The subway system is not an appealing backup plan for multiple reasons as outlined throughout this blog. What I discovered recently, and should have figured out a long time ago, is that the buses are the second best way to get around.
This was the same story in Wuhan actually when I lived there before. Actually Wuhan is building a subway but I'm not optimistic about it. The buses will remain king over there for quite some time. My experience with the Shanghai subway and Dalian light rail is that these systems aren't nearly as convenient as they would appear to be.
The biggest issue is when these city trains stop operating for the evening. Usually very early. Then there is the limited range and the long walks in getting to the stations and/or transfering lines. And in the case of Shanghai with the most complex subway system -- near daily breakdowns or malfunctions.
On a scooterless day today I got fed up with the subway stuck at a station and not moving. So I got off and took a bus at random to see what would happen. It was surprisingly pleasant and quick, and nearly dropped me off at my doorstep!
On the rare times I've taken the bus it has been a similar experience. What seems to have happened is that the expansion of the subway has taken pressure off the bus network and they aren't nearly as packed and crowded as they were in 2003 for example. They are also cheap, clean and comfortable with TV programs to watch on board. Buses also have a very large range of where they go and they run until midnight. Some routes are even all-nighters.
So it begs the question why I haven't been using the buses more. Trying to figure out the routes is the biggest obstacle as the system is unbelievably complex. What is even more unbelievable is that someone translated the whole system into English, one bus line at a time!
At most I've got a few bus lines memorized but there are literally hundreds of numbered buses I see all the time on my scooter. So why not just spot a useful bus while on the scooter, go online, and then memorize the route. The problem is twofold. One, any given bus stop will have dozens of routes that share it. Then it becomes impossible to tell which bus goes where I want and which does not. Second, if a bunch of buses appear repeatedly at some point in a route and another bunch of buses appear repeatedly somewhere else, then we cannot say with any degree of certainty which buses appear at both points. Some may very well connect A to B, others A to C, others B to C, and so forth.
Obviously I try to spot the buses in the bunch that appear at both points A and B and memorize routes. But this gets more and more complex if I'm going to multiple points around the city.
Not surprisingly, the buses are immensely popular with locals. This is what you'd expect with moving around 25 million people. I ask my local friends how they navigate the system and they also find it complex. Most of them simply figure it out as they go and memorize the routes that work. Then they stick to those same routes every day to save money. Some have even told me I know more routes than them - which can't be true.
It could pay off to get more familiar with these buses. For every success story where I've randomly hopped on a bus and it got me somewhere useful, I could also tell a story where I got lost in a hurry and the bus dumped me off in some obscure part of town.
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