Quote Originally Posted by capecoddah View Post
From what I've seen of Eastern European buses, they would cause a lot of crying about pollution in the US.
Is that the pot calling the kettle black again? In your country from what I understand, you hardly even HAVE a functioning bus service in most places! People are forced to drive a car, even those who can't afford it or don't want to! Considerably less environmentally friendly, and apalling economy for people on a low income.

I have travelled a lot around Europe, West and recently also East. There is no particular problem with the standard of buses in Eastern Europe, compared with elsewhere. Pretty much all of the buses are updated since the 90s. What they've got is perfectly serviceable. Obviously they don't have the latest and greatest bus models, adapted to wheelchair users, with perfect climate control etc, etc.. but such buses are not common anywhere else either.

Plus, Eastern European cities usually have very extensive tram and trolleybus networks in central town, this hardly pollutes at all. Regular buses are probably only about a quarter of public transport. The rest is metro where it exists, trolleybus, tram and suburban train. It's well known that all the socialist countries were very good at public transport.