Am I the only person who's ever traveled to an out-of-town roadmeet predominantly by bus (such as Greyhound or Megabus)?
I did it for the Huntington/Ashland meet in 2013, after nobody believed I would do it. Then I did it again for St. Louis last year, and Greyhound nearly ruined the event. This weekend, I'm traveling by bus to the Madison meet.
It's strange, because there's only one other time I've ever traveled by intercity bus (which was for an unrelated event in 2012).
I think some people took intercity transit to and/or from Laura's latest Baltimore meet, but that might've been Amtrak rather than buses.
I took local transit (mix of bus and subway) to froggie's 2009 Wilson Bridge meet a few miles from my home, while I was still recovering from eye surgery and unable to drive.
Quote from: oscar on April 14, 2015, 09:44:06 PM
I took local transit (mix of bus and subway) to froggie's 2009 Wilson Bridge meet a few miles from my home, while I was still recovering from eye surgery and unable to drive.
I'm pretty sure I bicycled to the meet-up place for the 2013 Cincinnati meet, since it was only a few blocks from my home. I may be the only person who's ever bicycled to a roadmeet.
I took the bus several times to other cities to meet people for roadgeeking, but it wasn't a meet per se.
If there's another Orlando meet I'd bike, bus, or both.
I arrived at the pre-meet for NYC last year by train, and went home after day 1 via ferry plus subway.
I've never at any point in my life ridden an intercity bus for any purpose, though. I have friends who've done it but said friends do not/did not own a car. If you have a functioning car there is kind of never any reason to take an intercity bus unless you want to do it just to say you did.
QuoteI may be the only person who's ever bicycled to a roadmeet.
You're not the only one. I bicycled to the 2012 DC meet.
As with Oscar, I've also taken transit to a meet...I took the DC Metro up to the March 2011 Intercounty Connector (ICC) meet.
Quote from: oscar on April 14, 2015, 09:44:06 PM
I think some people took intercity transit to and/or from Laura's latest Baltimore meet, but that might've been Amtrak rather than buses.
RoadgeekAdam went multi-modal for that meet. He biked, took NJTransit,
& SEPTA
& Amtrak to get from North Jersey to Baltimore.
Quote from: oscar on April 14, 2015, 09:44:06 PM
I think some people took intercity transit to and/or from Laura's latest Baltimore meet, but that might've been Amtrak rather than buses.
Adam took NJ Transit and SEPTA to and from my meet, plus rode his bike :)
Quote from: Duke87 on April 15, 2015, 12:55:31 AM
I've never at any point in my life ridden an intercity bus for any purpose, though. I have friends who've done it but said friends do not/did not own a car. If you have a functioning car there is kind of never any reason to take an intercity bus unless you want to do it just to say you did.
I've taken the Megabus from Baltimore to NYC and back more times than I can count for day trips or weekend trips because it's cheaper and easier than paying for tolls and parking, but I can see where you would never need to since you already are there, lol.
It's actually on my bucket list to attend a meet by a mode of transportation other than car. I have to admit that I looked into it for Denver. If I bought the ticket in advance, it would only cost $198 round trip, which actually isn't that bad price wise. I doubt I could get an airline ticket that cheap, plus, I would get to see roads!
Yes. I took a New Jersey Transit bus from Manhattan to Lakewood for the Brick/Wall meet back in 2013. I also took trains (New Jersey Transit and Metro-North) to get to the NYC National, Merritt Parkway, and New Jersey Turnpike meets last year. I may or may not take mass transit to the Utica meet in a few weeks, depending on carpool availability.
Quote from: froggie on April 15, 2015, 08:01:01 AMYou're not the only one. I bicycled to the 2012 DC meet.
I've freewheeled (ie no pedalling*) home from a meet that I walked to, having left my bike at the venue the night before for some reason (laziness, and seeking to be social: ie not bothering to go unlock my bike and walk it home, IIRC).
I've also cycled to the station to get a train to meets (and gotten the bus once, IIRC).
*This was in the period when I reckoned I could do it, but never was up the top of the gradual hill with my bike, no need to rush and no people coming with me part of the way that would mean running at their speed. It was just about possible, though the humps nearly stopped me.
Quote from: PHLBOS on April 15, 2015, 08:28:07 AM
Quote from: oscar on April 14, 2015, 09:44:06 PM
I think some people took intercity transit to and/or from Laura's latest Baltimore meet, but that might've been Amtrak rather than buses.
RoadgeekAdam went multi-modal for that meet. He biked, took NJTransit, SEPTA & Amtrak to get from North Jersey to Baltimore.
Minus Amtrak. Otherwise, accurate.
I bicycled to the first day of the NYC National considering I wasn't far from the restaurant. Somehow I still beat 98% of the people at the meet.
Quote from: Duke87 on April 15, 2015, 12:55:31 AMIf you have a functioning car there is kind of never any reason to take an intercity bus unless you want to do it just to say you did.
It's a lot cheaper, and someone else drives. I used to put my bike in the bus luggage compartment and go to New York for less than the gas cost of driving one way. It was a breeze, and I arrived there and returned a lot less tired than I did when driving.
Plus, these days with 4G/LTE, WiFi, smart phones, and tablets, taking a bus or a train allows one to play or work on stuff instead of having to drive.
Quote from: froggie on April 16, 2015, 07:51:00 AM
Plus, these days with 4G/LTE, WiFi, smart phones, and tablets, taking a bus or a train allows one to play or work on stuff instead of having to drive.
I don't have much use for wi-fi on buses. What annoys me is when a person's big complaint against a bus line is the lack of wi-fi.
In my day, we didn't have wi-fi. Or any other kind of fi.
Quote from: bandit957 on April 16, 2015, 10:12:59 AM
Quote from: froggie on April 16, 2015, 07:51:00 AM
Plus, these days with 4G/LTE, WiFi, smart phones, and tablets, taking a bus or a train allows one to play or work on stuff instead of having to drive.
I don't have much use for wi-fi on buses. What annoys me is when a person's big complaint against a bus line is the lack of wi-fi.
In my day, we didn't have wi-fi. Or any other kind of fi.
What about hi-fi?
Wifi is a stupid marketing term.
Quote from: Laura on April 15, 2015, 08:52:07 AM
I've taken the Megabus from Baltimore to NYC and back more times than I can count for day trips or weekend trips because it's cheaper and easier than paying for tolls and parking, but I can see where you would never need to since you already are there, lol.
You joke but I think you've accidentally touched on something important here - I don't see it as particularly cheaper or easier to take a bus. It takes a lot longer since I'd have to cover a bunch of ground by local transit just to get to the bus terminal, and it doesn't really save too much trouble or money since parking on the other end is never really an issue. But this is stated from the perspective of traveling
from New York. I can totally see where from the perspective of traveling
to New York it would be drastically different. You can probably get to your local bus terminal much more quickly and easily than I can, and I can undoubtedly find parking in Baltimore (or any other city) much more cheaply and easily than you can find it in New York.
So basically the rule of thumb still holds even with intercity buses - the denser your destination, the more viable transit is as an option!
I've flown to a few road meets before.
I have always driven to a meet, whether my own vehicle or a rental. The Pikeville meet in October 2013 was the only meet I ever car pooled with someone else to and not driving my own vehicle (Cody)
Quote from: Duke87 on April 16, 2015, 03:57:17 PM
You joke but I think you've accidentally touched on something important here - I don't see it as particularly cheaper or easier to take a bus. It takes a lot longer since I'd have to cover a bunch of ground by local transit just to get to the bus terminal, and it doesn't really save too much trouble or money since parking on the other end is never really an issue. But this is stated from the perspective of traveling from New York. I can totally see where from the perspective of traveling to New York it would be drastically different. You can probably get to your local bus terminal much more quickly and easily than I can, and I can undoubtedly find parking in Baltimore (or any other city) much more cheaply and easily than you can find it in New York.
Depends on where in NYC you are. If you're in Manhattan or one of the denser parts of Brooklyn, the cost of having a car probably isn't worth it, since it's really only necessary for going out of the city. Not having a vehicle, it's cheaper to take transit than it is to rent a car.
Quote from: Duke87 on April 16, 2015, 03:57:17 PM
Quote from: Laura on April 15, 2015, 08:52:07 AM
I've taken the Megabus from Baltimore to NYC and back more times than I can count for day trips or weekend trips because it's cheaper and easier than paying for tolls and parking, but I can see where you would never need to since you already are there, lol.
You joke but I think you've accidentally touched on something important here - I don't see it as particularly cheaper or easier to take a bus. It takes a lot longer since I'd have to cover a bunch of ground by local transit just to get to the bus terminal, and it doesn't really save too much trouble or money since parking on the other end is never really an issue. But this is stated from the perspective of traveling from New York. I can totally see where from the perspective of traveling to New York it would be drastically different. You can probably get to your local bus terminal much more quickly and easily than I can, and I can undoubtedly find parking in Baltimore (or any other city) much more cheaply and easily than you can find it in New York.
So basically the rule of thumb still holds even with intercity buses - the denser your destination, the more viable transit is as an option!
Speaking of the DC to NYC trip, and again from the perspective of someone in DC going to NY, pricing wise, it's cheaper for one person to take the bus, about even for two people, and more expensive for three or more people. I have family in Queens, so it's generally a place that I can get free parking, even if it's a little hard to find. My comparison is basically just the cost of gas and tolls.
Most of my trips involve wife and kids joining me, so we drive. But the few times I go by myself, I've taken the bus to Manhattan and then subway to Queens and a bus from the subway station to my sister's neighborhood. Cheaper than driving.
Of course, it also is important that your destination is somewhat transit accessible to the bus station. In the case that it isn't, then the bus isn't really an option, unless you have somebody willing to pick you up at the destination.
deathtopumpkins took trains to the NYC meet. I almost went to that same meet by train as well.
I came back from a roadgeeking/poutine-eating trip with Alps on an intercity bus from Sherbrooke, since he went straight home from there. Intercity buses suck. The whole ordeal (Limocar -> walking -> city bus -> city bus -> walking) probably took me twice the time it would have taken me to drive and comfort was non-existant throughout the trip.
I did travel to the recent Madison meet using Megabus.
Also, while I was in Madison, I used their local buses a couple times. The bus system in my area is bare-bones, but Madison has a very extensive bus system.
Quote from: bandit957 on May 13, 2015, 12:03:43 PM
I did travel to the recent Madison meet using Megabus.
Also, while I was in Madison, I used their local buses a couple times. The bus system in my area is bare-bones, but Madison has a very extensive bus system.
Madison also has a very large public university with students who may or may not have their own vehicles. College towns often have decent public transportation if they're large enough. Even little Houghton, Michigan, with Michigan Tech has a bus service around town.
Little ol' Platteville just started up a regular on-the-hour or half/hour transit service city-wide after having one focused on the University and retail areas last year. It still concentrates service to the students, since most of us here have cars. It has regular student stops at my former apartment, it does have less frequent stops near my house. I probably won't use it though.
Quote from: Duke87 on April 15, 2015, 12:55:31 AM
If you have a functioning car there is kind of never any reason to take an intercity bus unless you want to do it just to say you did.
I was considering such just yesterday. I am trying to arrange my attendance at a conference next month. (And for a bit of time yesterday, I was considering the possibility that the person who I plan to travel with would be unable to attend.) For less than half of my estimated gas budget, I could get a round trip from here to that city. (Part of that being that I drive a minivan, and part of that being conservative: estimating three tanks of gas when it will either be two or two and a bit.) And given that I expected to pay horrible parking rates near the convention (and at many of the convenientish hotels), it became a no-brainer for a decision on cost, especially when I did not want to have to deal with parking and navigating in a city where I have never gotten off the interstate and with a reputation for horrible traffic. If I was traveling alone.
Fortunately, it seems like they will be able to join me, just for a slightly shorter time than we had originally planned, so I won't spend hours on the bus this time.
Quote from: bandit957 on April 14, 2015, 09:49:25 PM
Quote from: oscar on April 14, 2015, 09:44:06 PM
I took local transit (mix of bus and subway) to froggie's 2009 Wilson Bridge meet a few miles from my home, while I was still recovering from eye surgery and unable to drive.
I'm pretty sure I bicycled to the meet-up place for the 2013 Cincinnati meet, since it was only a few blocks from my home. I may be the only person who's ever bicycled to a roadmeet.
You did.
I HOSTED that meet, and I took transit to downtown Cincinnati (so I could stop at the library and print the directions), then walked to the meet location.
By the way, I'm just spitballing here...one thing I have since figured out, is that I should copy/paste the directions into a Word document, and add notations about items of interest that we may drive past along the way.