- For a general article about the bus (uncapitalized) as a mode of transportation, read bus.
The Bus, also trademarked as TheBus, is the premier public transportation service of the City & County of Honolulu in the United States. Nationally recognized for its efficiency, customer service and popularity among residents, The Bus has a ridership of approximately 68 million passengers annually through 4,200 bus stops on the island of O'ahu. With a fleet of over 525 buses, The Bus serves 93 routes traveling 21.5 million miles and burning 6 million gallons of diesel fuel each year.
Currently, The Bus is privately managed by O'ahu Transit Services, Incorporated, which operates the system under contract with the Department of Transportation Services.
America's Best Transit System
The Bus, established by Mayor Frank Fasi, is Honolulu's premier mass transit system. It was twice honored as
America's Best Transit System before being banned from the American Public Transportation Association competition. Other cities felt they could not compete against Honolulu.
Founded and developed by Mayor Frank Fasi in the 1960s, The Bus has been the only mass transit system to be recognized twice by the American Public Transportation Association as America's Best Transit System for 1994-1995 and 2000-2001, beating the largest systems in the United States including the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Chicago Transit Authority. The Bus was eventually banned from the competition as other cities maintained they could not compete against Honolulu.
Recent Developments
The Bus is currently going through the first phases of implementing Bus Rapid Transit or BRT, an alternative to light rail and fixed rail mass transit systems employed elsewhere in the country. Bus Rapid Transit uses lanes devoted exclusively to buses to transport passengers, operating multiples of buses on each route on a continuous rolling basis instead of on a fixed schedule. In this manner, bus stops are served every few minutes, much like the way subways work in Chicago and New York City.
It is hoped that Bus Rapid Transit will evolve into a light rail or fixed rail system in the future to accommodate increased commuter traffic to and from Honolulu and its suburbs. Current Mayor Mufi Hannemann favors establishing a fixed rail system as an alternative to expanding Bus Rapid Transit.
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