Subject: Buses

Great job on holding the management of suburban shopping centers' feet to the fire. There was no excuse for four suburban shopping centers to ban buses, and it was a victory for the public that the shopping centers have agreed to allow easier access for bus-riding employees and customers.

WHAT'S NEXT: Something needs to be done to get more bus-stop benches. It is a disgrace in an affluent city such as Raleigh to drive up Falls of the Neuse Road and see passengers waiting on overturned shopping carts. It looks like a scene out of the Depression. Many bus riders have no other way of getting around. Many are handicapped or elderly.

Of Raleigh's 1,700 bus stops, more than 1,300 lack benches. Nearly 1,600 lack shelters.

On many routes, there is an hour wait between buses. In the heat. In the cold. In the rain. After a long day of working. It's nearly barbaric to ask the handicapped and the elderly to stand for that long.

Bus benches cost about $250, although that can vary according to the size and quality.

If the city can't afford bus benches, then perhaps civic or church groups or even nearby businesses should take them up as a project. The groups or businesses that donate benches could have their names or advertising on them.

THE FUTURE: I've never been a fan of a light rail system for Raleigh, and now it seems unlikely that one will be built here in the foreseeable future. I thought that Raleigh was too low-density to support trains.

But buses are a necessity. They are going to become increasingly important as the baby boomers age and there are fewer options for the elderly to get around.

Raleigh may be a vibrant, fast-growing city, but it has a Mayberry-sized bus system.

Raleigh buses traveled 14.1 million passenger miles in 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. That is dwarfed by bus systems in other cities in Raleigh's size category. Buffalo, N.Y., buses traveled 63 million passenger miles; Cincinnati, 139 million passenger miles; Pittsburgh, 255 million passenger miles; Richmond, Va., 33 million passenger miles; Tampa, Fla., 47 million passenger miles. Charlotte, which is nearly twice the size of Raleigh, had 74 million passenger miles, or five times the passenger miles of Raleigh.

The Raleigh City Council is in the middle of a five-year plan to upgrade and expand bus service. The Capital Area Transit system's budget has risen from $9.8 million to $15.8 million in the past five years.

But buses on weekends are few and far between. Late-night bus service is spotty or nonexistent.

As my colleague Josh Shaffer has reported, rides across town can be two-hour odysseys on three different buses.

Most voters are like me. They are middle-class and drive everywhere. We are the people who have the attention of the politicians.

But if we are a compassionate society, we need to do what is right for those who depend on bus service.