Blank MetroBus / Informative Seoul Bus

The best way to learn how to use a bus system is to pay attention every time a bus passes you while you're standing on the sidewalk.  Take note of the bus number and your location.  That bus must serve that location.  Later, you might see the same bus number in a different part of the city.  Put those observations together and you know that a specific bus will get you back and forth between two points.

Next, it's a good idea to pay attention to what the bus says.  In St. Louis, they say only their name and their final destination.  Sometimes this is helpful, but really the buses actual route is almost completely unknown.  The bus stops aren't informative, and some of the bus drivers are surprisingly reluctant to answer questions, so...  those without smart phones might as well walk.

Names like Red Line and Gold Line are particularly informative.  Are they part of the MetroLink map?  No, so why are they called lines? 

Here's a bus in Seoul.

The bus is blue, so it must cross the river.  It has about a dozen indicators on it's face.  Most importantly, when it is waiting at a light or stopped to drop people off, one can get a good look at the major destinations along its route by checking out the list posted on its side.

This is a green bus, so it doesn't cross the river.  It goes to Yongsan Station and Wangshimri among other destinations. 

Metro could do a lot more to educate the public about where the buses go.