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I commuted by tube in London for 3 years, my most recent house was 1 minute walk from the station and my office was also 1 min walk from a very busy central sta
by davnicwil 11y ago
I commuted by tube in London for 3 years, my most recent house was 1 minute walk from the station and my office was also 1 min walk from a very busy central station. So basically door to door. Even still, commuting was not a pleasant experience.
The human congestion in the central tube stations at rush hour is appalling, as is the air quality down there, as is the lack of personal space on the train itself. It's a very stressful, undignified experience for everyone.
I'd much rather be spending a bit of extra time in traffic, sat comfortably in a self-driving taxi, than take the tube. That said, I think there's good reason to believe that as self-driving cars become more prevalent, traffic flows will actually improve due to better flow management, less need for traffic lights, and fewer cars parked.
Rail does the job, but it does not do it elegantly. It's very unpleasant to take mass transit railways in major world cities. Nobody who's done it for any length of time would reasonably contest this. Self-driving personal vehicles could be a major improvement on the commuting experience, if indeed the future involves commuting at all - a vast increase in remote work may simply sidestep the issue completely by the time self-driving cars are a mature tech.
- kuschku 11y agoThe issue is that there’s not physically enough space for self-driving taxis for everyone, not even if you compress them down to Messerschmitt Kabinenrollers. http://www.autoplenum.de/Bilder/testreports/jwo20090503164037/Technikmuseum-Sinsheim--Messerschmitt-Kabinenroller.jpg http://www.autoplenum.de/Bilder/testreports/jwo2009050316403... A single person in the tube takes, technically, 0 space due to being in a tunnel, and even in overground railway a single person takes less than a square meter. With a car, you waste far more space. And, by the way, I’m taking public transport every day, all year round, even in situations like http://i.imgur.com/KyWkUzJ.jpg http://i.imgur.com/KyWkUzJ.jpg and I still find it far more pleasant to wait 20 minutes in a crowd than to be stuck for 40 minutes on the highway.
- davnicwil 11y ago> there’s not physically enough space for self-driving taxis for everyone Do you have any sources on this? I agree that space on the roads of major cities is an issue now, but several changes in the future could mitigate these issues significantly: 1) Self driving cars will probably end parking in city centres. Suddenly, a lot of congested roads have ~twice the surface area. 2) Self driving cars may eventually be able to drive within centimetres of one another. 3) No need for a huge bonnet (small electric engine), boot/trunk (rooftop rack storage), pedals, dashboard, etc in an electric automated taxi. A 2-4 person vehicle is now rather compact indeed. 4) Remote/part-time-remote work may mean commutes are avoided, or staggered throughout the day, for the majority of people. There's a lot less peak capacity required, compared to today.
- kuschku 11y agoWell, your car will still have only one person – and you won’t get it smaller than the Messerschmitt Kabinenroller I linked above. And even that is more than twice what a person in an overground train takes in space, underground trains are essentially free. Additionally, in many cities there is already almost no downtown parking. It’s not like you’re going to turn the laws of physics over. One of the sources why cars are worse than bikes or busses, from the city of Münster: http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2014/07/Public_Transport_vs._Car.jpg.650x0_q70_crop-smart.jpg http://media.treehugger.com/assets/images/2014/07/Public_Tra...