Actually, the bus stations were (and still are) used by a lot of people! Car owning in USSR was nowhere near the levels of western countries and the majority of people relied on public transportation. The article has a reference to Jonathan Meades&#x27; photobook in which there is a photo of the bus station in one of the Republic of Moldova villages called Șipoteni¹. They &quot;seem to be in the middle of nowhere&quot; indeed, because the main roads&#x2F;routes don&#x27;t always come into the middle of the villages but at the right time these stations are full of people that may wait up to a half an hour there. It was just natural for the authorities to try to exceed themselves in the eyes of the villagers as there aren&#x27;t many opportunities for them to do so! (Villagers didn&#x27;t use to need much from the system.)<p>¹ <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;fuel-design.com&#x2F;media&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;thumbs&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;homepage&#x2F;138-139_jpg_940x376_q95.jpg" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;fuel-design.com&#x2F;media&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;thumbs&#x2F;uploads&#x2F;homepage...</a>