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Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

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Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#131

Post by mantas »

r00fus wrote: post #122
criddell wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the cycling idea, but for big chunks of the US it couldn't work. I live in Austin and ride my bicycle to work whenever I can, however my office has showers. Without showers here, I'd never do it (and would hope that nobody else would either). Frankly though, the obesity problem is almost entirely about diet. More exercise would be great, but wouldn't address the actual problem.

I personally find the focus on diet to be unproductive. When I'm exercising well (meaning not too much, but e.g. enough to peg my Apple Watch), I simply tend to eat healthier. When I'm not, I tend to eat less healthy. It's not just about habit ... my taste fluctuates with how healthy I have permitted myself to be (movement, breathing and strenuous exercise). For example, salad tastes better / cookies don't taste as g…

Eh... I try to eat healthy on regular days. But after a good exercise I'll happily let myself eat some delicious junk food.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#132

Post by Retric »

bogomipz wrote: post #129
Retric wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The retired population in NYC is not 5.6 million. Further, these are older buildings which are not being replaced in part from rent control. So, the 'Gap' is wider than just 27,000 missing apartments. In any case there still is a highly subsidized subset of the overall retired population that is part of the problem.

Nowhere did I say the retired are 5.6 million people. I used 54K people as the number of retired people at 2 people per each of the 27K rent controlled apartments. I also stated 5.6 to be the total number of all renters using 70% of 8.1 million total residents. Using 54K people again as an example mean that .96% of the populating is in rent controlled apartment. In reality that number is probably much lower because w…

I said, "heavily subsidizes a retired population"

Which says nothing about everyone, or every retired person, just these 27,000 apartments with vastly below market rents. On it's own this is not a big deal, but it really is a solid example of the problem with other forms of rent control.

The wider subsidy across ~1,030,000 apartments is a smaller subsidy, but also part of the same problem.

PS: Some of them could also afford to live in the same area without the subsidy. But, they also create jobs for people in the city further driving up demand for housing and thus rental prices.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#133

Post by ska »

1_2__3 wrote: post #119
awjr wrote: post #58

I find the focus on congestion within the transport space to be perplexing. I'm guessing it is to do with the visibility of congestion. Waze recently did a survey and identified the Netherlands as the best place to drive ( https://www.waze.com/driverindex ). The Netherlands is also the only western country with a negative obesity trend expected to hit 8% by 2030, currently at 10% vs the UK's 25%. The USA I believe is…

I think at some point you are going to have to accept the fact that no, cars are not going to go away in the US. You can crow all you want about how much better mass transportation is but you're arguing for the benefit of society to the detriment to the individual, something that will never fly in the American ethos. Biven that all the near-term technological improvements like AR systems, electric/non-internal-combus…

You're largely correct, but it is also true that the car ownership centric choices made on infrastructure and city growth turned out not to work so well either.

The best near to mid term developments probably involve cars still being quite central to many Americans lifestyle, while simultaneously becoming a bit more expensive and less convenient (e.g. less subsidized infrastructure, less central to urban planning). Simultaneously (some?) urban centers can become significantly less reliant on car ownership. Everyone can (and should) make their own choices, but we can work on having those choices less distorted by the policy objectives that have emphasized car (and for that matter home) ownership over other alternatives.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#134

Post by cleetus »

guessmyname wrote: post #56
CodeSheikh wrote: post #37

New York City includes Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island as well. Misleading title and perhaps incomplete study if footprint of cabs is not included from those remaining boroughs in this study. If you live in Manhattan, then you don't use cabs as much within Manhattan because subways cover Manhattan pretty well and travel times in cabs are hellish comparing to subway commute. You often use cabs when you commu…

I didn't know how big New York City was until I went from Central Park (North side) to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden... walking... never again!

For my 30th bday, some friends and I walked around the perimeter of Manhattan. It took just over 20 hours, but that's mostly because we stopped several at bars along the way.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#135

Post by antisthenes »

rhino369 wrote: post #88
Retric wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

DC in the US is a solid counter example as low density city older than the car. Density is based on a huge range of factors with for example geography playing a significant role. Another huge factor is they type of industry. Garment factory's for example have historically had very high density's where Iron Works are much lower density.

DC is a pretty good counter example. As you say the type of work matters, and DC has never an industrial town. It was also a planned city. It was intended to not be dense from the start. Something like 40% of DC is federal government land. DC also is doing a decent job at using mass transit to re-densify areas. The orange line corridor is making suburbs become dense. That is pretty unique in America.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b...

For a city that was "intended to not be dense from the start", it sure is up there as far as density and would be #16 on the list if it counted as a part of a state.

DC is incredibly dense by American standards and is actually one of the very few places in the US that you can get by without a car (which is, of course, priced into exorbitant rents and property prices)

I guess what I meant to say is that the grandparent comment is blatantly false. DC _is_ a high density city and is much more like a European city in that it combines decent public transport and medium-rise developments.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#137

Post by pavel_lishin »

1_2__3 wrote: post #119
awjr wrote: post #58

I find the focus on congestion within the transport space to be perplexing. I'm guessing it is to do with the visibility of congestion. Waze recently did a survey and identified the Netherlands as the best place to drive ( https://www.waze.com/driverindex ). The Netherlands is also the only western country with a negative obesity trend expected to hit 8% by 2030, currently at 10% vs the UK's 25%. The USA I believe is…

I think at some point you are going to have to accept the fact that no, cars are not going to go away in the US. You can crow all you want about how much better mass transportation is but you're arguing for the benefit of society to the detriment to the individual, something that will never fly in the American ethos. Biven that all the near-term technological improvements like AR systems, electric/non-internal-combus…

> you're arguing for the benefit of society to the detriment to the individual

Isn't that just a marketing challenge? Seems like going carless can be presented as a benefit, with many pros over cons, if the infrastructure begins to get built out.

With driverless smart-cars (which, I know, might be as much of an impossible nerdgasm pipe dream as flying cars):

* You no longer have to pay for insurance on a car that spends 90% of its time idle in your garage, nor gas, nor maintenance - except for the fees built into "hiring" the car, which is directly proportional to your use of it.

* No more car payments, either. No longer are you taking an instant 25% hit as soon as you drive a 2017 Hyundai Sombrero or whatever off the lot.

* For a lot of people, losing their car is financially crippling. If you wreck your car that you depend on driving to work in, most times insurance doesn't pay out enough to replace it with an equivalent car. Often, it doesn't pay out enough to replace it with any car.

* Tired of figuring out who in your four-driver family gets to use the car this weekend? Now your husband, Tiffany and Timmy can all get to their football game, football game, and football game on Saturday.

* Tired of spending three hours a day chauffeuring your kids to school and extra-curricular activities? Not anymore.

etc,. etc.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#138

Post by ced »

hobbyjogger wrote: post #127
criddell wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love the cycling idea, but for big chunks of the US it couldn't work. I live in Austin and ride my bicycle to work whenever I can, however my office has showers. Without showers here, I'd never do it (and would hope that nobody else would either). Frankly though, the obesity problem is almost entirely about diet. More exercise would be great, but wouldn't address the actual problem.

Yeah, people tend to overlook the role climate plays in these comparisons. There's an enormous difference in cycling's viability as a primary means of transportation in a place like the Netherlands where average high temperatures rarely exceed 75, as opposed to Texas where a typical summer will have a prolonged period of temps in the 90s and multiple 100+ days. The average high temperature in Amsterdam's warmest two…

Heat isn't the only issue. From Wikipedia for the Netherlands:

Ice days (maximum temperature below 0 °C (32 °F)) usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days (minimum temperature below 0 °C (32 °F)) occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May.

I live in Montreal. I bike 9/12 months, and just take public transit / car sharing services in the winter months, or when I need it. I assume the Dutch do the same. I also lived in Austin for 6 months until July, and I found that the weather was pretty uniformly bikable because the heat was dry, though yeah, having showers at the office can be necessary if you live far away. It almost never rained, though. That's a big plus for biking.

Like most lifestyle issues, it's mostly just a matter of getting used to it.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#139

Post by awjr »

1_2__3 wrote: post #119
awjr wrote: post #58

I find the focus on congestion within the transport space to be perplexing. I'm guessing it is to do with the visibility of congestion. Waze recently did a survey and identified the Netherlands as the best place to drive ( https://www.waze.com/driverindex ). The Netherlands is also the only western country with a negative obesity trend expected to hit 8% by 2030, currently at 10% vs the UK's 25%. The USA I believe is…

I think at some point you are going to have to accept the fact that no, cars are not going to go away in the US. You can crow all you want about how much better mass transportation is but you're arguing for the benefit of society to the detriment to the individual, something that will never fly in the American ethos. Biven that all the near-term technological improvements like AR systems, electric/non-internal-combus…

People are downvoting you, but I see this as a very valid argument. When you live within an environment where the only realistic choice is to run your own car then you are correct.

So you design a world where the car is necessary, you gut public transport, making a car more necessary, and use road design to make walking practically impossible.

Then you get angry at progressives.

Highways engineers, town planners, and policy makers are directly responsible for your reliance on the car through the encouragement of urban sprawl.

Then again this is probably acceptable to you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrxxX-59b58&t=102s

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#140

Post by johansch »

nashashmi wrote: post #49
danesparza wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for 'it was an unpleasant ride'. I think that's the biggest friction point many ride sharing apps face.

Subways are also an unpleasant ride at the moment. But if it is cheap enough, why not?

Subways are primarily unpleasant because of the (worst parts of the) clientele, not because of the rider density. Just the simple act of requiring riders to have a credit card will get rid of >90% of the unpleasant co-riders.
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