And in a growing trend, cities are developing "complete streets", ordinary streets with special sections, lanes and islands for bike riders, buses, public transport users and pedestrians.
"They are looking at cost and alternatives in terms of feasibility, such as will the riders be there to support light rail, which would require more riders than buses".
More than 900 riders on buses from nine cities traveled 20,000 miles, in the tradition of the 1960s Freedom Riders, to support immigration reform.
As bus riders know, buses are equipped to stop and, by lowering a clever elevator device, let a wheelchair-bound rider board the bus.
According to prominent transit advocate Jarrett Walker, a Portland native, streetcars attract more riders than buses.
To some riders, articulated buses are big, bad bulls wreaking havoc in the quiet china shop of the Upper East Side.
Riders say buses on the route, from the Mott Avenue subway station to Jacob Riis Park, are old, dirty and smelly.
The weather could play a role in how many people opt to ride a bike, with lower temperatures possibly pushing some riders toward buses, trains or cars.
In 1961, Freedom Riders rode buses through the South to protest segregation and were met with violence in Alabama that stunned the nation.
In "Some 23rd Street Riders Giving Buses That Bend a Stiff Reception" (Aug. 13), a Transit Authority spokesman claims that the 60-foot-long articulated buses are successful in the Bronx on wide boulevards like the Grand Concourse.
