3 ms·

This is such a typical American sneer at public transport. It's tiny, how it possibly carry all those 2x4s, powertools and sheets of plywood when I'm out doing

This is such a typical American sneer at public transport. It's tiny, how it possibly carry all those 2x4s, powertools and sheets of plywood when I'm out doing manly things. I'd better go buy that monster truck so I can look like a real man.

JdeBP 1y ago
In many non-North American cities one needs tiny. Big stuff just does not fit.
imtringued 1y ago
A normal public transit bus has twice the seats and doesn't need rails.
- JdeBP 1y ago
  Yes and no. Yes, this is smaller than the double-deckers in Coventry, that you can even do an eyeball comparison with if you watch the ironic publicity video mentioned in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44217231 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44217231 and keep your eyes peeled for the buses queued up at those temporary traffic lights in the background. No, it's roughly on a par with the single-deckers, though, and there are quite a lot of those used by the local bus operators.
- ericmay 1y ago
  In the US a bus is a strictly worse version of the private car. Walking/biking/rail are effectively category differences so they don’t compete on the same playing field as a car and bus will. It’s very important for public transportation officials in particular to understand this, because not understanding it will continue the car-only suburban development until we run out of money and economic physics dictates how we do transportation but with insane costs in the meanwhile.
JSR_FDED 1y ago
I guess you don’t need much space to dip your baguette in a cuppa tea
- JdeBP 1y ago
  Amusingly for this stereotyping, the demonstrator that they have constructed has a Burger King a short walk to the south and two Chinese restaurants and one Indian a short walk to the north. (-:
strken 1y ago
This is a) an unnecessary counter-sneer at two whole continents and b) dismissive of something that would be a real problem in a city bigger than Coventry. Those teeny tiny little carriages have a capacity a quarter of what the trams in my city provide. If one of them pulled up in peak hour here, I imagine it would fill up after two stops and be a nuisance from there on.

JdeBP 1y ago

In many non-North American cities one needs tiny. Big stuff just does not fit.

imtringued 1y ago

A normal public transit bus has twice the seats and doesn't need rails.

JdeBP 1y ago
Yes and no. Yes, this is smaller than the double-deckers in Coventry, that you can even do an eyeball comparison with if you watch the ironic publicity video mentioned in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44217231 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44217231 and keep your eyes peeled for the buses queued up at those temporary traffic lights in the background. No, it's roughly on a par with the single-deckers, though, and there are quite a lot of those used by the local bus operators.
ericmay 1y ago
In the US a bus is a strictly worse version of the private car. Walking/biking/rail are effectively category differences so they don’t compete on the same playing field as a car and bus will. It’s very important for public transportation officials in particular to understand this, because not understanding it will continue the car-only suburban development until we run out of money and economic physics dictates how we do transportation but with insane costs in the meanwhile.

JSR_FDED 1y ago

I guess you don’t need much space to dip your baguette in a cuppa tea

JdeBP 1y ago
Amusingly for this stereotyping, the demonstrator that they have constructed has a Burger King a short walk to the south and two Chinese restaurants and one Indian a short walk to the north. (-:

strken 1y ago

This is a) an unnecessary counter-sneer at two whole continents and b) dismissive of something that would be a real problem in a city bigger than Coventry. Those teeny tiny little carriages have a capacity a quarter of what the trams in my city provide. If one of them pulled up in peak hour here, I imagine it would fill up after two stops and be a nuisance from there on.