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Yeah, this is spot on. I'd go further and say it's also a completely undependable mode of transportation, even near bigger cities. I remember going to a town j

by nickjj 4y ago

Yeah, this is spot on. I'd go further and say it's also a completely undependable mode of transportation, even near bigger cities. I remember going to a town just north of Boston (Everett) for vacation and every day I took the bus into the main Boston area. It was about a 30 minute ride based on distance but all-in it was a little over an hour when accounting for the time you leave your residence to arriving at your destination -- this was being ~5 minutes from the bus stop too. That's only accounting for 1 way too, there's that time penalty on the way back as well. Plus there were times where I watched the bus completely skip stops on the way into the city near the end of the route because it was full, so you could end up waiting +30-45 minutes at the bus stop and this is fully out of your control. I was only there for 5 days and I saw it happen twice (fortunately the route started near where I was) but you could see the the look of disgust on the people's faces when the bus didn't stop for them.

harambae 4y ago
>just north of Boston (Everett) for vacation and every day I took the bus into the main Boston area FWIW - I live in Everett and commute to downtown Boston (Seaport), so I feel like I should weigh in on this. Bus (either the whole way, or to Wellington subway station transfer) is slow. Bike to Wellington, then subway is still pretty bad because of which where the subway runs if you don't transfer. Subway transfer is slow. Uber is very expensive during rushhour. By far the fastest, cheapest and most convenient way is for me to motorcycle from my door to the Seaport office where I squeeze between 2 cars to park (for free... haven't been ticketed yet). So that's what I generally do if it's not winter. And this is in a city that actually does have decent public transit compared to most of America. I don't know if motorcycling is the future or not. It's admittedly more dangerous than driving and requires more coordination. There are safety advancement (automated emergency braking on some brand new KTM's... although that won't help if you overshoot a turn). There are now auto-clutches or non-geared electric motorcycles that are easier for beginners. It would basically take no changes to infrastructure and I've seen it work in Ho Chi Minh (although, again, crashes do occur and are worse when they do).

by nickjj 4y ago

harambae 4y ago

>just north of Boston (Everett) for vacation and every day I took the bus into the main Boston area FWIW - I live in Everett and commute to downtown Boston (Seaport), so I feel like I should weigh in on this. Bus (either the whole way, or to Wellington subway station transfer) is slow. Bike to Wellington, then subway is still pretty bad because of which where the subway runs if you don't transfer. Subway transfer is slow. Uber is very expensive during rushhour. By far the fastest, cheapest and most convenient way is for me to motorcycle from my door to the Seaport office where I squeeze between 2 cars to park (for free... haven't been ticketed yet). So that's what I generally do if it's not winter. And this is in a city that actually does have decent public transit compared to most of America. I don't know if motorcycling is the future or not. It's admittedly more dangerous than driving and requires more coordination. There are safety advancement (automated emergency braking on some brand new KTM's... although that won't help if you overshoot a turn). There are now auto-clutches or non-geared electric motorcycles that are easier for beginners. It would basically take no changes to infrastructure and I've seen it work in Ho Chi Minh (although, again, crashes do occur and are worse when they do).