211–220 of 458 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Drivers not giving change sounds ridiculous. What's the reasoning behind that? In Europe it doesn't seem to be a problem.
Most public buses have a vending machine type payment system. You can insert bills & coins, but there is no outlet for returning change. So, there is no way drivers can return change.
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That all seems like a net positive to me, especially in major urban areas that a very car dependent like Los Angles, Atlanta, Houston... In LA, driving drunk was just the way of life, and it was a real problem. Now, I don't know anyone who prefers driving over ridesharing given the option. Uber Pool makes getting from the east side to the west side faster that public transit for about $10-15, which is less than 1 dri…
$10-15 for a drink? Of liquid gold?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That all seems like a net positive to me, especially in major urban areas that a very car dependent like Los Angles, Atlanta, Houston... In LA, driving drunk was just the way of life, and it was a real problem. Now, I don't know anyone who prefers driving over ridesharing given the option. Uber Pool makes getting from the east side to the west side faster that public transit for about $10-15, which is less than 1 dri…
$10-15 for a drink? Of liquid gold?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm regularly bothered by the fact that mass transit is more expensive than driving. Alone it is definitely cheaper disregarding sunk costs (price of car, etc.), it's still cheaper as long as I don't have to have a new car every few years, and if I have passengers mass transit is many times as expensive as driving. Shouldn't it be the opposite? I figure I can take 4 people from Mountain View to San Francisco and back…
Part of the challenge is all of the invisible costs of cars. Repairs & maintenance & tires are usually just as much as gas, but nobody thinks about that. Road maintenance for the city is stupid expensive, parking lots are too. But it's all magicked behind the curtain. Whereas, with public transit, far more of the costs are represented by the fare.
I did think about that, and I have. I briefly considered getting rid of my car to eliminate the cost of insurance and renting a parking space while working from home. It was at best break even to match my then current behavior with public transit and taxi-equivalents.
It seems about 40% of Caltrain is not covered by fares.
It's hard to find numbers, but it seems like as well something in the neighborhood of half of road costs are covered by gas taxes.
I'm trying to make the point that these costs aren't hidden and don't come from magic places, they seem to be real and Caltrain seems to be very inefficient compared to what one would expect.
One would expect a train capable of carrying hundreds of people would be orders of magnitude less expensive instead of being more or less at parity with one car per person.
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Are there realistic situations where a cheaper and more convenient form of driven transport leads to fewer VMT?
Sure. A faster / better / cheaper train or bus takes cars directly off the road. So you can add more subways / trains / buses / etc. to do this.
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Isn't mass transit generally planned for those without vehicles?
I calculate a different way. Right now it's $322 to fly SFO to JFK for a trip of 5172 miles that's 3.1¢/mile. Compare a $8.25 trip Mountain view to San Francisco round trip at 20.6 ¢/mile. Are trains so inefficient that it's cheaper to fly than to ride? Excuse me while I create a commuter airline between cities in the bay area.
I'm very interested in the convergence of Lyft-Line/Uber-Pool service with bus service. It's easy to imagine Lyft and Uber running dynamically adjustable bus/van routes -- basically jitneys/peseros that take advantage of smart phones -- that are faster, more reliable, and cheaper than city buses. (Vans are super cheap per passenger if they are always full.) Lyft has taken small steps in this direction by asking Line…
As the article mentions - this is what Via does https://ridewithvia.com/
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That all seems like a net positive to me, especially in major urban areas that a very car dependent like Los Angles, Atlanta, Houston... In LA, driving drunk was just the way of life, and it was a real problem. Now, I don't know anyone who prefers driving over ridesharing given the option. Uber Pool makes getting from the east side to the west side faster that public transit for about $10-15, which is less than 1 dri…
$10-15 for a drink? Of liquid gold?
Big-box stores for beer by the case and make your own beer.
Gee, it's almost like people only use public transportation when it's reliable, cost-effective, and efficient.
Or if we're a little more honest public transportation is an Inferior Good [1] that people stop using as soon as they have the means to. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferior_good
We use Lyft to fill in the gaps if something comes up that requires both adults to drive somewhere.
Mass transit plus a little bit of easily-available ride sharing _can_ be significantly better than car ownership. But...
Gee, it's almost like people only use public transportation when it's reliable, cost-effective, and efficient.
Or if we're a little more honest public transportation is an Inferior Good [1] that people stop using as soon as they have the means to. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inferior_good