Public Transportation is seen as both an advantage and disadvantage in Bermuda according to locals and tourists. One main form of public transportation in Bermuda is the buses, which both tourists and locals enjoy.

Many tourists see the buses as a cheap and a reasonable means of transportation. They feel that and given the choice of catching the bus, renting a bike or taking a taxi, the bus is a less expensive and more accommodating way to visit and observe the wonderful, historical tourist attractions around Bermuda. To get an idea of how the members of the public feel about public transportation in Bermuda, one afternoon three student journalists went to the Hamilton Terminal and questioned locals as well as tourists.

One elderly resident, Mable Thomas, had only positive things to say. "Buses are very useful because they run every 15 minutes," she said. Asked what are some challenges facing the public transportation, she responded: "I don't feel that there are any challenges and I'm certain that the buses run regularly and that if one missed a bus another was sure to come within the next 15 minutes."

Tourist Allison Kohn remarked: "The buses are pretty clean and the schedules are easy to follow and I choose buses because they are cheaper than taxis. Times for the buses are a challenge, because some buses do not leave every 15 minutes."

Another visitor, Robin Pyles, commented: "The buses were GREAT! The cost [fare] of the buses is reasonable."

When asked what are some of the challenges of public transportation in Bermuda, she said: "I'm not used to public transportation so it is hard to keep up with the schedule, but buses aren't overcrowded."

Kori White, a local teen, was one of the interviewees that did not have positive things to say about the buses. "Bus drivers are grumpy and they act like they don't like children," she remarked. Asked why she chose to catch the bus, she remarked: "I'm too young to ride a bike so I have to catch the bus. Buses sometimes have too many people on them and they stop short too much."

To get more information about the buses in Bermuda, we interviewed the Director of Public Transportation Dan Simmons by telephone. We asked Mr. Simmons how many buses are currently in Bermuda. "We have just taken delivery of a new shipment of buses, and in total we have 120 buses in Bermuda," he said.

When asked if he had any proposals that involved buses specifically for tourists, he replied: "No, we do not, because it would not work."

We then pointed out that many people feel that the buses get overcrowded at times depending on the route of the bus, and asked if there were plans to have two buses leaving from the Hamilton Terminal for the same destination, e.g. Dockyard, to reduce the amount of people standing up on the buses.

He responded: "We have a plan to rebuild the bus schedule to have more buses were they are needed and less where they are not, but the Union has to approve of this plan and they have not done so."

During our interviews, we noticed that when we asked tourist couples if we could ask them a few questions, the husbands did not want to be questioned; instead they told the wives that they should go ahead.

One husband said: "Go ahead, she's the school teacher."

This opened our eyes to how timid some men are. Also by asking the public about their outlook on public transportation we learned that many have good things to say while others don't, and there is always room for improvement, no matter what the circumstances may be.