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Are there realistic situations where a cheaper and more convenient form of driven transport leads to fewer VMT?
by jessriedel 9y ago
Are there realistic situations where a cheaper and more convenient form of driven transport leads to fewer VMT?
- brianwawok 9y agoSure. A faster / better / cheaper train or bus takes cars directly off the road. So you can add more subways / trains / buses / etc. to do this.
- DrScump 9y agoAdding more units, where existing units are underutilized, makes no sense.
- fooker 9y agoIt makes no sense if all units here are equal. It makes a lot of sense to add better unit.
- quickben 9y agoBetter, in terms of congestion, is capacity. Buses>cars.
- TylerE 9y agoImagine a subway that only runs one train per line, such that on average each station only gets visited once an hour. No one would use it. Now add 10 more trains so trains stop every 5 minutes. Many many people use it.
- isostatic 9y agoDepends on the distance - plenty of people get the hourly train from my local station into Manchester (or change at Crewe for trains to Liverpool, Birmingham, etc), as long as it's timetabled. But the train is about 30 minutes faster than the car and far more productive.
- aninhumer 9y agoNot necessarily. Service frequency is a pretty significant factor influencing people's decision whether to use public transport. A lot more people will start using a service if it's frequent enough that they don't need to plan around it.
- Broken_Hippo 9y agoThat depends why units are underutilized, though. If the train + bus system doesn't get you close to where you need to go, it might not be worth your time to use. If it takes too long, again, won't be worth the time. If they can't get you to work on time or stop running before you are off work? Again, not worth your time to use them. In all of these cases, a good answer is to have more convenient public transport - and that usually means adding more units. Other problems have other solutions, like adding tolls to congested areas, subsidizing public transportation so the fares are low enough for people to afford or choose it over driving, or increasing private vehicle ownership costs.
- jessriedel 9y agoI mean a cheaper passenger vehicle like Uber. (Obviously cheaper rail can lead to fewer miles driven.)
- cisanti 9y agoIf you care about the issue and think it's important, you need to make sacrifices. Otherwise it's just champaign socialist talk... You want to decrease co2, you have to start making changes in your lifestyle.
- bo1024 9y agoMaybe if it promotes a significant increase in carpooling.
- scott00 9y agoThe biggest current mechanism is the case where driving beats commuter rail + walking, but commuter rail + ride hail beats driving. The other would be where a shared ride (ie, Uber pool rather than Uber X) is replacing a solo car trip.