Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

vox.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 324 posts

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

#61

Post by closeparen »

_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…

Bus service in a population center without dedicated right of way is horribly slow. You can dedicate some right of way to buses (BRT, for Bus Rapid Transit) but for any large passenger volume, the economics of trains become similar or better.

Flexibility is a disadvantage - you shouldn’t plan your life around a bus route remaining high-quality or even extant, because the planners could revoke it at any time.

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

#62

Post by binthere »

_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…

With buses you would still have traffic problems even if in theory it would help reduce traffic. As long as we have humans driving vehicles, there will traffic. Realistically, this won't change any time soon (probably never).

It is much faster to get from point A to point B with rail (metro, for example) than a bus.

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

#63

Post by ghaff »

goerz wrote: post #51
_m8fo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

My impression is (for the US) that trains are the optimal way to connect major cities, while buses are good for connecting smaller cities. Ideally, of course, one would have a dense rail network connecting even small towns, as Germany does, but that's never going to happen in the US.

>optimal way to connect major cities

Major cities that are relatively close together. The Northeast Corridor works pretty well for the most part--at least the two ends of it do. The whole thing is a full day and probably costs more than a couple hour flight.

Various city pairs also work but anything longer haul has to be for the experience (or avoiding flying) even if everything goes according to schedule. NY to Chicago is about 20 hours for example. (And would be very hard to make fast because of the Appalachian Mountains.)

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

#64

Post by davidw »

analog31 wrote: post #59
_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…

I've visited Switzerland a few times, and they have an excellent system that combines trains and buses. The buses fan out from the train stations, and the schedules are all coordinated. Public transit is one of the reasons why my family enjoys traveling in Europe.

Italy is the same way (albeit not so on-time as the Swiss). There are train stations which are always fairly near both orange "long distance" busses that visit smaller towns not served by trains. The train station is also near a blue, city bus station in reasonably sized cities. It makes it fairly easy to figure out.

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

#65

Post by haberman »

_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…

When traffic grinds to a halt, rail is the only thing that moves at a normal pace, because it has dedicated right-of-way.

You can create bus lanes. But if you're talking about "going out to the suburbs", then eventually you're going to get stuck in the same traffic as everyone else. You still have to compete for the same intersections, and you're probably going to end up in places that don't have dedicated bus lanes.

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

#66

Post by acchow »

_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…

Bus Rapid Transit is actually expanding rapidly. Even public-transit-anemic San Francisco has a BRT line under construction on Van Ness.

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

#67

Post by sevensor »

My 96-year-old grandmother has macular degeneration in her eyes and neuropathy reducing sensation in her feet. She can neither see the road very well nor feel the pedals accurately. The state of Florida just renewed her license for six more years.

I'd say it's irresponsible of her to keep up the license, except she has no options. The town she's in recently made it illegal for residents of her park to drive their electric carts across the street to Publix or down the sidewalk to the doctor's office. Those are the only two places she needs to go. Some of her friends who had given up their licenses in favor of electric carts are now SOL. They have to rely on favors to buy food and go to appointments.

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

#68

Post by toddmorey »

_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 can arrive and depart at predictable times. That’s insanely important in a transportation system. Buses (at least those without dedicated right of way) are dependent on traffic conditions. I’ve regularly had to wait 45 mins or more for a delayed bus.

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

#69

Post by pbnjay »

On the one hand, I don't want this to happen to me either (but I'm more likely to retire somewhere accessible than the suburbs). But on the other, this whole situation just screams entitlement. They'd rather stay in their houses with all of their stuff, which even their own kids don't want [1].

Just imagine if they would actually move out of their houses: it would open up more housing, making it more affordable to new homeowners. It would alleviate transportation subsidies to better serve others. It would lower ambulance costs and reduce time to service. Just by putting older folks closer to the care they need.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/18/your-money/aging-parents-...

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

#70

Post by sjg007 »

sevensor wrote: post #67

My 96-year-old grandmother has macular degeneration in her eyes and neuropathy reducing sensation in her feet. She can neither see the road very well nor feel the pedals accurately. The state of Florida just renewed her license for six more years. I'd say it's irresponsible of her to keep up the license, except she has no options. The town she's in recently made it illegal for residents of her park to drive their ele…

There should be county sponsored transportation for medical appointments. Also it seems uber could work?
Post reply on HN