How America Killed Transit

Post by adrianN » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 7:05 AM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #26

laurencerowe wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What alternatives come close to the carrying capacity of fixed rail?

Fixed rail is indeed better than anything else at carrying large numbers of people from one place where they don't want to be to someplace else where they don't want to be. Networked autonomous road vehicles are the obvious way forward, but achieving their true potential will require more organization than our society can apparently bring to bear.

Post by aaronbrethorst » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 7:09 AM UTC

CamperBob2 wrote: post #26

laurencerowe wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What alternatives come close to the carrying capacity of fixed rail?

Fixed rail is indeed better than anything else at carrying large numbers of people from one place where they don't want to be to someplace else where they don't want to be. Networked autonomous road vehicles are the obvious way forward, but achieving their true potential will require more organization than our society can apparently bring to bear.

Post by njarboe » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 7:13 AM UTC

bobthepanda wrote: post #29

njarboe wrote: post #25

Public roads are a public transit system. A very useful and productive one. Before paved roads and trucks, many towns and farms were only served by a single rail line. If competing water transportation was not available, the private railroads would charge extremely high rates, extracting all excess production of the area. The coming of public paved roads and trucks was blessing. Many roads are now past capacity much…

Problem is that point to point is not scalable. Automated platoons only work in highway settings, not in urban areas where pedestrians and cyclists need to cross traffic at regular intervals very frequently. (The American experience shows that even erecting large physical barriers to crossing roads does not work.) And you can't build more roads to get out of this mess, because we have tried and tried and tried and ev…

Post by WalterBright » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 7:17 AM UTC

techsupporter wrote: post #8

WalterBright wrote: post #3

In the Seattle area, the local government insists on ripping up the tracks to create urban "trails".

My armchair perspective of this is that rails-to-trails is a federally-sanctioned move and adding transit use to those rails is both difficult and politically hard. It is difficult because leaving the rails as-is means small rail operators like Ballard Terminal will insist on still being able to run one freight train a week so that means transit has to compete for time slots and the operating agency has to buy FRA mi…

Post by njarboe » Sat, Sep 01, 2018, 7:19 AM UTC

adrianN wrote: post #28

njarboe wrote: post #25

Public roads are a public transit system. A very useful and productive one. Before paved roads and trucks, many towns and farms were only served by a single rail line. If competing water transportation was not available, the private railroads would charge extremely high rates, extracting all excess production of the area. The coming of public paved roads and trucks was blessing. Many roads are now past capacity much…

"Motorist" is commonly used for people in motor vehicles. The problem with cars is that they use so much space. Not only while in transit, but especially when parked. Look at how much prime real estate is devoted to parking in typical American cities. That reduces density and makes cars more important, a vicious circle. The most liveable cities are those where little transport is needed because most things one wants…