
Doesn't sound like a problem with the actual bus...
In those cases, no. There are always the Bernie Madoffs, the Martha Stewarts, the Kenneth Lays, the Scott Rothsteins, and Samuel Israel's to say otherwise. You sound mad, but I hope you find this information helpful.
Fung wah did have a few buses catch on fire and lose tires when on the road. True did not have a fatality, but it did have a lot of issues. That is not to say the gov't did over-react, but to portray them as not doing anything wrong, is misleading.
Please don't stand at the door asking people how their trip was as they get off. That would irritate me to no end.
Well the classical liberal view of democracy and/or constitutional republicanism has had 200 years to prove itself, and it's failing badly IMO.
Unfortunately the "constitutional republic" gets all the credit for American prosperity over the last 240-ish years, when in truth it was simply the lack of government power (not the type of government) early on that gave us so much, and we built up an economic inertia in the first 80 years that took 140 years of state efforts to completely destroy.
so sad
Thank god for Chuck Schumer.
Govt. Ooh look something to tax.
Plus, don't these buses USUALLY GO VERY SLOWLY, like 10 mph or less? at least on the main road
well, 10-20 (maybe 30)
Yes, they do go to jail. I don't even know what you're trying to argue with me about, unless you failed to read my arguments.
What you're doing right here is putting words in Reason's mouth. They never said the regulations were good. Safety and being environmentally friendly doesn't equal government intervention. In fact, they clearly explained how the government regulations are bullshit in this video and the context of the entire video itself is against government intervention. They also explained how the industry made itself safer and cleaner without the government at all.
Tea Bagger? Is that a slur against my English heritage>.>
Regardless you'll find very few people on the right who are against controlling the government. When people use the word regulation they tend to mean controls put in place by the government on industries so it is a stretch to say this is somehow a change in position.
Maybe direct democracy would fix this problem I've never put much thought into it but when I think of problems with the current system corporatism is just one among many.
More Naomi Brockwell and Kennedy please!!.. less Libertarian Fonzie...
Which again, without making a final conclusion that regulations all together are wrong all it does is tells those who are for regulations, is that we need right people to be regulators. Did I say they should simply state that, and never "demonstrate effects", no.
Oh my God right over your head... IF PEOPLE COME TOGETHER AND SAY HEY, FUCK IT LETS HAVE SOME POLITICIANS RUN OUR SOCIETY FOR US THEN THAT IS "GIVING" THEM REGULATORY POWER. The challenge is to EXPLAIN to people WHY they DON'T and CAN'T say that they know whats best for anyone but themselves. Freedom is the most neutral and peaceful point of morality that we have ever discovered. There is NOT an EFFECTIVE way to buy someone off in a way that will damage society's long term WITHOUT government.