Buses. I love them. Although they’ve taken a bad rap over the years – and if you’ve ever caught Bus No. 15 in San Francisco and suffered an early morning ride after a Friday night bender, you’ll probably know why – buses are the way of the future.

What makes buses so much better than trains, subways, cars and planes over journeys of a median distance? Basically, bus infrastructure is enormously cheaper to build than train tracks and underground tunnels. They’re also cheaper to operate and much more flexible in how they’re deployed. But most of all, contrary to popular opinion, if dedicated bus lines are designated (still cheaper than ripping in hole under the pavement), then buses are every bit as fast and efficient as a peak-hour subway.

Who says so? The great British journalist, George Monbiot, thinks so. An entire Brazilian city thinks so.

And now, even canny new American transport entrepeneurs thinks so. Megabus.com, who hails from the eminently sensible Mid-West is a setting up a West Coast service. They don’t have a ticket office. They don’t even have a bus station. You must buy your tickets on-line, and you get picked up on the sidewalk in a convenient downtown center. They guarantee seating, and they promise non-stop services that link San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and Los Angeles. This is just as Monbiot said, though with a Web 2.0 twist – tickets can only be bought online. Oi, this is California after all.