Once seniors are too old to drive, our transportation system fails them • Hacker News Board

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

#21

Post by _m8fo » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 12:24 AM UTC

InclinedPlane wrote: post #19

_m8fo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err, it's just an idea. y'know, an inkling, a suspicion, impression, etc.

Oh, but you think that's enough to found policy recommendations on? If it's just an inkling with no data to back it up, maybe keep it to yourself?

> Oh, but you think that's enough to found policy recommendations on? If it's just an inkling with no data to back it up, maybe keep it to yourself?

Oh, wow. You sound like you're not having a good day :(. hopefully it gets better!

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

#22

Post by aardvark291 » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 12:24 AM UTC

_m8fo wrote: 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…

In many ex-soviet bloc countries (e.g. the Baltics) and other countries with sort of 2nd-world level of development (Greece), railroads are terrible (either due to lack of infrastructure of inability of the government to maintain it) but bus service is excellent (easy to rapidly improve road quality with a new government, easy for private companies to spin up bus service).

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

#23

Post by joe5150 » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 12:24 AM UTC

InclinedPlane wrote: post #19

_m8fo wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Err, it's just an idea. y'know, an inkling, a suspicion, impression, etc.

Oh, but you think that's enough to found policy recommendations on? If it's just an inkling with no data to back it up, maybe keep it to yourself?

My inkling is that this is not a policy paper but a forum. I may be wrong!

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

#24

Post by Johnny555 » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 12:25 AM UTC

_m8fo wrote: 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…

That depends how many people you need to move and how often you need to move them.

Rail has a high capital cost, but lower operating cost due to the fact that a single engineer (and maybe a conductor) can run a 2000 passenger train while a bus driver carries 50 - 100 people so you only need about 1/20th the number of operators.

Another drawback of buses on the road is that unless they have dedicated lanes, they are stuck in the same traffic as cars.

BRT kind of blurs the gap between the two.

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

#25

Post by ghaff » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 12:25 AM UTC

kdot wrote: post #18

ghaff wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in an exurban area only about 40 miles outside a major coastal US tech center city. There's minimal Uber around where I live.

You can schedule Ubers ahead of time.

And there are taxi companies as well. The point is that there is minimal service. You can't just pick up a phone and have a car there is 15 minutes.

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

#26

Post by llukas » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 12:25 AM UTC

_m8fo wrote: post #15

chc wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In theory, sure. In practice, they don't go any faster a car is capable of [1] [1] https://ggwash.org/view/4524/average-schedule-speed-how-does...

So you compare average speed (that includes all stops) with max speed of a car...?

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

#27

Post by chc » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 12:26 AM UTC

_m8fo wrote: post #15

chc wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In theory, sure. In practice, they don't go any faster a car is capable of [1] [1] https://ggwash.org/view/4524/average-schedule-speed-how-does...

I don't think "how fast a car is capable of going" is the relevant comparison in speed of transport via rail vs. bus.

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

#28

Post by _m8fo » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 12:26 AM UTC

Johnny555 wrote: post #24

_m8fo wrote: 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…

That depends how many people you need to move and how often you need to move them. Rail has a high capital cost, but lower operating cost due to the fact that a single engineer (and maybe a conductor) can run a 2000 passenger train while a bus driver carries 50 - 100 people so you only need about 1/20th the number of operators. Another drawback of buses on the road is that unless they have dedicated lanes, they are s…

These are excellent points, but I reckon boring tunnels, dedicated lanes and self driving can mitigate the disadvantages you mention.

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

#29

Post by Johnny555 » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 12:28 AM UTC

_m8fo wrote: post #15

chc wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

In theory, sure. In practice, they don't go any faster a car is capable of [1] [1] https://ggwash.org/view/4524/average-schedule-speed-how-does...

Depends on the traffic and the train -- during rush hour, a Caltrain express train from San Francisco to San Jose is almost always faster than driving. It can take 90 - 120 minutes to drive during commute hours (at 4:30pm, Google says 90 minutes), versus 65 minutes by train.

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

#30

Post by btrettel » Tue, Jan 23, 2018, 12:28 AM UTC

_m8fo wrote: 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…

Rail is faster and more comfortable than buses in my experience. The comfort is more than just less bumps in the road and less starting and stopping. Some trains even have bathrooms. The bathrooms on the (US) MARC commuter trains I've taken are considerably better than those on flights or Amtrak, for example. Buses usually have no such amenities, and when they do I'm told the bathrooms generally are disgusting.