5 ms·

There's way bigger problems for 'the 2-5 person capcity mass transit vehicle' (by which you basically mean 'car') than people owning and driving the vehicle. T

There's way bigger problems for 'the 2-5 person capcity mass transit vehicle' (by which you basically mean 'car') than people owning and driving the vehicle. Time is completely out of your hands (am I first or fifth in? What route will it take? How long are we going to wait for this person to show up?). Its not solving infrastructure issues massively (cars still need roads - you might make it attractive by having a lane for 3 or more people vechiles though). Its not really a system suited for dense walkable centres (see European cities) - and we are going further that way. And whats the objective benefit vs a train or tram? You are still in a space with strangers. There are places in the world where labour costs are so low that this doesnt figure. There are also those where shared rides are common (e.g. taxis that run 'routes') - I'm not sure in any of these places they are considered a better solution than public transport at all. Of course they have a place, and I think Walker acknowledges this too, but its not really a game changer like building proper public transport can be.

improbable22 9y ago
Re "the 2-5 person capacity mass transit vehicle": Lots of cities have enough density to support good dense tram / train / bus networks in the centre, during the day. But quite a lot of the people who would use that, also have to go further out sometimes, or need to get home later at night sometimes. If mass transit can't do this too, then they need to make a whole different plan... often meaning a car, and a house further out to afford parking. This seems like the opening for smaller vehicles. They can perhaps fill in the gaps between lines, and the long waits between night busses, in a way that couldn't be done before, essentially because human taxi drivers are too expensive. It's possible this could help make proper public transport viable in lots more places than it is now.
improbable22 9y ago
Or perhaps to put that another way: In a city with great public transport, lots of the person-miles are done on full trains, running back to back all rush hour, in a way that nothing else can really replace. But for the system to be useful, it has to maintain reasonable frequencies until midnight, out to a lot of points. This results in a lot of vehicle-miles being done almost empty. But they are really essential. It's the second class which maybe small automated vehicles could replace. Lots of cities only cover the first class, and wonder why so many rush-hour commuters don't use it...

improbable22 9y ago

Re "the 2-5 person capacity mass transit vehicle": Lots of cities have enough density to support good dense tram / train / bus networks in the centre, during the day. But quite a lot of the people who would use that, also have to go further out sometimes, or need to get home later at night sometimes. If mass transit can't do this too, then they need to make a whole different plan... often meaning a car, and a house further out to afford parking. This seems like the opening for smaller vehicles. They can perhaps fill in the gaps between lines, and the long waits between night busses, in a way that couldn't be done before, essentially because human taxi drivers are too expensive. It's possible this could help make proper public transport viable in lots more places than it is now.

improbable22 9y ago

Or perhaps to put that another way: In a city with great public transport, lots of the person-miles are done on full trains, running back to back all rush hour, in a way that nothing else can really replace. But for the system to be useful, it has to maintain reasonable frequencies until midnight, out to a lot of points. This results in a lot of vehicle-miles being done almost empty. But they are really essential. It's the second class which maybe small automated vehicles could replace. Lots of cities only cover the first class, and wonder why so many rush-hour commuters don't use it...