Which one vibes more?

Since the start of the school year, students without an alternative mode of transport have relied on some form of public transportation. Two of the main options of transportation for students are the school bus, accessible to only VHS students, or the public city bus, accessible to anyone with either a valid bus pass, $1.50 or a valid student ID, courtesy of the new youth ride free program. This year more and more students are taking the bus due to this policy, as it allows anyone under 18 or currently enrolled in high school to ride the public bus for free as long as they have valid identification. 

Due to the new youth ride free policy, the school buses have started to seem more and more empty, especially for students who don’t have a seventh period. The school bus will arrive at 3:30 to 4 p.m., while the city bus will arrive at 2:50 p.m. Route 6 of the city bus is supposed to arrive at Main and Catalina, right in front of VHS.

This already gives the city bus an advantage over the school bus as it gets to school far faster, and if students wish, they can go further up the street towards Main and Hurst to get a better chance at getting a seat along with getting on the bus quicker and having to wait for less. The city bus arrives at Main and Hurst right before 2:45 p.m. However, this option is largely inaccessible on Wednesdays due to how all students get out at 2:40 p.m., and it takes more than five minutes to run to the street.

Our opinion is that the city bus is better overall. It gets to the school faster, has more comfortable seats, and it’s generally nicer to be in as it’s maintained daily as opposed to school buses, which can potentially look like they came out of a meat grinder. Without a doubt, the city bus has every advantage that matters more than the school bus, and it’s because of that we believe the city bus is better.

Zachary Monseur ‘25 said, “The school bus is better than the city bus because it takes less time to get to your destination and there’s less people on it. Some good things about the city bus are that it’s always there, it’s really reliable. I like the city bus better though because all my friends are on it and we can just hangout on the drive home.”

We personally agree with Monsieur’s last claim. The city bus is definitely more comfortable to hang out on and ride as long as you have an experienced driver who knows what they’re doing. Even with fewer seats, the city bus still has an advantage with higher quality seats rather than higher quantity. For comparison, the average school bus will have 40 seats capable of holding two people per seat, and the city bus has 45 seats capable of holding one person per seat. This is not counting the spots in which somebody could stand on the city bus.

Cody Ortiz ‘24 said, “[The city bus is] good because my friends are on it and it is free to ride. … People smoke weed in the back though, that’s bad. I think the city bus is better than the school bus because on the school bus you can get targeted by the dangerous gangs at this school, so it’s safer on the city bus.”

In all honesty, the city bus is completely better in almost every way. It has better seats and arrives far faster than the school bus, there’s more room to move, and you can breathe into something other than a burning hot leather seat. It also gets to your stop or destination faster as well. If we had to choose between the two, we would take the city bus rather than the school bus for its advantages, despite its own flaws as they can largely be avoided or worked around.