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Ask HN: Would more people take public transportation if it had business class?

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Re: Ask HN: Would more people take public transportation if it had business class?

#21

Post by dieselgate »

Others have mentioned this but a lot of places already have similar “class” concepts. To broaden the scope of this a bit CDMX has women (and children?) only metro cars - which seems to be confidence inspiring for women who use them. I’ve also taken a sleeper bus from Scotland to England which had seats along with cots for the overnight ride. Additionally Amtrak in the US has a few different offerings.

I know the scope of this is probably more bus/train related but in my opinion the people who would want a true “business class” might take an Uber/Lyft.

My senior manager at works takes the public bus to commute to this office - just another data point.

Re: Ask HN: Would more people take public transportation if it had business class?

#23

Post by mrkeen »

Mordisquitos wrote: post #7

If by "public transportation" we restrict ourselves to short-range metropolitan services, as used for commuting, all else being equal then the answer is no. The reason for this "no" depends on whether we're talking about an area where public transport is highly developed (e.g. most urban areas of Western Europe and Japan) or areas in which it is underfunded and underdeveloped and is mostly seen as transport for poor…

> In the case of developed public transportation the answer is no, because simply adding first class would decrease capacity.

But capacity is a problem of the roads, not the busses themselves. You don't need to squeeze more people into the same amount of bus space, you need to get more 1-person-in-SUVs off the road, so more busses will fit on the road.

Re: Ask HN: Would more people take public transportation if it had business class?

#24

Post by petesergeant »

In Dubai, you can get a Gold card for the metro, which allows you to sit in a quieter carriage with more seats at the front of the train. Knowing I'll probably get a seat when I travel, I take the metro more often than I would otherwise.

Re: Ask HN: Would more people take public transportation if it had business class?

#25

Post by zo1 »

dieselgate wrote: post #21

Others have mentioned this but a lot of places already have similar “class” concepts. To broaden the scope of this a bit CDMX has women (and children?) only metro cars - which seems to be confidence inspiring for women who use them. I’ve also taken a sleeper bus from Scotland to England which had seats along with cots for the overnight ride. Additionally Amtrak in the US has a few different offerings. I know the scop…

Interesting, are these "women-only" cars usually at the front or back of the trains?

Re: Ask HN: Would more people take public transportation if it had business class?

#26

Post by contingencies »

turtlebits wrote: post #15
dagmx wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to your list, I think cities need better options for last mile transport. A big issue with public transit is that it gets you to the ballpark of where you want to go but your commute from there might still be lengthy enough that you need to call an Uber anyway. A lot of cities tend to have really great main trunk transit, but things get really sparse coming off of the trunks. Having better options for spreadin…

Hong Kong has minibuses, which are smaller in size and make more frequent shorter loops. Not sure how viable they are in less dense cities.

Much of Africa also, eg. in Tunisia they are known as louage and constitute the primary form of public transport. In mainland China they are called "breadvans" (面包车).

Re: Ask HN: Would more people take public transportation if it had business class?

#27

Post by barbariangrunge »

My wife would have used public transit more if the downtown train stations weren’t crawling with aggressive drugged out people harassing people at all hours; add that she used to get off work late at night, and it wasn’t safe for her

So, there’s a starting point. Let’s stop letting thugs who reek of Lysol on the train wander up to a stranger to steal their hat off their head without consequence (actual incident I saw last time I was in the train)

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