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That would be great for local travel within a community, and the effect on community design. I’d still like to go to other states and cities in reasonable times

That would be great for local travel within a community, and the effect on community design. I’d still like to go to other states and cities in reasonable times, though so perhaps there could be another mode of speedier transport available, such as trains.

p2t2p 8y ago
I’m fascinated by entitlement of commenters in this thread. Hey, people, try to pack a day supply of food, nappies and clothes changes for couple babies and then go ahead and travel 50k on a bus with mentioned babies and your partner. Or better couple buses because in reality you need couple or more changes to get to the destination. Then we can discuss the need for speed and personal vehicles.
- code_duck 8y ago
  I can’t tell if you’re talking about me or not. There are millions and millions of Americans who do not own their own car and could not afford to do that. They also cannot travel between cities often due to lack of realistic public transportation. The bus system is horrible, and I would never suggest that anyone use that. I also feel that it’s within the capability of society to create a comfortable mode of public transportation for longer distances. For some reason, people have no problem grabbing their baby and hopping on a plane. Personally, I prefer to drive.
  - p2t2p 8y ago
    "For some reason, people have no problem grabbing their baby and hopping on a plane" Well, this is quite different. Most probably those people drive to the airport or use taxi/uber. Then, upon arrival to the airport they get rid of their luggage - they put the luggage into neat windows and then other people take care of it for them. What they keep around is just most necessary stuff for several hours. I can't imagine how anything like that would makes sense to be implemented for suburban travel. With suburban travel you can't also have direct roots, it simply not possible to link every destination with every destination so you will have to do multiple changes. For example, I live in Australia in Sydney suburb - Cronulla. Should I want to travel to Blue Mountains for weekend with my family (110k) using public transit I would need to do something like that: - Hope on bus, get to the train station. - Hope on train get to the city central railway station. - Change trains to the one that goest to the Blue Mountains - Get off the train - Get on a bus that would bring you close enough to the hotel. Now all this happens while I manually handle luggage for my wife, myself and all the stuff that is necessary for couple toddlers for 2 days. It will take about 6 hours in total, one way. Then repeat it backwards. You do such a trip once and you say - no more. I can drive there on my Getz under 2 hours with all the stuff neatly packed in the trunk. I tell what would fix the whole mess. A fleet of electric easy to rent cars of 4 seaters and 7 seaters (large and small families). Something that would come to you house (autopilot FTW), drive you (or you drive it) to the destination and then return to the pool. You might say - Uber but it's not the same, the driver required is the most expensive part. In Australia you can have GoGet but it is not the same again - it doesn't return to the pool when you don't need it anymore and it will sit there for the whole weekend with no use.

p2t2p 8y ago

I’m fascinated by entitlement of commenters in this thread. Hey, people, try to pack a day supply of food, nappies and clothes changes for couple babies and then go ahead and travel 50k on a bus with mentioned babies and your partner. Or better couple buses because in reality you need couple or more changes to get to the destination. Then we can discuss the need for speed and personal vehicles.

code_duck 8y ago
I can’t tell if you’re talking about me or not. There are millions and millions of Americans who do not own their own car and could not afford to do that. They also cannot travel between cities often due to lack of realistic public transportation. The bus system is horrible, and I would never suggest that anyone use that. I also feel that it’s within the capability of society to create a comfortable mode of public transportation for longer distances. For some reason, people have no problem grabbing their baby and hopping on a plane. Personally, I prefer to drive.
- p2t2p 8y ago
  "For some reason, people have no problem grabbing their baby and hopping on a plane" Well, this is quite different. Most probably those people drive to the airport or use taxi/uber. Then, upon arrival to the airport they get rid of their luggage - they put the luggage into neat windows and then other people take care of it for them. What they keep around is just most necessary stuff for several hours. I can't imagine how anything like that would makes sense to be implemented for suburban travel. With suburban travel you can't also have direct roots, it simply not possible to link every destination with every destination so you will have to do multiple changes. For example, I live in Australia in Sydney suburb - Cronulla. Should I want to travel to Blue Mountains for weekend with my family (110k) using public transit I would need to do something like that: - Hope on bus, get to the train station. - Hope on train get to the city central railway station. - Change trains to the one that goest to the Blue Mountains - Get off the train - Get on a bus that would bring you close enough to the hotel. Now all this happens while I manually handle luggage for my wife, myself and all the stuff that is necessary for couple toddlers for 2 days. It will take about 6 hours in total, one way. Then repeat it backwards. You do such a trip once and you say - no more. I can drive there on my Getz under 2 hours with all the stuff neatly packed in the trunk. I tell what would fix the whole mess. A fleet of electric easy to rent cars of 4 seaters and 7 seaters (large and small families). Something that would come to you house (autopilot FTW), drive you (or you drive it) to the destination and then return to the pool. You might say - Uber but it's not the same, the driver required is the most expensive part. In Australia you can have GoGet but it is not the same again - it doesn't return to the pool when you don't need it anymore and it will sit there for the whole weekend with no use.