3 ms·

Are not roads part of public transport? In the US, would I be correct in saying that the bulk of public passenger transport is by bus? This article is from th

Are not roads part of public transport? In the US, would I be correct in saying that the bulk of public passenger transport is by bus? This article is from the UK where busses constitute are a little over half of all trips. Busses need roads too. And roads have other uses than moving people. Get rid of all passenger transport and we would still need roads to move all the goods and services on which we rely.

JKCalhoun 3y ago
If we moved people from cars to buses we would not need wider highways, we could actually shrink them. Trains are still a thing in the US. Trucks could be used just for the "last mile" of a product.
bombcar 3y ago
Nobody likes busses, let's be real. Public transportation is sold as light rail, trains, monorails, because those look cool and people like them. It's damn hard to sell busses, even if you end up building out much of the map as busses. To be fair, busses are subject to a lot of the problems cars are (they get stuck in traffic, etc) whilst trains can zip past traffic jams on their own rails. And not everywhere does "bus rapid transit" right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh1IaVmu3Y8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh1IaVmu3Y8
joe_the_user 3y ago
Well, US spends on roads but not on buses or rail. Unless you are creating a reliable bus transport system, spending on roads isn't much of a part of public transport spending. Also, the way the US creates bus systems - each locality spending more or less depending on the location's shifting fortunes - means that no one can rely on buses in any long term and this indeed makes people not want to ride them.
jcranmer 3y ago
https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2021/acs/acs-48.pdf https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publicatio... has the statistical data you're looking for. Public transportation accounts for about 5.0% of commutes, with buses being the plurality (but not majority) mode at 2.3%, followed by subway at 1.9%, commuter rail at 0.6%, light rail at 0.2%, and ferry at 0.0% (yay rounding).

JKCalhoun 3y ago

If we moved people from cars to buses we would not need wider highways, we could actually shrink them. Trains are still a thing in the US. Trucks could be used just for the "last mile" of a product.

bombcar 3y ago

Nobody likes busses, let's be real. Public transportation is sold as light rail, trains, monorails, because those look cool and people like them. It's damn hard to sell busses, even if you end up building out much of the map as busses. To be fair, busses are subject to a lot of the problems cars are (they get stuck in traffic, etc) whilst trains can zip past traffic jams on their own rails. And not everywhere does "bus rapid transit" right: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh1IaVmu3Y8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh1IaVmu3Y8

joe_the_user 3y ago

Well, US spends on roads but not on buses or rail. Unless you are creating a reliable bus transport system, spending on roads isn't much of a part of public transport spending. Also, the way the US creates bus systems - each locality spending more or less depending on the location's shifting fortunes - means that no one can rely on buses in any long term and this indeed makes people not want to ride them.

jcranmer 3y ago

https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2021/acs/acs-48.pdf https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publicatio... has the statistical data you're looking for. Public transportation accounts for about 5.0% of commutes, with buses being the plurality (but not majority) mode at 2.3%, followed by subway at 1.9%, commuter rail at 0.6%, light rail at 0.2%, and ferry at 0.0% (yay rounding).