By the Tigers – Tony, Flo, Kay, and James…
As visitors who have recently come to Houston, we are shocked by the public transportation. One day, when we walked to a bus stop near our apartment, we were surprised, confused and a little irritated to find that the interval between two buses is half an hour. However, buses usually pass by the bus stop no more than every 5 minutes in Beijing.
As we all know, every country needs some ways to move people from one place to another, and all people hope to have a convenient and efficient way of transportation. We know about how China moves people from one place to another but we were unsure about Houston. We devised several questions to ask Americans.
Why does Houston have such a long time for the person waiting for a bus? Do Houston people feel it is inconvenient?
In order to answer these questions, our team interviewed a Houston person at the UH. Then we summarized the answers as follows:
The first reason is population. The population of Houston is about 4 million, which is just 1/5 as that of Beijing. However, the land of Houston is similar to Beijing. So, Houston doesn’t need to provide as many buses as Beijing.
The second reason is distance. Many Houstonians’ homes are not far from their work place. They don’t need to take the buses.
But the main reason is private cars. Every family in Houston has one car or more, they don’t need to take the bus. On the contrary, if every Chinese family buys a car, it will cause heavy traffic problem and air pollution.
At last, we understand that people everywhere always choose the most efficient way to move people. Cars in Houston are more convenient and efficient than buses, so cars are the first choice for the Houstonian. However, Beijing can’t afford every family having their own cars, so the government encourages people to take buses, the most convenient and efficient way to move people.