Mountain House bus to BART

Tracy Press reports on the (unauspicious) opening of a bus line between Mountain House and BART. One of the problems with this kind of service is that it's hard to jump-start: it simply is too inconvenient for most people, to the point of unworkable, so nobody wants it (except greenies who do not have to ride buses themselves).

The biggest problem with commuter bus routes between Tracy and Bay Area is that they are not anywhere dense enough to support a varying schedule. In today's economy, fewer people work 9 to 5 than ever before. Worse, the schedule is not set for 9 to 5 workers. Instead, it caters to 7 to 3 workers, if anyone. Seriously, check routes 70 and 71. They depart in 5:30 and 5:50 A.M. Oh, and if you stay at work past 2 p.m., you're stuck 65 miles from home. Who do these people kid?

I experimented with our bus services a little bit, but there was just no way to make it work, schedule-wise. To add insult to the injury, the bus used to cost $11 on 2002, one way (and the driver refused to give change on principle). Are they freaking serious? At $3/gallon my car burns only $6 of gas round trip. For $22, I could drive a monster truck to work.