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> Public transit tapers off because demand drops off. There will be a spike around closing time for bars but it seems unlikely that you'd want to launch a whole
by bradlys 5y ago
> Public transit tapers off because demand drops off. There will be a spike around closing time for bars but it seems unlikely that you'd want to launch a whole commercial service just based on that.
Public transit is also based on an order of magnitude larger transport. You're talking about buses that are made to move 50-100 people or trains made to move hundreds... not a car that will be moving 1-3. The reason many routes get cut down isn't because there's no demand at all - it's because the demand is below the threshold to run the service profitably. If you can cut down on the cost to run the service by cutting the driver out, making the vehicle cheaper to run the route, and so forth... the route will come back.
I think this service will do fine. This is one the issues that SF has in a large part. Very hard to get around at night because public transit is dead before midnight.
- simfree 5y agoBusses rarely run at a profit, if your metro service is very lucky user fares cover half the cost of bus service (lookup farebox recovery ratio), hence some US bus systems going fare free since it makes a minimal difference financially.
- toast0 5y agoRather than profitability, perhaps the right metric is utilization. Even if you don't care about the revenue, having only a handful of people on the bus per run in the evening makes it hard to justify the cost of operating the line. Having other options to get home is great.
- loeg 5y agoSure, but they still care about cost and utility.
- bradlys 5y ago> Busses rarely run at a profit Semantics. Profit, net zero, sustainable with tax dollars, etc. Doesn't matter. You get the idea dude. It's about routes not being worthwhile because the damn transport option is too costly for just a few people. Autonomous car is gonna be more effective for these scenarios.