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Do you know what the disadvantages of your vehicles? they don't take riders to their house. They don't allow riders to bring along any oddity of luggage. They a

Do you know what the disadvantages of your vehicles? they don't take riders to their house. They don't allow riders to bring along any oddity of luggage. They aren't available at the moment notice. They aren't personal escape room when one is needed. I'm sure you know what kind of vehicles providing such comfort. So take the high moral ground all you want, be snarky all you want, but the real world is a strange and messy place. Car has it place, along with bike, scooter, planes, trains. Until teleporter arrives.

low_poly_shiba 7y ago
People who rely on public transit adapt to public transit. For example, they become more savvy about how much stuff they own and what they carry around.
- chroma 7y ago
  I adapt by taking Uber/Lyft instead. I got fed up with crazy people threatening and attacking me on public transportation. Thankfully, I'm fortunate enough that I can afford to be driven around. I hope that in the future such a pleasant experience can be made available to everyone in the form of autonomous vehicles.
  - YeGoblynQueenne 7y ago
    >> I got fed up with crazy people threatening and attacking me on public transportation. As usual, this seems to be very different between EU and US citizens. I've been using public transport of all possible types (trains, boats, busses, trams...) in more than half a dozen EU countries since I was a wee bairn and I've never been threatened or attacked on any of them. Like, not even close. The absolutely worst thing that has ever happened to me on public transport is some guy puking his guts out on a London bus on a Saturday night. And that was just once. And it was more like "what an idiot" than "oh god I'm scared". Which tells me that this is nothing to do with public transportation, as a means of transport, but with - other issues, for example various social issues that are particular in the US. Or people are just exaggerating the misery of taking public transport in the US? I struggle to believe it's really that bad as you say, for instance. Public transport descriptions by US citizens always sound a bit like The Warriors, to me, and a bit unrealistic, to be honest.
YeGoblynQueenne 7y ago
Taking a driver to their house sounds like a luxury, not a real necessity. Same for having the car available at a moment's notice, except for emergency situations for which there are emergency vehicles. Carrying luggage on public transport is perfectly possible and for larger or more items it's always possible to hire a van. I don't understand the "personal escape room" comment. Escape- from what? In a car? How? And note that even if all of the above were true limitations of public transport, the benefits would still significantly outweigh them. Just the reduced emissions from multiple people using the same vehicle instead of each their personal vehicle, would be (are!) an enormous advantage. The fact that everyone has their own car and drives it every day has caused serious problems, not least of which is environmental destruction on an unprecedented scale from the necessary infrastructure and emissions- and that's before we count the number of deaths from accidents and pollution. We need technologies and solutions that take more cars off the roads- not ones that put more on them.
- thrower123 7y ago
  Driving in the car is one of the few times one can be completely alone with one's thoughts, for many people. I think I'd lose my mind without being unplugged for an hour or so a day. Hunting and fishing isn't bad either, but I've got to get up at 4:30 these days to get out there before the turkeys fly off their roosts...
- vivekd 7y ago
  I think you're right in that mass transit is the best solution to transportation from a social and environmental standpoint. But the reality is that most people prefer cars. It's unrealistic to force people to use the socially optimum solution rather than their prefered solution. Many governments have tried and many have failed to force people to use the socially beneficial solution over their preferred one. A good example of this is the failure of carpool lanes. Any system that caters to humans has to account for what people want. The way to make people take transit is to make transit comparable to cars - in terms of speed, reliability etc. And to make it better now rather than holding out some promise that it will be better at some future date when enough people take transit. People will take transit now if its better now, not if it promises to be better in the future. I mean at the end of the day we can't force or guilt people into taking our preferred solution. We have to create a solution that caters to them. People will do their part for society and the environment - recycling programs are proof of this. You just have to create a solution that's not too much of an inconvenience. People would take transit more if it was cleaner, faster and more reliable. Rather than pouring more money into it hoping it gets better, or goading more people to take it under the promise it will get better - I don't think its unreasonable to ask to make current systems more user friendly and then increase funding as service improves and ridership increases
asdff 7y ago
Door to door transport is an individual perk but a network wide con. Imagine if american airlines was tasked with bringing you to your door or hotel rather than just asking you to find your own way to the airport hub, or if there were no connecting flights at all. It's way simpler to just ask people to walk (or bike, or scooter, or skateboard) a half mile (10 minutes, I'd do it in a blizzard), than to serve all those random last mile connections. Available at a moments notice is also another con, better to wait for a ride every 10 minutes than have the network strained by serving minute to minute stops. Plus I don't think I've had an uber arrive in 10 minutes ever. The last thing, with the luggage, well try going to Portland, one of the only cities I've been to where you can ride a train from your downtown hotel to within ~100 yards of airport security in 20 minutes. People rarely are checking more than one bag, and you can strap your carry on to the handle of your roller bag and it isn't a strain on the system, as hard as this might be to believe. In Los Angeles, people find room to set up little potato chip shops on the trains, and there are people who manage to transport all their worldly possessions with them on the subways in NYC. And if you really needed to haul a lot of junk, you can rent a uhaul box truck (or a tall van, or a pickup truck) for $20 and change plus gas for a local trip.

low_poly_shiba 7y ago

People who rely on public transit adapt to public transit. For example, they become more savvy about how much stuff they own and what they carry around.

chroma 7y ago
I adapt by taking Uber/Lyft instead. I got fed up with crazy people threatening and attacking me on public transportation. Thankfully, I'm fortunate enough that I can afford to be driven around. I hope that in the future such a pleasant experience can be made available to everyone in the form of autonomous vehicles.
- YeGoblynQueenne 7y ago
  >> I got fed up with crazy people threatening and attacking me on public transportation. As usual, this seems to be very different between EU and US citizens. I've been using public transport of all possible types (trains, boats, busses, trams...) in more than half a dozen EU countries since I was a wee bairn and I've never been threatened or attacked on any of them. Like, not even close. The absolutely worst thing that has ever happened to me on public transport is some guy puking his guts out on a London bus on a Saturday night. And that was just once. And it was more like "what an idiot" than "oh god I'm scared". Which tells me that this is nothing to do with public transportation, as a means of transport, but with - other issues, for example various social issues that are particular in the US. Or people are just exaggerating the misery of taking public transport in the US? I struggle to believe it's really that bad as you say, for instance. Public transport descriptions by US citizens always sound a bit like The Warriors, to me, and a bit unrealistic, to be honest.

YeGoblynQueenne 7y ago

Taking a driver to their house sounds like a luxury, not a real necessity. Same for having the car available at a moment's notice, except for emergency situations for which there are emergency vehicles. Carrying luggage on public transport is perfectly possible and for larger or more items it's always possible to hire a van. I don't understand the "personal escape room" comment. Escape- from what? In a car? How? And note that even if all of the above were true limitations of public transport, the benefits would still significantly outweigh them. Just the reduced emissions from multiple people using the same vehicle instead of each their personal vehicle, would be (are!) an enormous advantage. The fact that everyone has their own car and drives it every day has caused serious problems, not least of which is environmental destruction on an unprecedented scale from the necessary infrastructure and emissions- and that's before we count the number of deaths from accidents and pollution. We need technologies and solutions that take more cars off the roads- not ones that put more on them.

thrower123 7y ago
Driving in the car is one of the few times one can be completely alone with one's thoughts, for many people. I think I'd lose my mind without being unplugged for an hour or so a day. Hunting and fishing isn't bad either, but I've got to get up at 4:30 these days to get out there before the turkeys fly off their roosts...
vivekd 7y ago
I think you're right in that mass transit is the best solution to transportation from a social and environmental standpoint. But the reality is that most people prefer cars. It's unrealistic to force people to use the socially optimum solution rather than their prefered solution. Many governments have tried and many have failed to force people to use the socially beneficial solution over their preferred one. A good example of this is the failure of carpool lanes. Any system that caters to humans has to account for what people want. The way to make people take transit is to make transit comparable to cars - in terms of speed, reliability etc. And to make it better now rather than holding out some promise that it will be better at some future date when enough people take transit. People will take transit now if its better now, not if it promises to be better in the future. I mean at the end of the day we can't force or guilt people into taking our preferred solution. We have to create a solution that caters to them. People will do their part for society and the environment - recycling programs are proof of this. You just have to create a solution that's not too much of an inconvenience. People would take transit more if it was cleaner, faster and more reliable. Rather than pouring more money into it hoping it gets better, or goading more people to take it under the promise it will get better - I don't think its unreasonable to ask to make current systems more user friendly and then increase funding as service improves and ridership increases

asdff 7y ago

Door to door transport is an individual perk but a network wide con. Imagine if american airlines was tasked with bringing you to your door or hotel rather than just asking you to find your own way to the airport hub, or if there were no connecting flights at all. It's way simpler to just ask people to walk (or bike, or scooter, or skateboard) a half mile (10 minutes, I'd do it in a blizzard), than to serve all those random last mile connections. Available at a moments notice is also another con, better to wait for a ride every 10 minutes than have the network strained by serving minute to minute stops. Plus I don't think I've had an uber arrive in 10 minutes ever. The last thing, with the luggage, well try going to Portland, one of the only cities I've been to where you can ride a train from your downtown hotel to within ~100 yards of airport security in 20 minutes. People rarely are checking more than one bag, and you can strap your carry on to the handle of your roller bag and it isn't a strain on the system, as hard as this might be to believe. In Los Angeles, people find room to set up little potato chip shops on the trains, and there are people who manage to transport all their worldly possessions with them on the subways in NYC. And if you really needed to haul a lot of junk, you can rent a uhaul box truck (or a tall van, or a pickup truck) for $20 and change plus gas for a local trip.