5 ms·
The cost of providing a bus exceeds the cost of operating a car in many cases, like lower population density neighborhoods. It may save the public money to cent
by Schiendelman 6mo ago
The cost of providing a bus exceeds the cost of operating a car in many cases, like lower population density neighborhoods. It may save the public money to centralize transit on major corridors and then subsidize trips on Waymo in some areas and at some times.
- danaw 6mo agohow many people can fit in a bus compared to a car?
- coryrc 6mo agoDoesn't matter if there's only four people willing to ride on a given schedule.
- jrflowers 6mo agoThat is an argument for buses on well-designed routes and schedules, not an argument against buses. It is like saying “that bus would be useless at the bottom of a lake” well, yeah. The first step would be not driving it into a lake
- cameldrv 6mo agoIt depends on the population density. You may have a perfectly well designed route for the area, but there are only so many people per hour that want to take a trip. You can delete routes and make people walk further, but that makes the trip take longer and not everyone can or wants to walk a long ways to the bus stop. Different population densities have different optimal vehicle sizes. It's the same reason a small city airport might have one or two regional jets per day serving it instead of 2 747s per week.
- jrflowers 6mo agoYep, you definitely want a range of bus sizes. Some areas are served perfectly well with a couple of these https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Minotour https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Minotour
- Schiendelman 6mo ago"Centralize transit on major corridors" is about full buses. But transit agencies spend as much per hour on an empty bus as a full one. Transit agencies run empty buses on routes that are rarely full, and run vans and even microtransit that may just be a waste of money.
- bryanlarsen 6mo agoThe OP you're responding suggested using Waymo's to help fill the buses, not get rid of buses.
- Schiendelman 6mo agoI suggested both. Milk runs through suburban neighborhoods likely make sense to get rid of entirely.
- bryanlarsen 6mo agoWhich are almost always fairly empty so the critic's comments about bus capacity is irrelevant.
- malfist 6mo ago> cost of providing a bus exceeds the cost of operating a car in many cases You can fit 40-50 people in your car?
- HDThoreaun 6mo agoThis only works if the bus is popular. How often do buses in Portland have more than 5 people on them?
- malfist 6mo agoHow often do cars have more than 5 people in them?
- tetromino_ 6mo agoPer [1], a typical Portland public bus causes about 730 times more road wear than a full size pickup truck (which is about the worst case for road wear from a personal vehicle). How many buses have more than 700 people riding in them? (I am of course ignoring the scaling for fuel, maintenance, pollution, and traffic costs of personal vehicles; but my point is that most people severely underestimate just how awful the economic case for an underused full size bus is. Now, minibuses and microbuses are a different story; but US public transit systems don't use them.) [1] https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/yes-bus-more-road-damage-1000-cars/283-2cf2e8bf-3add-4fed-b598-6d7570a9799d https://www.kgw.com/article/news/verify/yes-bus-more-road-da...