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There was a study some time ago stating that there is a reverse relation between the time one spends on commute and happiness. The more time you lose in the com

by Ingon 13y ago

There was a study some time ago stating that there is a reverse relation between the time one spends on commute and happiness. The more time you lose in the commute, less happy you are. Maybe this is something you can do for an year or two, but I can't imagine doing it for 10 or 20 years. On the bright side - maybe these people will be amongst the first to adopt self-driving cars. I even can go so far into the future to imagine that there is only one means of transport - self-driving, electrical, shared cars. You just order one from here to there, it comes from the parking lot nearby, takes you to your destination and finds another spot to a parking lot nearby. Clean, fast, reliable, able to schedule the travel in non-congestive way. Hm but the thing is that the buses/trains can have far more people per space, so maybe the electric, self-driving buses will be the answer to our needs in business districts on a weekday.

potatolicious 13y ago
Personally I expect self-driving cars to solve the unsolved last mile. Most mass transport today relies on the hub and spoke model. Get yourself to the nearest hub where there's efficient, speedy, and frequent transport to another hub, then get from the destination hub to your actual destination. We've got the middle bit solved pretty well. Even the relatively slow, pokey commuter trains are plenty fast compared to driving. The main issue is how to get to/from such hubs. Park and rides are one thing, but parking capacity is always the limiting factor. Park and ride lots fill up fast during rush hour, and their physical space also creates a dead zone around the hub and inhibits local development. The most common last-mile solution today are buses. They suck in a horrible way. IMO in the "self driving cars are universally available" future, we won't see many long-distance trips with cars at all. Instead, the vast majority of trips will be to/from the nearest transport hub where you catch something much faster and much more efficient.

by Ingon 13y ago

potatolicious 13y ago

Personally I expect self-driving cars to solve the unsolved last mile. Most mass transport today relies on the hub and spoke model. Get yourself to the nearest hub where there's efficient, speedy, and frequent transport to another hub, then get from the destination hub to your actual destination. We've got the middle bit solved pretty well. Even the relatively slow, pokey commuter trains are plenty fast compared to driving. The main issue is how to get to/from such hubs. Park and rides are one thing, but parking capacity is always the limiting factor. Park and ride lots fill up fast during rush hour, and their physical space also creates a dead zone around the hub and inhibits local development. The most common last-mile solution today are buses. They suck in a horrible way. IMO in the "self driving cars are universally available" future, we won't see many long-distance trips with cars at all. Instead, the vast majority of trips will be to/from the nearest transport hub where you catch something much faster and much more efficient.