I wholeheartedly agree with what you’ve said about having better looking and functioning transit vehicles in general and this kind of proves the point. Something as simple as having USB ports on board (or as seen in Taiwan, Qi wireless charging hotspots) is a big deal and something I miss about the newer vehicles that were coming online just before I left Japan in July of 2021.

I did see some all-door boarding action in San Francisco since they have Clipper readers next to all the doors and they now are open-loop EMV compatible and take tappable credit/debit cards.
Also while you’re in Germany and that part of Europe, get some shots of the actual streetscape and waiting areas; are there any “nextbus” signs just mounted to a pole on the street at a regular looking stop? One of my bigger complaints with bus systems Stateside is that especially on lower frequency routes, there’s nothing telling you when the next bus is coming short of maybe a QR code to download some app from an app store.

RMTransit (@RM_Transit@mstdn.social) by RMTransit (Mastodon 🐘)

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A Thread (and probably later a substack article):

I am in Germany, I must say the bus experience just absolutely obliterates what one experiences in Toronto (even though Toronto has better frequency) – so many potential learnings