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urbantravelsPHL t1_j0ijc08 wrote

Regular bus user here, very rare subway or rail user. SEPTA is the source of many frustrations. But every new city I've ever moved to or spent time in, it's always damn hard to figure out the buses at first except for the very simplest situations.

SEPTA's app alone is no use for trip planning. My first few years in Philly I always used the transit tab on Google Maps directions for figuring out how to get from Point A to Point B. Supplemented by SEPTA app just for tracking the current bus that I'm waiting for. I have not yet become a real user of the Transit app because I have most of my regular places to go figured out by now, but I agree it has a much nicer interface.

Even with better tools for trip planning...detours will absolutely screw you every time. They happen so often and with so little warning. I have through bitter experience trained myself to check the SEPTA app before I leave the house for any detours on my route, but there are still pitfalls - the sudden unannounced detour; the completely impenetrable SEPTA prose in which a detour is described because they have not yet figured out how to show them as a line on a map; the planned and scheduled detour that ends EARLIER than planned and scheduled (this happens all the time) so that you are, once again, waiting like a chump in the wrong place for the bus.

The "invisible bus" is one of my favorite manifestations. Sometimes the app does not show a bus when there is one supposed to be on the schedule. This may mean that the bus in question is never coming. It may *also* mean that the bus in question has a non-functioning transmitter and you will only know it is coming by beholding it in the flesh. Cue once again waiting like a chump for a bus that may or may not be coming.

Nevertheless, I still prefer the bus to most other modes of transport (physical disability means I can't ride a bike or take really long walks) and I just have to content myself with regular complaining, apologizing to anyone who might be waiting for me at the other end, and taking those delightful little surveys that SEPTA occasionally issues to let me know they're listening...

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urbantravelsPHL t1_j0ijm03 wrote

and by the way speaking of physical limitations: I have always said that SEPTA's bus stop motto is "Fuck you if you need to sit down."

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xJustAShadow t1_j0mn8rm wrote

If there is seating at the stops they will act like they don't see you and drive past your ass too. You sometimes need to basically stand in the street to get their attention as if they have blinders on.

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kindofasshole t1_j0ioke9 wrote

Something that will hopefully be addressed with bus rev with fewer stops. But the so-called “accessibility advocates” don’t want to hear it. Less stops = more shelters and benches.

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MakeNoTaco t1_j0k8ren wrote

>the completely impenetrable SEPTA prose in which a detour is described

perfect description. is there a decoder guide out there somewhere?

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Bellabird42 t1_j0jh4wt wrote

Invisible bus! In SF, you’d get the bus that would never arrive. A transmitter would tell you the bus was 10 minutes away, then 5, then back to 10, and sometimes it would arrive as indicated. But many times, it would just not show up

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21chucks t1_j0kv0wi wrote

Septa buses have definitely done this to me too

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batemochael t1_j0jig2u wrote

You perfectly described my exact feelings about the bus

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