Comment by gorgoiler
1 day ago
For me, trams have a much more comfortable ride. The lack of pitch and roll reduces a lot of motion sickness and the rails are obviously a lot smoother than paved surfaces.
There’s nothing stopping a road from being smooth but, logistically, there’s clearly no reason to rush to repair roads when they deteriorate. That means potholes get tolerated, potholes means suspension, and both of those mean bus-like rides instead of suburban light rail rides.
Railway track has to be flat. Anything less than perfect is intolerable so it tends to hold its maintainers to a higher bar.
As I understand it tracks do a much better job of spreading the load than asphalt which makes it much more durable.
I've found the new battery buses to be far more comfortable to ride in than older diesel buses since they remove the vibration when idling. The extra weight might mean more potholes to repair though.
What pitch and roll? And potholes in a road can be maintained at far lower cost than building railway lines.
And lastly badly maintained railway lines are just as prone to causing motion sickness as badly maintained roads.
Buses are just… bouncier!
You’re absolutely right about potholes, technically, but my point was more about how people work not the immediate technical difference between road and rail.
If you have a system that requires 100% upkeep in order to function at all — the rails of a tram system — then it receives nothing less than the complete maintenance it demands.
The social and technical economics of roads, on the other hand, practically ensures that they’re only ever barely maintained to the lowest possible standard people (and air suspension) will tolerate.
Trams, the divas that they are, will tolerate nothing less than perfection!