I assume that the major urban areas also have decent rail and tram systems, though. It makes a big difference.
Dublin has a metro population of about 1.5 million, and has about 1,400 buses (excluding intercity and private services); however its rail and tram systems are, er, inadequate. Berlin has about 1,600 buses for a metro area of 6 million, but of course has a far better rail and tram system.
Yeah, there's a route (or set of closely related routes) near my office which, at peak times, has a 100 person double decker bus about once per _minute_. Really, it should be a tram route, but that would require building a tram line, and Dublin tends to see that as an immense undertaking to be done only once a decade or so (and this decade's one is already planned out).
This is what kills me where I live, too. I can’t understand why everyone insists on commuting exactly at the same time.
Before WFH became a thing here, I just moved my office hours one hour earlier. I went from being sardine-packed to ample seating space. Bonus points for the buses and trains running faster, so my commute was not only orders of magnitude more comfortable, it was also much shorter !
Yes, I understand not everyone can do this, but the point is for people to be spread over a wider time range. Many people don’t have children to get to school and whatnot, a sizable chunk of them could probably move their hours a bit earlier or later.
Dublin has a metro population of about 1.5 million, and has about 1,400 buses (excluding intercity and private services); however its rail and tram systems are, er, inadequate. Berlin has about 1,600 buses for a metro area of 6 million, but of course has a far better rail and tram system.