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It's sad that for most of the world cheap enough electric self driving cars will come faster than good public transport
by xiphias 10y ago
It's sad that for most of the world cheap enough electric self driving cars will come faster than good public transport
- kbenson 10y agoI'm not sure why you think cheap enough electric self driving cars can't be public transport.
- melling 10y agoThis question was answered decades ago http://www.treehugger.com/cars/amount-of-space-required-to-transport-people-by-car-bus-or-bicycle.html http://www.treehugger.com/cars/amount-of-space-required-to-t... It's painful that it needs to be explained.
- cgriswald 10y agoI'm sorry for your pain. You seem to think that bicycles and/or busses in an urban setting under ideal weather conditions are the answer to all transportation questions. Unfortunately in the real world bicycles fail to protect against inclement weather (and are nearly unusable in winter time in some climates); can leave their passengers sweaty, wet, or dirty; have limited cargo capacity; and are not as useful for those with long commutes. So while they are a great solution for some situations, they are not ideal for others. Busses have great bandwidth and do not have to be parked or stored by passengers, but are not efficient fuel and space unless they have enough passengers. Busses (and trains) often run empty or nearly so. They are less convenient than bicycles and cars in terms of pickup and drop off locations. Autonomous electric cars could be made of various sizes (including as small as a bicycle) for various cargo and passenger loads, could pick up and drop off passengers anywhere, would not necessarily have to be parked (or would have to be parked for shorter periods than private cars), would protect against inclement weather, and might be safer for passenger and pedestrian alike than individual cyclists or bus drivers.
- titzer 10y agoThe Bay area has one of the most ideal climates for bicycle commutes in the world. Denmark, on the other hand, which can have a rather suboptimal climate for cycling, has incredibly high bicycle commute rates: http://denmark.dk/en/green-living/bicycle-culture/copenhageners-love-their-bikes http://denmark.dk/en/green-living/bicycle-culture/copenhagen... The answer is that it's partly cultural, and partly incentives. But you can go ahead and keep enforcing the cultural bias against bikes if you prefer.
- cgriswald 10y agoA foot of snow, sub zero temperatures, and icy roads are not cultural bias.
- titzer 10y agoFeel free to call me at home the next time Silicon Valley has a foot of snow.
- cgriswald 10y ago>>>>>>>> It's sad that for most of the world cheap enough electric self driving cars will come faster than good public transport (emphasis added) >>>>>>> I'm not sure why you think cheap enough electric self driving cars can't be public transport. This is the context in which my post was placed. I'm not sure why you've chosen to limit the scope to the Bay Area. The poster I was arguing with was claiming that space is the deciding factor and the hands-down-answered-long-ago-reason why electric cars have no place whatever in public transportation. Unless you are arguing that people should commute by bicycle in Minnesota winters, we're not really arguing here.
- titzer 10y agoYour comment directly complained about bicycles using an array of tired excuses. I would encourage you to visit a city where bicycle commuting works really well to get a different perspective. As for the bay area, I was making the point that even in one of the most optimal set of conditions in the country we still ignore biking which works well in other countries because we seem to be culturally blind. Instead we pursue techno-fantasy when we should really just be buying everyone a $300 bike and putting bike lanes everywhere. We should also build subways and trains and use buses and all the other things, but we can't even seem to get anyone to take bicycles seriously.