3 ms·
Buses and trains are more space efficient than cars because 1. People can stand in them, increasing vehicle density and 2. A smaller proportion of the vehicle
by bobthepanda 2y ago
Buses and trains are more space efficient than cars because
1. People can stand in them, increasing vehicle density and
2. A smaller proportion of the vehicle is dedicated to the engine, fuel tank, etc.
There’s also bicycles, e-bikes and such which have higher density as well. Most American trips are not actually that far.
- 201984 2y agoHowever, busses and trains usually only run every 10-20 minutes compared to a road which is going constantly. I can easily see cars on roads having higher throughput.
- ColonelPhantom 2y agoIt is very easy to scale them as demand increases. There is a train to the next city over where I live in the Netherlands (both around 150k) around 10x per hour on weekdays. And that's on a single, dual track with a mix of 3 direct (intercity) trains and 2 slow trains that have 3 stops inbetween. The intercity trains, when in a maximum length 6+6 car configuration of 2-floor trains, can carry over 1200 (sitting!) passengers. That's as much as a single lane of road can carry in half an hour with average car occupancy (low). So running such a train every 15 minutes should give a similar capacity to a free-flowing road with 2 lanes, while needing less room for infrastructure. Plus people mostly go to the station by foot, bike or bus rather than car, which is also nice capacity-wise and pollution-wise.