Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely dearly love to have proper trains running on time to every location.
But we basically made a souffle, and you're asking us to turn it into chocolate cake.
We could get away with an advanced network of buses.
Buses are great for public transit and the most cost effective option for some communities. There also seems to be a stigma against buses, though, where people are more willing to take a train than a bus. I’m starting to suspect that stigma extends to people wanting to build trains instead of buses that can get the same job done for less money than building a brand new train system.
There also seems to be a stigma against buses, though, where people are more willing to take a train than a bus.
I'll absolutely take a train over a bus if they are going to the same destination.
- train has fewer stops meaning train reaches the destination faster
- train has ultimate right-of-way, and doesn't have to stop for pedestrians on the tracks, red lights, or other things
- trains in some cities, go under waterways meaning more direct routes than busses
- there's more space inside trains and usually more choice of seats. Standing is also an option which isn't allowed on most busses
- acceleration and deceleration are more predictable and comfortable
- nearly all metro light rail trains are powered by electricity, while many city busses remain diesel
I live in a city with a decent network of busses and trains. The trains are just nicer. The trains aren't that different in fanciness to the busses, but they are bigger on the inside and I think that makes a big difference.
As somebody from one of the related industries: The problem is federal grants in the US. Every year thousands of municipal and state government employees write to the feds grants for funding transportation. The money available until the infrastructure investment act was all money for roads. Even now with money for commuter rail is still very small in comparison and stipulations like requiring nearby travel lanes for other types of vehicles still mean that elevated and tunneled train systems are not being adequately funded.
The effect is obvious: Do you as a munucipal/state government administrator build a free new federally funded road to make people feel like a problem is being addressed and then blame the unaddressed problems on the next elected person or do you raise taxes to fund a light rail system that is infinitely more costly despite the fact nobody else will build public rail links to connect it to. Planning departments usually do know what transit will work best, but getting funding for trains has been nearly impossible.
The feds have, I think since the 50s, discouraged new public rail and we are paying that price over and over again. Say what you will about biden but him being a train guy is probably the only thing that has improved the number of light rail projects in the states and we won't see those benefits for years.
The rest of the problem lies in urban sprawl and parking lot minimums. Which is a similar problem where its impossible to not create unwalkable sprawl.
Embrace trams, the worst of all worlds
Trams are the best! I'll go out of my way to take a tram over a bus any day
They are just so much smoother
I used to commute from south of Baltimore to north of Baltimore. My home was five blocks from the light rail station and my work was a couple blocks in the light rail station.
I drove everyday and hadn't even tried to take the light rail because I already have a car and insurance and why pay another $5 a day too get to and from work.
My car had a mechanical problem and I didn't have time to fix it so I decided I would go ahead and take the light rail until work slowed down a little and I had time.
My car ride was right around 35 to 45 minutes. It took me about 10 minutes to walk to the light rail station The train could come anywhere between immediate and 20 minutes out the Baltimore light rail does not run on a set schedule. The train took about 30 minutes to get from my house to the center of town, At which point I had to switch to another train which could then take anywhere between zero and 15 minutes. That train then took about 35 minutes to get to work. Then I had to walk another couple of blocks which took on average about another 10 minutes They were long blocks.
So instead of losing an hour to an hour and a half everyday I was losing somewhere closer to 3-4 hours. Then on days where there was actually a problem, It might take 4 hours one way, or, God forbid there was a baseball or football game starting or stopping around the time I needed to come through.
Even where we have public transportation, we barely put forth enough effort to make it viable.
- Trains
- Trams
- Ebikes
- Public Busses
In that order, preferably. Fuck this techbro shit.
I want state owned electric self driving g taxis. I want to walk out of my door and get in the neighborhood self driving bus to take me (up to) 2 miles from work, where I can either walk or use a lil razer scooter to get to my job.
Alas, I work 62 miles away from home.
What about little electric scooters that you can rent with an app but we just dump them all over the fucking sidewalk when no one is using them.
I like the idea, but I have no clue how to regulate them properly. Right now it's chaos all over the world.
I live close to my workplace and have been a skater most of my life, bought an electric one and I take it to work whenever the weather is nice.
It's a great cash save and the board itself is awesome fun and very fucking quick.
Have to be heavy duty e-bikes. most americans are probably too heavy for normal ones that have a weight limit of like 200lbs.
A pointlessly, stereotyping answer. The type of people willing to invest hundreds of dollars into a [e]bike are usually fit enough to ride them without undue difficulty.
It's because they all live in the US.
If the operated out of the UK they would know what a bus was. It would be late of course, but at least they would see them.
We have busses.
Tech bros are afraid of poor people and only poor people take the bus. We obviously need a luxury bus to service tech startups.
If they used the train network they would be very familiar with busses.
The point is to not ride the public transportation with the lesser peoples.
- and 2. class wagons?
Twitter is bad.
The end goal of robo-taxis is to shuttle people between the home/destination and the train station.
Wouldn't buses/trams be more efficient at that? They move more than 1 person to their desired destination.
We already have that in my city, it’s called Metro Micro and it costs $2.50 and includes a free transfer to public transit.
I don’t know what Musk thinks he’s going to charge for it, but I doubt it’ll be better than that.
Which btw that program isn't doing too well. It's a huge cost right now, compared to more traditional public transit. And imagine that this is with regular "cheap" vans rather than more expensive vehicles. These also seem to be a small step better than Personal vehicles as I hear most rides are solo rides (which is not exactly the aim). What is great about micro is they support bikes, and people with disabilities to help reach the last mile in their trip.
i know he acts like that, but he's actually 53.
edit: oh, by "joke" you mean the tweet. never mind.
This is btw also what Apple tried to build. That's why their car project failed.
To be fair, a cab is not a bus, but still an essential part of transit. They are usually far too expensive to be considered an option(for me, a European city dweller) so anything that makes them more accessible is good.
I ain't paying 10 bucks to go 5 miles.
