4 ms·

Why isn't there a service that says: 1. Hey this is my route every morning. 2. Lets you see people's routes and "join". This doesn't need to be a centralized

by tabeth 9y ago

Why isn't there a service that says: 1. Hey this is my route every morning. 2. Lets you see people's routes and "join". This doesn't need to be a centralized service. People could organize things among themselves. There are carpooling sites, but it requires a critical mass to be useful.

ihsw2 9y ago
Google Maps already provides this but with public transit -- real-time notifications of when your bus/train is departing for going home/work. Granted that you have to explicitly set home/work addresses and what your regular departure time ranges (eg: go to work between 7-8am and go home between 5-6pm). Tbh this sounds exactly like what you're describing but with public car-pooling substituted for public transit.
JumpCrisscross 9y ago
https://www.takescoop.com https://www.takescoop.com
Tiktaalik 9y ago
Why don't we hire a bunch of experts to figure out what the most common and efficient routes are for the most people and then hire people to run those routes regularly? Oops I just invented buses again, just the rest of these transportation startups eventually end up doing. The extremely boring answer to our transportation problems is to properly fund public transportation. We've known the solution for ages, but it's kept down by the wealthy class who don't want to pay for public works that would benefit everyone.
- darksaints 9y ago
  > The extremely boring answer to our transportation problems is to properly fund public transportation. We've known the solution for ages, but it's kept down by the wealthy class who don't want to pay for public works that would benefit everyone. I'd say the middle class are the real problem. You see, the primary reason why transit costs so much in taxes is because few people ride it. Few people ride it because driving is heavily subsidized. Since transit is a step-fixed cost business, the marginal cost of a new rider is nearly zero. A bus running at 20% capacity might be 50% subsidized, but a bus running at 80% capacity might be making a 30% profit. If the cost drivers incurred matched the costs they impose on society, driving would be extremely expensive in comparison, and drivers would flock to transit in droves, completely changing the necessity for subsidizing transit...either reducing it, eliminating it, or even making it wildly profitable as the streetcar barons found out before driving was subsidized. However, if you propose raising gas taxes so that driving actually covers its costs, the concern trolls come out of the woodwork about taxes hurting the working poor, no doubt completely unconcerned about how much their comfortable middle class household would have to pay. But here's a proposal: raise the gas tax, but refund the increase in costs on a means-tested basis. Poof, there goes the concern trolling, but the middle class is still on the hook and they really don't like it, because it might mean that they have to make different decisions about their lifestyle and location and habits.
  - Tiktaalik 9y ago
    Going further than this it would be better to implement a form of comprehensive road pricing, since as cars become more efficient and electric cars become more popular, the revenue generation ability of the gas tax weakens.
  - jimmaswell 9y ago
    You'd be destroying a culture of independence in the US punishing car drivers so much, and I don't think it would be nearly worth it. I greatly appreciate being able to just go where I want without having to be beholden to public transit schedules and share the space with a bunch of strangers, and have my own temperature controls etc. The "cost" cars have to society and how "subsidized" they are is ridiculously overblown around here. I had to pay maybe $400 registering+inspecting my car in NY, transfering to NJ was a few more hundred dollars, I had to pay to take the permit test, insurance was $350/month in NY and it's $115/month in NJ, taxes used for roads benefit transit too obviously, and bad drivers pay their externalities in tickets and insurance settlements.
    - darksaints 9y ago
      > You'd be destroying a culture of independence in the US punishing car drivers so much, and I don't think it would be nearly worth it. Is it really independence if you can't cover the costs you impose? Sounds an awful lot like the "oppression" felt by angsty teenagers without jobs when they're told they have to empty a dishwasher. > I greatly appreciate being able to just go where I want without having to be beholden to public transit schedules and share the space with a bunch of strangers, and have my own temperature controls etc. I'm sure you do. I'd greatly appreciate being able to fly private, for all of the same reasons, but unfortunately I can't afford it. If you want it, you should pay the cost to get it. And that cost is gonna be about $6/gallon in extra taxes. > The "cost" cars have to society and how "subsidized" they are is ridiculously overblown around here. [...] Still not enough. As long as cities, states, and the federal government are taking hundreds of billions of dollars out of the general fund to build and maintain roads, you aren't even close to covering your costs. And that would be before congestion charges, carbon taxes, appropriately priced bridge tolls, etc. What is overblown is the independence and financial responsibility of the average person who merely pays their bills for actions that are heavily subsidized.
- 24gttghh 9y ago
  And the bus is really slow (many stops, multiple bus changes to get to a final destination, infrequent runs) compared to driving, and you don't get to choose who your fellow riders are. These are not my qualms, but the ones I hear most often as the basic reason why people hate on riding the bus. Money is certainly a factor, but it's not the whole story here.
  - Tiktaalik 9y ago
    These are implementation details tied to low funding and car oriented infrastructure. For example a bus route becomes significantly faster when it has dedicated lanes and doesn't need to share the lane with cars.
    - JumpCrisscross 9y ago
      > These are implementation details tied to low funding and car oriented infrastructure No, it’s fundamental to the technology. The deadweight cost of the driver mandates a minimum economic size. If you have a big bus, you need a route with lots of people. My long and skinny Cupertino —> Mountain View 6AM/9PM will ne inefficient, or the system will be inefficient—no other options with big buses. A derogatory comparison to Uber is appropriate; it’s amortising the same driver across fewer people. Comparing busses to carpooling is not; I get from and to my precise destination, minimal walking or transferring, and take up no deadweight driver. If you want, think of carpooling as mutualised modularised busses.
      - Tiktaalik 9y ago
        Low ridership routes are a necessary part of a complete public transit system. The reluctance to subsidize low ridership routes is part of what creates a poor mass transit system. The result in a limited public transit system that doesn't match people's needs and people turn to cars. This is exactly what I'm talking about.
- empath75 9y ago
  What’s amazing is that rural parts of Guatemala have a better public transport system than some of the wealthiest cities on earth. The chicken bus system is a marvel of low tech, self organizing systems.
alkonaut 9y ago
This is what waze should do. It already knows enough to say "hey, there is a person living within 500m of your home that drives almost to the same place almost exactly the same time every day".
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
tejasmanohar 9y ago
I downloaded Waze Carpool, and it feels just like that.

by tabeth 9y ago

ihsw2 9y ago

Google Maps already provides this but with public transit -- real-time notifications of when your bus/train is departing for going home/work. Granted that you have to explicitly set home/work addresses and what your regular departure time ranges (eg: go to work between 7-8am and go home between 5-6pm). Tbh this sounds exactly like what you're describing but with public car-pooling substituted for public transit.

JumpCrisscross 9y ago

https://www.takescoop.com https://www.takescoop.com

Tiktaalik 9y ago

Why don't we hire a bunch of experts to figure out what the most common and efficient routes are for the most people and then hire people to run those routes regularly? Oops I just invented buses again, just the rest of these transportation startups eventually end up doing. The extremely boring answer to our transportation problems is to properly fund public transportation. We've known the solution for ages, but it's kept down by the wealthy class who don't want to pay for public works that would benefit everyone.

darksaints 9y ago
> The extremely boring answer to our transportation problems is to properly fund public transportation. We've known the solution for ages, but it's kept down by the wealthy class who don't want to pay for public works that would benefit everyone. I'd say the middle class are the real problem. You see, the primary reason why transit costs so much in taxes is because few people ride it. Few people ride it because driving is heavily subsidized. Since transit is a step-fixed cost business, the marginal cost of a new rider is nearly zero. A bus running at 20% capacity might be 50% subsidized, but a bus running at 80% capacity might be making a 30% profit. If the cost drivers incurred matched the costs they impose on society, driving would be extremely expensive in comparison, and drivers would flock to transit in droves, completely changing the necessity for subsidizing transit...either reducing it, eliminating it, or even making it wildly profitable as the streetcar barons found out before driving was subsidized. However, if you propose raising gas taxes so that driving actually covers its costs, the concern trolls come out of the woodwork about taxes hurting the working poor, no doubt completely unconcerned about how much their comfortable middle class household would have to pay. But here's a proposal: raise the gas tax, but refund the increase in costs on a means-tested basis. Poof, there goes the concern trolling, but the middle class is still on the hook and they really don't like it, because it might mean that they have to make different decisions about their lifestyle and location and habits.
- Tiktaalik 9y ago
  Going further than this it would be better to implement a form of comprehensive road pricing, since as cars become more efficient and electric cars become more popular, the revenue generation ability of the gas tax weakens.
- jimmaswell 9y ago
  You'd be destroying a culture of independence in the US punishing car drivers so much, and I don't think it would be nearly worth it. I greatly appreciate being able to just go where I want without having to be beholden to public transit schedules and share the space with a bunch of strangers, and have my own temperature controls etc. The "cost" cars have to society and how "subsidized" they are is ridiculously overblown around here. I had to pay maybe $400 registering+inspecting my car in NY, transfering to NJ was a few more hundred dollars, I had to pay to take the permit test, insurance was $350/month in NY and it's $115/month in NJ, taxes used for roads benefit transit too obviously, and bad drivers pay their externalities in tickets and insurance settlements.
  - darksaints 9y ago
    > You'd be destroying a culture of independence in the US punishing car drivers so much, and I don't think it would be nearly worth it. Is it really independence if you can't cover the costs you impose? Sounds an awful lot like the "oppression" felt by angsty teenagers without jobs when they're told they have to empty a dishwasher. > I greatly appreciate being able to just go where I want without having to be beholden to public transit schedules and share the space with a bunch of strangers, and have my own temperature controls etc. I'm sure you do. I'd greatly appreciate being able to fly private, for all of the same reasons, but unfortunately I can't afford it. If you want it, you should pay the cost to get it. And that cost is gonna be about $6/gallon in extra taxes. > The "cost" cars have to society and how "subsidized" they are is ridiculously overblown around here. [...] Still not enough. As long as cities, states, and the federal government are taking hundreds of billions of dollars out of the general fund to build and maintain roads, you aren't even close to covering your costs. And that would be before congestion charges, carbon taxes, appropriately priced bridge tolls, etc. What is overblown is the independence and financial responsibility of the average person who merely pays their bills for actions that are heavily subsidized.
24gttghh 9y ago
And the bus is really slow (many stops, multiple bus changes to get to a final destination, infrequent runs) compared to driving, and you don't get to choose who your fellow riders are. These are not my qualms, but the ones I hear most often as the basic reason why people hate on riding the bus. Money is certainly a factor, but it's not the whole story here.
- Tiktaalik 9y ago
  These are implementation details tied to low funding and car oriented infrastructure. For example a bus route becomes significantly faster when it has dedicated lanes and doesn't need to share the lane with cars.
  - JumpCrisscross 9y ago
    > These are implementation details tied to low funding and car oriented infrastructure No, it’s fundamental to the technology. The deadweight cost of the driver mandates a minimum economic size. If you have a big bus, you need a route with lots of people. My long and skinny Cupertino —> Mountain View 6AM/9PM will ne inefficient, or the system will be inefficient—no other options with big buses. A derogatory comparison to Uber is appropriate; it’s amortising the same driver across fewer people. Comparing busses to carpooling is not; I get from and to my precise destination, minimal walking or transferring, and take up no deadweight driver. If you want, think of carpooling as mutualised modularised busses.
    - Tiktaalik 9y ago
      Low ridership routes are a necessary part of a complete public transit system. The reluctance to subsidize low ridership routes is part of what creates a poor mass transit system. The result in a limited public transit system that doesn't match people's needs and people turn to cars. This is exactly what I'm talking about.
empath75 9y ago
What’s amazing is that rural parts of Guatemala have a better public transport system than some of the wealthiest cities on earth. The chicken bus system is a marvel of low tech, self organizing systems.

alkonaut 9y ago

This is what waze should do. It already knows enough to say "hey, there is a person living within 500m of your home that drives almost to the same place almost exactly the same time every day".

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

tejasmanohar 9y ago

I downloaded Waze Carpool, and it feels just like that.