Have you ever considered the benefits of bus travel? Once considered a poor man’s airline ticket, now the benefits of bus travel have surpassed the benefits of flying. If you are traveling within the continental United States, you should be aware of the many benefits of bus travel; it could really make your trip better. But don’t take our word for it (yet), check out the list below:
Five Surprising Benefits of Bus Travel
- The Cost
Okay, perhaps this benefit doesn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone. But it warrants being the first benefit we mention since the cost of airline tickets is the single most important factor people consider when they travel. Sometimes (not often) you can snag yourself a killer deal on a flight to the destination of your choosing. Even then, the cost of traveling by bus is still a fraction of the cost of traveling by air.
In fact, there are coach buses that travel between major hubs on the east coast for as little as $15 each way. You can’t even check a bag to take a flight for that low cost! - Convenience
There was a time that you’d struggle to find a commercial bus line to many places in the United States. This is not the case any more. Now, there are a number of commercial bus lines that can take you just about anywhere you want to go across the United States, for cheap. In fact, one major bus line who will remain nameless promises that they can get you anywhere in the United States for $99 or less! Convenience and inexpensive! You can’t beat that! - Time
The most common reason that people think that traveling by airplane is more convenient than traveling by bus is the time you save. It’s true, a bus is subject to speed limits and traffic laws, while an airplane can zip along at hundreds of miles per hour.
However, let’s do the math: If you’re a bargain hunter, you might book your flight from an airport an hour or two from home to save a few bucks. You have to show up at the air port two hours early. Next, you take a flight that takes you out of your way and leaves you with a layover for several hours in an airport you have no reason to stop in. Maybe you have two layovers, if you’re lucky. Maybe weather or plane trouble has delayed your flight by an hour or a day.
By the time you arrive at your destination, you’ve spent far longer traveling than just the time in the air. If your destination is only a five or six hour bus ride away, you might actually save time by hopping on the bus, and hopping off at your destination! - Reliability
The motto of the US Postal Service is, “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” This should be the motto of your local charter bus service however. While your flight will get delayed for about seven hundred million reasons, many charter buses will travel in circumstances that a private car could not travel in. Traveling by bus is far safer than traveling by private vehicle, or even by plane for that matter, so they’re able to get you to your destination in rain and heat and gloom of night, just like the US Postal Service. - The Impact on the Environment
A single commercial flight produces as much carbon in the atmosphere per person per mile as it would if each passenger was driving a separate vehicle the same distance. Fuel wise, an airplane gets about 44 miles per gallon of jet fuel, per passenger. Traveling by car is also wasteful; a single passenger car wastes about a gallon of natural fossil fuel per 20 miles.
Meanwhile, traveling by bus is about as green as it gets (short of riding your bike to your destination). When a bus travels at capacity, it achieves about 206 miles per passenger, per gallon of fuel. Mother nature loves it when you travel by bus.
Do you have any questions or comments about traveling by bus? Please share them in the comment section below!
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