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>Self-driving, solar cars solve all problems of mass transit and are far cheaper, since they use existing roads. They don't solve the arguably most important i
by hanbura 9y ago
>Self-driving, solar cars solve all problems of mass transit and are far cheaper, since they use existing roads.
They don't solve the arguably most important issue: road capacity. A bus that takes the same space on the road as 2-3 cars seats 30 people (and holds another 30 standing). Self-driving cars enable somewhat more efficient traffic patterns, but they will have a hard time overcoming the order-of-magnitude lead that buses have.
And that's not even mentioning subways, those don't impact roads at all and move staggering amounts of people
- fatbob 9y agoBuses are not always full. Their average capacity does not have an order of magnitude advantage.
- notatoad 9y agoneither are roads. it doesn't matter how full the bus is when the road is empty, but the number of cars that a bus is taking off the road at peak road usage time is pretty close to the full capacity of the bus, in any bus system i've ever ridden.
- michaelmior 9y agoThis is assuming that everyone who is on the bus would be driving/riding in a car instead, which I'm not sure is true.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- fatbob 9y agoGood point - maybe buses will stay around just for peak usage, but will be replaced by rented, right-sized self-driving cars for the rest of the time.