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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

#151

Post by tim333 »

souprock wrote: post #142
dundercoder wrote: post #101

I’m 36, live in the suburbs, and in recent years have gone (legally) blind from Retinitis Pigmentosa. Voluntarily giving up my license was one of the hardest and most important decisions I’ve made. There is literally 0 public transportation here. Not even Uber or Lyft have come around. America’s sprawl and dependence on cars is incredible. It wasn’t until I spent time in London, Oxford, and Paris that I could recogni…

On public transit, wouldn't you be unusually vulnerable to crime? Why would you want a service that isn't safe for you?

In terms of safety a lot of people die in car crashes, less so on trains and busses.

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

#152

Post by adrianN »

souprock wrote: post #142
dundercoder wrote: post #101

I’m 36, live in the suburbs, and in recent years have gone (legally) blind from Retinitis Pigmentosa. Voluntarily giving up my license was one of the hardest and most important decisions I’ve made. There is literally 0 public transportation here. Not even Uber or Lyft have come around. America’s sprawl and dependence on cars is incredible. It wasn’t until I spent time in London, Oxford, and Paris that I could recogni…

On public transit, wouldn't you be unusually vulnerable to crime? Why would you want a service that isn't safe for you?

What an American comment to make. Public transit works in many cities perfectly well and you can use it without fearing for your life, or your wallet. Children in elementary school take public transit unattended.

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

#153

Post by flukus »

souprock wrote: post #142
dundercoder wrote: post #101

I’m 36, live in the suburbs, and in recent years have gone (legally) blind from Retinitis Pigmentosa. Voluntarily giving up my license was one of the hardest and most important decisions I’ve made. There is literally 0 public transportation here. Not even Uber or Lyft have come around. America’s sprawl and dependence on cars is incredible. It wasn’t until I spent time in London, Oxford, and Paris that I could recogni…

On public transit, wouldn't you be unusually vulnerable to crime? Why would you want a service that isn't safe for you?

If this is a significant risk then your society is severely broken and public transport is the least of your worries.

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

#154

Post by adrianN »

mschuster91 wrote: post #39
_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…

> Why do people push for rail? Because well-done High Speed Rail (HSR) is a blast over long distances. Certainly for city/metro areas a combination of light rail + buses as a web is the best option (light rail having the advantage of running emissions free), but the longer the distances are the better HSR is. The new ICE line Munich-Berlin with 4h one-way is so fast that it's actually threatening flight. Also, travel…

There are electric buses that run emission free. They have the additional benefit of not needing extremely expensive new infrastructure for starting a new line. I think they would work much better in low density settings like American suburbia.

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

#155

Post by adrianN »

Sophistifunk wrote: post #115
lgas wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the difficulty and expense associated with going to Japan, perhaps you could describe it to us here using words.

Their public transit system is great, and you pay for it with rechargeable cards that can also be used for all sorts of other shit in vending machines and retail locations. And unless you're (statistically) fairly short and thin for a westerner, you won't fit in anything. But hot-damn does looking out the window at Fujisan while doing 300km/h do a good job at distracting you from having your knees around your ears.

I'm statistically fairly long for a westerner and I fit into Shinkansen seats better than in ICE seats.

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

#156

Post by tim333 »

_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...

In practice for the route I use most, Harpenden - Kings Cross London: Train 25min, Car 1hr -1.5hr depending on traffic. Regular local busses 2.5 hrs maybe but I've never done that and no one does. The train does 90 mph (max) and the express ones stop once. By car, many many stops.

I theory sure you could drive your porsche at 150mph down some superroad that doesn't exist.

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

#157

Post by wbl »

ghaff wrote: post #63
goerz wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Chic…

We can go straight through them if we have to. Chicago to NYC is 800 miles, and at speeds the Nanjing to Jinan line hits daily that is about 4-5 hours.

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

#158

Post by adrianN »

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…

Are you sure that the operating costs are lower? Buses share the infrastructure maintenance costs with all other road users, whereas train infrastructure is extremely expensive and the maintenance has to be paid for by the train companies alone.

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

#159

Post by cozzyd »

souprock wrote: post #142
dundercoder wrote: post #101

I’m 36, live in the suburbs, and in recent years have gone (legally) blind from Retinitis Pigmentosa. Voluntarily giving up my license was one of the hardest and most important decisions I’ve made. There is literally 0 public transportation here. Not even Uber or Lyft have come around. America’s sprawl and dependence on cars is incredible. It wasn’t until I spent time in London, Oxford, and Paris that I could recogni…

On public transit, wouldn't you be unusually vulnerable to crime? Why would you want a service that isn't safe for you?

Hmm? I feel like carjackings are more likely to happen than random crimes on transit...

I do suppose you might have to share space with poor people instead of ignoring them.

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

#160

Post by adrianN »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #100
opportune wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dense suburbs are only "outlawed" because certain places, usually at the municipality level, zone the buildings that way. You know it is also "outlawed" for most European cities to build too high vertically too right? Also, it varies from city to city (and within cities). Although most of the 20-35 crowd probably would prefer a denser city, old people prefer owning homes with lawns, so they wouldn't even want to live…

> You know it is also "outlawed" for most European cities to build too high vertically too right? What's the justification for that?

Dark streets mostly. Also the length of ladders that Fire engines have.
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