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> Driving everywhere in Houston results in a hell of a lot higher quality of life than riding public transit everywhere in Boston. It's a trade off. One of the

• njarboe 7y ago
  Public transit doesn't come for free. Bus systems are sometimes worse than people in cars. I would suggest fixing the individual vehicle transportation system (congestion tolls + high gas tax would be a start) than forcing everyone to stand on trains for their commute and stay at home on the weekends.
  • CydeWeys 7y ago
    > Bus systems are sometimes worse than people in cars. Source?
    • njarboe 7y ago
      In the US, bus routes often run with zero passengers on the bus. Here is a Quora question and answer that states buses consumed 20% more energy than cars per passenger mile in 2009[1]. It references a US Department of transportation document that can now be found here(pdf)[2]. Tables in chapter two. Not sure about more recent figures. I made this comment as I remembered an AC Transit (Alameda County Transit which includes Oakland) study that said their average mpg per passenger was around 8 mpg some time ago and I found that surprisingly low. [1] https://www.quora.com/Do-buses-really-result-in-increased-energy-efficiency https://www.quora.com/Do-buses-really-result-in-increased-en... [2] https://tedb.ornl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Edition30_Full_Doc.pdf https://tedb.ornl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Edition30_F...