3 ms·

What happens, is your underserved bus has to increase stops per loop for viability. You have areas where leaving the cul-de-sac zone takes 15-20 minutes on foo

What happens, is your underserved bus has to increase stops per loop for viability. You have areas where leaving the cul-de-sac zone takes 15-20 minutes on foot; so you need a stop or two in the zone. Now you have a short walk to the stop; but if you want this to be a viable alternative, you need some frequency of service. And that means that the routs need to be active across the whole week, not just the hypothetical peak (otherwise everyone needs a car anyway). So how do you actually get a high average number of riders per bus? More stops? But if each stop needs to go in and out of a cul-de-sac, the travel time goes up. Eventually people stop tolerating the extra time, and get cars. So you end up with a case of empty busses running... Seems much worse than a waymo.

JKCalhoun 2mo ago
"You have areas where leaving the cul-de-sac zone takes 15-20 minutes on foot…" Holy shit, you have to walk a mile from a cul-de-sac just to get to a street with an intersection? Who the hell designed these streets? (I guess Big Auto?)
- servo_sausage 2mo ago
  Chicken and egg problem. If you start with the assumption that you have a car, they are pretty great. Quiet, no through traffic and can become neighbourly, potentially large blocks. Somewhere to park your car... Basically trying to retrofit busses to a development built around cars is stupid.
- bluGill 2mo ago
  Sadly yes. Normally it isn't a cul-de-sac. It is a neighborhood with several streets, but the streets are more like a maze so that residents can get in (they know the way), but anyone just passing through cannot find a path (without a map). Since everybody has a car it is only a couple minutes to a main road and so good enough - but that is still a long walk and so nobody walks to get places. (People do walk their dogs on the sidewalk, and generally there is a park inside that the kids will walk to) It isn't big auto that designs these places. Big auto likes them, but the people like it because they don't know anything other than cars, and they know they hate living on a busy street with lots of cars. Those are the only two options they know about so don't bother replying with all the others you know about, they don't exist as options.

JKCalhoun 2mo ago

"You have areas where leaving the cul-de-sac zone takes 15-20 minutes on foot…" Holy shit, you have to walk a mile from a cul-de-sac just to get to a street with an intersection? Who the hell designed these streets? (I guess Big Auto?)

servo_sausage 2mo ago
Chicken and egg problem. If you start with the assumption that you have a car, they are pretty great. Quiet, no through traffic and can become neighbourly, potentially large blocks. Somewhere to park your car... Basically trying to retrofit busses to a development built around cars is stupid.
bluGill 2mo ago
Sadly yes. Normally it isn't a cul-de-sac. It is a neighborhood with several streets, but the streets are more like a maze so that residents can get in (they know the way), but anyone just passing through cannot find a path (without a map). Since everybody has a car it is only a couple minutes to a main road and so good enough - but that is still a long walk and so nobody walks to get places. (People do walk their dogs on the sidewalk, and generally there is a park inside that the kids will walk to) It isn't big auto that designs these places. Big auto likes them, but the people like it because they don't know anything other than cars, and they know they hate living on a busy street with lots of cars. Those are the only two options they know about so don't bother replying with all the others you know about, they don't exist as options.