...even buses that don't have steps are not as close to the ground as light rail.  The other thing about rail is that the turns are very long, there are no rapid jerking motions as in buses, and light rail generally doesn't have to stop as much.  I don't know how the experience of rapid bus transit, with ground-level entrance, compares to light rail.  The double-decker buses in London seem to be about the most popular buses -- but diesel buses are definitely noisier and smellier than electric light rail, so that's easier to see.

I definitely prefer rail, and I don't quite know why either -- there may also be something to be said for the size.  Even a modest light-rail train with, say, three or four cars is more imposing than an articulated bus.  That may be part of the reason that they are sometimes less efficient than buses but still more popular.  

Great post!

The bus is great! It irks me that these bourgeoise snoots are so opposed.

But for the sake of our climate, I am willing to take the high road and support street cars if it makes them happy.

With modern technology there is no need for tracks anymore.  The electric power for the streetcar and the steering input can come from an induction strip under the pavement.  Put rubber tires on a streetcar and there it is.

With batteries on the vehicle it can ride on induction strips or off for a certain range.  The class/status appeal of a streetcar, the clean electric power, and no tracks make it a good solution.

It can also be made much lighter for less damage in accidents and greater rolling efficiency.  Streetcar rail trucks have got to be massively heavy.

This also makes it easier to add more cars in busy times and take cars off duty later without a lot of complex switching.

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Riding a bus here in NYC can be murder, especially if you have to stand.  It is so painful and unsettling, to jostle from the center of the street over to the curb and back again, stopping suddenly now and again the whole time.  A specially cruel frustration is when the bus stops, you see a green light ahead, the last person waiting to board at a stop finally boards, the bus launches from the curb, only to come crashing to a halt because the light has by then turned red.

But I cannot imagine how streetcars would fit in here.  ("Trolley cars" we called them, back in Philadelphia where I grew up.  And that is what the more famous ones in San Francisco are called too, no?)  The streets are already so crowded; and negotiating around double-parked or otherwise stopped vehicles is absolutely necessary.

A very slender over-head track might work, a couple of storeys off the ground, casting very little shadow, unlike the elevated train tracks that are still in use in the outer boroughs and here and there in Manhattan.

But that is sort of a monorail, I guess.  And we just saw the fourth-season Simpsons episode, in which a traveling thief sells Springfield a super-shitty monorail, and Homer is the driver, and Leonard Nimoy himself is present for the maiden voyage. ...  Lisa of course had reservations all along.

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.

I went to school in New Orleans from '96 - '00 and the absolute best thing about the city was the streetcars.  The buses came by campus as well (the Freret Jet) but not many people felt comfortable riding on them at night for some reason.  Riding the St. Charles streetcar was always a wonderful experience.  It went pretty slow but I always thought it was worth it anyways.

If anything could get me to give up my car, it would be a streetcar.

Laissez les tramways rouler!

Shu pas a vende.

I loathe the bus.  I love streetcars. I really cannot understand why... seems to be an accumulation of small, should-be-insignificant factors that I prefer about streetcar/trolley travel somehow reach a 'tipping point' (ha!).  

I lived in Manhattan for 4 years and never once took a city bus.  Ditto for my 14-year stint in Boston. Both cities are eminently walkable and the bus is just so painful that I always prefer to walk.  I have, and do, however take the subway, or the T in Boston (the Green Line is much like a streetcar, in that it is above ground, stops every block, and takes about 80 years to get you anywhere).  I have taken streetcars, however, all over the country (and, in fact, the world) and always enjoy it.  I think they somehow give the illusion that you can jump off at any time, the illusion of being in control of your own travel, while on the bus you are simply trapped and at the mercy of traffics whims.

Nevertheless, I add my vote for streetcars!  It is worth it to spend a bit more money to be happy.

That monorail episode is great Canis!  Reminds one of the hype around the marvelous hydrogen economy and ethanol.

How about moving sidewalks for Manhattan?  I saw a Science Channel presentation on a nifty application of this sci-fi notion used in an indoor Dubia ski park (wonder if it's solar powered?  In dubai?  No chance).

In the cult classic 60s sci-fi novel "Agent of Chaos", Spinrad featured a moving walkway that had a slower strip of conveyor belt that riders step onto, then a few  progressive layers of belts increasing in speed.  

So you can hop on at walking speed then step up to cab or bus speed through a couple of steps.  Bike riders or roller bladers could also use them for steep uphills, then coast down the hills and flats of a city.  Turning it into a kind of snowless downhill ski area type city transit on bikes and roller blades, even skateboards.  Bart would love this.

How about a nice bench feature built into the higher speed side, along with a clear shield that protects from the elements or anyone entering the high speed side?  One problem, the conveyor would have to be interrupted at corners or wherever cross driveways are needed.  It would be a choppy one block at a time ride.  Maybe that would be ok?  

Another idea is to have the fastest strip in the middle with slower ones on both sides.  But could it be stepped across safely?  Hehey. I'd like to try one of these ski lift conveyor strips.

These issues are easy with ski lifting, because skiers can zoom right onto the strip, from either side.

I am liking the Dean Kamen electric wheelchair design more and more.  The balancing invention is used in his Segway.  This next idea is along that line, but different.

A universal low speed personal transport?  A low platform, a few iches thick, you stand on that moves along a hidden track, it's speed and acceleration computer controlled so you never fall off or hit anything.  

A wireless internet signal on the hidden track would transfer information about any objects moving near or on the track to the computer in the platform vehicle.   Then the platform could safely maneuver the passenger through space and time.  It would anticipate any stops or possible collisions and gradually adjust, unlike the bumpy bus ride.

Maybe an inflatable easy chair could pop up from the platform too?  Hehey.

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The platform transport needs a seat that scizzors up that you sit on, then lowers down.  An inflatable crash tub, bubble then blows up around and over you as you sit semi bhudda-like, safely wisked to your destination.  Either driving yourself or driven via computer controlled trackway.

Whisper quiet battery power recharged by induction strips under the street.  Now there's a "Family Guy" episode!  "Imagine the hilarity that would ensue! Ha." (evil baby voice).

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Laurence,

I'm a huge fan of VTPI and Litman. As you know, there's a long and heated debate between rail and bus enthusiasts that I'm not intending to referee here. In any case, I intentionally did not include a categorical statement in my post. I said "buses TEND to pencil out better" and I believe that's a defensible position.

Sure, there are plenty of cases -- especially large urban areas -- where buses aren't the best buy. But across North America, in cities, towns, and regions of different sizes, I'd put my money on buses.

Not all bus rides in NYC are horrible, so long as you have patience.  If time is not a big concern, and the thought of going down into the subway seems too depressing, the bus can be preferable.  Also, the spacious accordion buses used on the cross-town routes through Central Park are not unpleasant.  And the bus trip from the Columbia University neighborhood up to the Cloisters Museum, above Inwood at the northern tip of Manhattan, is usually enjoyable.  If you can sit down, and you like looking out the window at urban scenery, and there is no urgency time-wise, riding the bus can be fine.

Jon,
I had suspected that there were streetcars in NYC, and I guess I have even seen old photographs of the city in which they are visible.  From what I remember of the old PTA trolley cars in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, the competition with other vehicles for limited space could be a problem, mostly for the other vehicles, but also for passengers on the trolleys.  As I recall, there were built-up islands in the center of wide streets at the major stops -- but not at all stops, I think, and I am trying to remember where passengers waited to board, and how they crossed out into the street to board, and then again how they got off safely.

Amazing,
the thought of all those conveyor belts running at different speeds make me a bit nauseated.  No doubt that would be fine for a younger, more athletic set of passengers, but I think I had better just hail a taxi.

One of the disadvantages of public transit is that buses and streetcars must stop at every stop if anyone wants to get on or get off, which slows down everyone else.  Do you think a system of semi-private, taxi-sized streetcars on rails could be invented, such that they would be required to stop along the route to accommodate no more than three or four passengers or small parties?  

Chickens are our cousins! So are fish! So are other sentient animals! Let us learn to be kind.

I know that when I'm in Chicago, I prefer taking the L to CTA buses, and I can't fully articulate the reasons.

Hehey, Canis.  A new industry is born!  inflato-scooter.

Yep, the belts are great for skiers, but pedestrians would have a hard time with them.

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As a tourist, I've used train systems around the world because they are easy to use.  By simply glancing at a train system map you can generally figure out where you need to go.  A bus system is far more challenging and it is not easily rendered on a user friendly map. Locals, of course, have the time and incentive to learn a bus system.  Tourists generally do not.  

I am a public transit aficionado, and even I dont love the bus.
I have two insights into why:
1)the bus makes me queasy.  Yes sometimes I have to ride the bus across the bay from SF and I always arrive queasy.  Its the jerky-ride plus the diesel smoke.
2)Train maps are simpler to read (as wisely noted in another comment) and the stops are better defined making riding the train much easier.