Comment by benrutter
11 hours ago
Haha, there's something so true and so boring about the fact that we'd all be much happier with a good public transport system than flying cars.
11 hours ago
Haha, there's something so true and so boring about the fact that we'd all be much happier with a good public transport system than flying cars.
Public transport has inherent problems that cannot be solved that will always have it be less convenient than a car.
(1) Does not pick you up from your home and does not drop you off at where you need to go.
(2) Does not start at your schedule. Missed by a hair? Wait up to 2h.
(3) Impossible to transport more than you can carry.
(4) Does not scale. When there are too many people, some will have to wait for the next train or bus. When there are too few people everything still moves around nearly empty.
(5) Being exposed to the public, which could mean drug addicts and insane people that will stab you in the neck for no reason. But mostly just smelly lowlifes that might take a piss in front of you.
No matter how great your public transport is, it cannot solve these inherent issues while being cheaper than a car.
Out of order:
4. Most cars move around nearly empty. When there are too many people (often 1 per car), you get stuck in jams. So cars do not scale either. In this regard public transportation arguably scale better.
1. Bicycles, electric scooters or even walking answer 90% of that concern unless your city is designed against its users.
3. When you need to carry lotta stuff then yes, use a car (either yours or rental). Does it justify bringing your whole car when you do not need to carry anything?
5. True, but I am concerned about what that means about your relationship with society. Or the society you live in.
2. You would NOT wait up to 2 hours in any decent public transportation system.
So yes, cars are still the best solution in some cases. No one argues against that. It is just a poor default.
Cars scale, because if on one day for some reason only a single person wants to go anywhere, only a single car will be deployed. And on the next day, when suddenly a million people want to go anywhere, up to a million cars will be deployed.
Getting stuck in jams is down to badly designed roads. For example the use of traffic lights, whose only job it is to stop the flow of traffic.
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If you need to take a bike or walk, then why not just go to your destination that way? I'll also have you know that not every passenger can have a bike when riding a bus or train. Capacity doesn't allow for this.
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What use is a rental car for carrying lots of stuff? First you need to go to where the rental car is and then you have to bring it back. Unless the rental car can drive by itself to where you are and drive by itself back it seem really cumbersome.
The issue with carrying stuff is that this will come up eventually and once you already own a car since you have to, why not use it when you don't necessarily have to, just because it is convenient?
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Can't do much about society. We unfortunately do not lock up insane people anymore and there are even talks of putting mentally disabled people into normal public schools. We live in crazy times.
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You WILL definitely wait up to 2h, maybe even longer. In fact, you will just be happy that eventually something does show up to take you home. Of course, you can then declare that whatever system you have is not a "decent" transportation system, but it will be reality, unless you live in a state capital and only travel within the city. Once you need to travel to a different state all bets are off.
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My argument isn't that that cars are better and more convenient than public transport, my argument is that public transport has inherent issues that are impossible to solve and can therefore never replace the role cars have in society as the default.
I hope for a future with cars on demand, where they drive to your home by themselves, you use them, and then they drive off by themselves. But even that won't work very well as it means other people using these cars and thus their cleanliness being in jeopardy. Guess the only way to solve that is by using something I don't want: a surveillance state.
3 replies →
Says the person whose obviously never been to a city with functional public transit
> we
The problem is that the same "we" won't let you build it.
While I respect the public transit system, it has many disadvantages over private cars. The NYC subway, for instance, is amazing in many ways, but if you're just slightly old or infirm, you can't navigate it. DC's subway, built at a yuge price, does have elevators but they are often broken. And if you're traveling at non-rush hours, you'll have to wait 5-20 minutes and then pause your trip for every stop along the way.
I can see how a young, fit and childless 20 something would be much happier with a good public transport system, but once you stop fitting that narrow model, your affection for urban dreams dies slowly.
And don't get me started on the price for construction and maintenance.
This is why you build transit for everyone. If you look at transit around the world (Japan, Singapore) you'll see transit that the old or infirm happily take. It's possible, you just need to believe that transit CAN be good for everyone! It doesn't and shouldn't be just for the "young and healthy".
All of those places you listed don't tolerate a homeless/mentally unstable on public transport. Thats the only way it can work. No alternative. Strict enforcement of public behavior on them. The left leaning policies in all the big cities, where public transport would benefit most, aren't compatible with this requirement. Ours only recently started gaslighting us into claiming they never supported defunding the police!
I know exactly zero people that use public transport because of safety, specifically homeless/druggies. And yes, we all tried. I was an idiot and went with a kid, for my first and last time, after listening to a local, with mental blinders on.
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As the announcement reminds us, NYC’s system has “over 150 accessible subway stations.” While there’s certainly room for improvement, I wouldn’t underrate the rest of the MTA system: the busses are all accessible and cover the same geography.
More to the point, there’s a parallel system that came out of the same lawsuit that found the subway system illegally inaccessible to people with mobility needs. Those people can use MTA-funded “Access-a-ride” service, which offers private, scheduled door-to-door transportation for the price of a subway ride. It’s a really expensive way to do it, but a remarkable lifeline for the people I know who, for example, need occasional transportation to and from medical appointments.
That’s 150 out of 472 for those curious— thanks for sharing details about access-a-ride, honestly seems like the right solution, at least until 2055 when supposedly 95% will be accessible.
You should watch more NotJustBikes videos.