3 ms·

AC Transit is not the primary Bay Area bus system. The public transit system in the bay area is a huge patchwork of systems, and AC Transit is not considered an

AC Transit is not the primary Bay Area bus system. The public transit system in the bay area is a huge patchwork of systems, and AC Transit is not considered an especially well run system. I think Muni and Bart do far better in cost effectiveness calculations.

cameldrv 10y ago
Muni isn't much better. It's about $6.45 per boarding, which has got to be at least $8-9 per trip, accounting for people who transfer. [1] Average trip distance is 3.4 miles [2], so $2.50 per passenger mile. This is more expensive than UberPOOL. The problem is that if you subsidized Uber like transit is subsidized, ridership would skyrocket since it's so much faster and more comfortable, and the budget would be blown. This could be solved with a big subsidy for lower income people and a small subsidy for higher income people. You could also run pools with bigger vehicles, say 8 passenger van/suvs that would make more stops and take longer but be significantly cheaper. I'm not even sure it would make congestion worse since busses are themselves significant sources of congestion with their large size and slow speeds. The biggest issue would be congestion caused by Ubers constantly stopping on the street. This might be fixable by turning street parking into loading/unloading zones, since you wouldn't need as much parking with everyone taking the cheap Uber to work instead of driving. Obviously when the cars are self-driving, the economics get dramatically better yet. [1] https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/agendaitems/2016/4-5-16%20Item%2014%20and%2015%20FY%202017-18%20Budget%20-%20Slide%20Presentation.pdf https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/agendaitems/2016/4... [2] https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/2015/San%20Francisco%20Transportation%20Trends%202.3.15.pdf https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/2015/San%20Fr...

cameldrv 10y ago

Muni isn't much better. It's about $6.45 per boarding, which has got to be at least $8-9 per trip, accounting for people who transfer. [1] Average trip distance is 3.4 miles [2], so $2.50 per passenger mile. This is more expensive than UberPOOL. The problem is that if you subsidized Uber like transit is subsidized, ridership would skyrocket since it's so much faster and more comfortable, and the budget would be blown. This could be solved with a big subsidy for lower income people and a small subsidy for higher income people. You could also run pools with bigger vehicles, say 8 passenger van/suvs that would make more stops and take longer but be significantly cheaper. I'm not even sure it would make congestion worse since busses are themselves significant sources of congestion with their large size and slow speeds. The biggest issue would be congestion caused by Ubers constantly stopping on the street. This might be fixable by turning street parking into loading/unloading zones, since you wouldn't need as much parking with everyone taking the cheap Uber to work instead of driving. Obviously when the cars are self-driving, the economics get dramatically better yet. [1] https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/agendaitems/2016/4-5-16%20Item%2014%20and%2015%20FY%202017-18%20Budget%20-%20Slide%20Presentation.pdf https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/agendaitems/2016/4... [2] https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/2015/San%20Francisco%20Transportation%20Trends%202.3.15.pdf https://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/2015/San%20Fr...