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Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

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Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#2
Another one of those things I have to come to HN and read about the US situation in order to reflect on the situation at home. I never even considered a situation where I’d be ”trapped” at home.

It works like this: If you aren’t fit to walk to a bus stop, you get tax subsidized taxi (think it’s about 70 or 80% subsidized).

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#3
post #2

Another one of those things I have to come to HN and read about the US situation in order to reflect on the situation at home. I never even considered a situation where I’d be ”trapped” at home. It works like this: If you aren’t fit to walk to a bus stop, you get tax subsidized taxi (think it’s about 70 or 80% subsidized).

Out of curiosity do you mind sharing the location?

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#4
post #2

Another one of those things I have to come to HN and read about the US situation in order to reflect on the situation at home. I never even considered a situation where I’d be ”trapped” at home. It works like this: If you aren’t fit to walk to a bus stop, you get tax subsidized taxi (think it’s about 70 or 80% subsidized).

It's hard for a non-American to appreciate just how different their urban environments are compared to the US, and vice versa.

It was certainly a shock to me when I first arrived to the USA... "Why is everything so far away? Why does every building have a bunch of empty space around it? (i.e. mandated setbacks)" etc.

The lack of real cities is probably my least favorite thing about the USA.

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#6
post #2

Another one of those things I have to come to HN and read about the US situation in order to reflect on the situation at home. I never even considered a situation where I’d be ”trapped” at home. It works like this: If you aren’t fit to walk to a bus stop, you get tax subsidized taxi (think it’s about 70 or 80% subsidized).

It's hard for a non-American to appreciate just how different their urban environments are compared to the US, and vice versa. It was certainly a shock to me when I first arrived to the USA... "Why is everything so far away? Why does every building have a bunch of empty space around it? (i.e. mandated setbacks)" etc. The lack of real cities is probably my least favorite thing about the USA.

And it's one of my favorite things about the USA. I hate dense European style cities.

Different people like different things. The nice thing about the USA is you can pick. You can live anywhere from a remote farm to a dense apartment.

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#8
I always get an inkling that buses (like Bolt/Mega/PeterPan) + the existing highway + roads are superior and more scalable than any other type of transportation, dollar for dollar.

Why do people push for rail? Self-driving cars obviously can enhance this (the bus idea), but I suspect they will create even more traffic if we insist on having 5 passenger cars be 75% empty. Buses are great because demand can be reallocated easily.

Imagine a place like New York, where buses can go out to the suburbs and bring people into the city and the evening and morning (say, 50% of the fleet), and during the day 90% of the fleet stays in the city doing intra-city transportation.

Rail doesn't have this flexibility.

EDIT: Rail definitely has its place, but you almost never hear anyone starting a bus project. Just curious to why there's relatively little mention of buses in the public transportation (new project) realm.

I imagine perfected public transportation would involve linking between self driving cars on the square mile level, buses on the square deca mile (is that a thing?), rail for a hundred mile radius and obviously planes thereon.

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#9
post #8

I always get an inkling that buses (like Bolt/Mega/PeterPan) + the existing highway + roads are superior and more scalable than any other type of transportation, dollar for dollar. Why do people push for rail? Self-driving cars obviously can enhance this (the bus idea), but I suspect they will create even more traffic if we insist on having 5 passenger cars be 75% empty. Buses are great because demand can be realloca…

I think the advantage of rail over buses is that rail is faster.

Re: Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them

#10
post #2

Another one of those things I have to come to HN and read about the US situation in order to reflect on the situation at home. I never even considered a situation where I’d be ”trapped” at home. It works like this: If you aren’t fit to walk to a bus stop, you get tax subsidized taxi (think it’s about 70 or 80% subsidized).

It's hard for a non-American to appreciate just how different their urban environments are compared to the US, and vice versa. It was certainly a shock to me when I first arrived to the USA... "Why is everything so far away? Why does every building have a bunch of empty space around it? (i.e. mandated setbacks)" etc. The lack of real cities is probably my least favorite thing about the USA.

The USA is so big and diverse it's silly to say that the it doesn't have any "real cities". I suspect New York City, Seattle, Chicago, Boston, Portland and others would be proof otherwise.
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