Gigi On Earth

I’ve been really enjoying a fun meme on Instagram lately, where people joke about hopping onto a bus and saying: “Just catching a ride on my $860,000 ride.” And honestly, I couldn’t agree more! How amazing is it that a specially designed vehicle can pick us up and drop us off at our destination for just a couple of bucks?

But here’s the thing: I don’t think most people feel that same excitement about buses. It got me thinking: what if we treated the places where these expensive buses pick us up with the same care and attention as someone who owns a car of the same value? Imagine something like the stunning garage from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off!

I believe that creating transit hubs that are not just functional but also beautiful is a key step in getting more people to ride public transit. There’s even research to back this up! A study in Naples showed that ridership increased at the more artistic metro stations compared to the standard, less visually appealing ones.

While we often see investment in gorgeous train stations, bus stops are usually an afterthought. In Montreal, each metro station was designed by a different artist, and not only does that make the system more visually interesting, but it also helps people navigate. I know from personal experience—when I’m reading on the subway, I don’t always pay attention to the stops. Having unique, eye-catching design elements at each station gives me visual clues about where I am.

One thing I remember from riding crowded buses a while back is that it was often hard to see out the windows to know when my stop was coming up. I’d miss it so often! Sure, we have screens now that show the next stop, but we all know those don’t always work. In Nagasaki, Japan, they have these amazing fruit-shaped bus stations that are not only delectable to look at but also help people, especially kids, know exactly where they need to get off.

Buses are essential for keeping a city moving, yet they’re often overlooked in favour of streetcars or subways. Part of the reason might be the lingering stigma that buses are only for lower-income riders. But maybe that perception exists because we don’t treat bus spaces with the same care as other transit modes. If we started designing bus stops and stations with as much thought and beauty as we do for subways and streetcars, who knows? Maybe more people would embrace the bus. Because, I don’t know about you, but I would go out of my way to use the ‘art’ metro in Italy.