Americans always need transport to and from work, leisure sites, houses of worship, and medical facilities. A hospital may have medical transportation services on hand, such as a fleet of ambulances and other EMT vehicles. Meanwhile, the best transportation services for leisure may be a bus line, a shuttle bus, or even a train or chartered bus. While many Americans drive cars or motorcycles on today’s roads, not everyone can or wants to own them or drive them. Instead, they may turn to the best transportation service of the type they need, and there are plenty of options. While it is true that the United States is mainly engineered for personal cars, the best transportation service around may not be too difficult to find.
Taking the Bus
Buses are quite popular, and often, the best transportation service may be a bus line. Who takes buses to get around? Nearly everyone, in fact. School students often take buses to and from home and school, and these buses may cover many routes in the area around an elementary, middle, or high school. These buses are a distinct yellow and have many padded seats for students, though they don’t typically have advanced features such as electronic screens or an onboard bathroom. Such buses also feature signs and lights to caution nearby drivers about young passengers boarding or getting off.
Meanwhile, chartered buses can do a lot of good for tourists and traveling business professionals. In many American cities, working professionals may board buses for their commute, and this can help them reduce traffic jams. How? A bus can carry dozens of people, and that represents an equal number of cars taken off the road. As a bonus, buses are often fuel efficient, and one bus will emit far less air pollution than the sum of all the cars it replaced. And of course, swapping 50 cars for one full bus eases traffic congestion quite a bit. Millions of rural Americans routinely take buses to and from a nearby city or large town, as trains or planes may not be an option for this commute.
Tourists also get good use out of buses. Typically, a tourist will not bring their own vehicles with them, but they can get around in local taxis and buses. One charter bus can carry 50-60 tourists in it at once, and this large tourist group may enjoy an easy drive to local sites and communities to visit. These buses have comfort in mind, and may feature padded seats, electronic screens, air conditioning and heating, WiFi, and an onboard restroom. Just one tour bus can be a real asset to a local tourism-based community, since that bus may deliver a large group of people who will spend money locally on lodging, attractions, food, services, and more. In this way, a local tourist bus can pay for itself, and then some.
Shuttle Buses
Shuttle buses are smaller than the large charter buses a person may see on the road, but they are no less important. These modest buses, and large vans, are useful for carrying a few people somewhere. Some facilities or businesses may have their own small fleet of shuttles to offer, in fact, without having to work with larger bus companies. Houses of worship, such as a church or synagogue, may have their own shuttle buses or vans to transport worshipers. Often, it is the elderly who make use of these shuttle buses and vans, and these vehicles may have the church’s or synagogue’s name and image printed on their side.
Airports do something similar, offering a fleet of shuttles for airplane passengers who need to get to and from the airport. It may be impractical for someone to drive themselves to an airport, park their car there for two weeks during their trip, and then finally come back. If the passenger can’t or won’t get someone they know to drive them, they can try a taxi or airport shuttle bus. When a person buys their tickets and books a flight, they can use that schedule as a reference for booking shuttle buses and specify their address and desired pickup times. Such shuttle buses may also have room on board for each passenger’s luggage, too, for convenience.
