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In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

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Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

#51

Post by pessimizer »

bluGill wrote: post #31
CuriouslyC wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are van taxis that do this in third world countries, they're not terrible. Faster than a bus line and cheaper than a regular taxi. I think if pooling was more of a norm and people were a bit less time sensitive it'd work great here with the support of an app.

Quoted post unavailable.

If we wouldn't expect the van drivers to be less time sensitive, we certainly shouldn't expect all of society to become less time-sensitive to accommodate inconsistent transportation. We can't afford to have people late all the way down, because lateness accumulates by blowing coordination. It's through promptness and good logistics that we save time that we can use to relax.

We should just prioritize consistent public transportation.

edit: if you're five minutes late at doing something you want to do, you may have wasted five minutes, or you more likely haven't wasted any time, because you spent that five minutes doing something else that you wanted to do.

If you're five minutes late meeting someone, you're far more likely to have wasted their five minutes, unless they can shift other small tasks around to fill those five minutes.

It adds up to a lot of lost time spent waiting and uncomfortable.

Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

#52

Post by ceejayoz »

bluGill wrote: post #42
jmpman wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve imagined that self driving cars would fill in this “last mile” from the end destination to an air conditioned transit hub. Once you get enough density in a transit hub, the frequency and destinations should explode, making the network usable, even in car heavy towns like Houston.

I don't see how. Once you have a car you may as well drive all the way there, and self driving makes it much faster. Then you have the convenience of the car when you get there. either way you need a parking lot for the car to sit in. Transit works best when you can get rid of a car. The cost of owning a car is very high, transit good enough that you would get rid of a car is only a little cheaper. Bad transit is onl…

The self-driving cars in the parent poster's comment wouldn't be personally owned. They'd pick you up, drop you off, and then go get the next person. It wouldn't be doing much sitting in parking lots at busy times, and could park in municipal lots out of the busy areas at night.

Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

#53

Post by deepsun »

whatever1 wrote: post #37

Public transit that is not subway on rails suck big time. I have wasted thousands of hours waiting for the bus that either came early, or is late, under 100 degrees of sun and under snowstorms. Add to that the I have walked thousands of miles because the bus stops do not align with my destinations. Since I got a car and live in the suburbs, I pay much lower housing costs, I start exactly 20’ before my punch in time,…

In Eastern Europe they are pretty good, moving like 80% of public. Way faster than 10mph, I couldn't beat it by bicycle (I tried) on most routes.

Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

#54

Post by midislack »

Where’s this all coming from lately? Seems that walkable cities (code for making vehicle ownership so expensive and onerous that only the elite can drive) and the push for public transit is a top down affair that is being force fed to the public not just via the usual media outlets, but also legions of GPT based Internet shills.

It also seems very European. All the big cities already have buses and trains in the US. Outside these places it’s not only not practical, it’s totally infeasible. So who is making this push? WEF? Mayor Pete?

Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

#56

Post by ehnto »

woodruffw wrote: post #44
whatever1 wrote: post #37

Public transit that is not subway on rails suck big time. I have wasted thousands of hours waiting for the bus that either came early, or is late, under 100 degrees of sun and under snowstorms. Add to that the I have walked thousands of miles because the bus stops do not align with my destinations. Since I got a car and live in the suburbs, I pay much lower housing costs, I start exactly 20’ before my punch in time,…

Public bus systems can be good; most cities and municipalities simply don't bother to make it so (because "polite society" drives everywhere). NYC's buses have their own flaws, but they demonstrate many of the necessary conditions for success: dedicated bus lanes, split-service (local and express on the same route, with corresponding bus sizes), and multimodal connections (light rail, streetcars, subways). This is al…

It's definitely a perception issue that's borne from some reality. Having taken buses in a few cities, I can say some buses were perfectly fine, clean, and felt dignified to ride. A utility of the commons. Some other cities, it felt like taking a vandalized back alley vending machine to work.

Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

#57

Post by gruez »

dvfjsdhgfv wrote: post #49
whatever1 wrote: post #37

Public transit that is not subway on rails suck big time. I have wasted thousands of hours waiting for the bus that either came early, or is late, under 100 degrees of sun and under snowstorms. Add to that the I have walked thousands of miles because the bus stops do not align with my destinations. Since I got a car and live in the suburbs, I pay much lower housing costs, I start exactly 20’ before my punch in time,…

You know it's not by accident, right? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_streetcar_consp...

Under "Counterarguments" section it's been argued that the streetcar lines were already on a downward decline by the time GM bought them, so blaming GM seems tenuous.

Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

#58

Post by vel0city »

bluGill wrote: post #29
pif wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They don’t help with congestion, they don’t help with pollution, So what? The first and only point of a public transport system is, you know, transporting people. Limiting congestion and pollution comes very far in terms of priority, and only once the core mission is fulfilled.

They can't transport many people either though.

Most of the time these are replacing areas with bus lines with small ridership. Its cheaper and on average faster to service those areas with this model instead of driving a lot of empty busses around constantly. If ridership increases to the point where busses again make sense I imagine they'll resume bus service to those areas.

Some of the transit around me had areas change to this model. I know people who used to ride the bus and now take this. Being able to dispatch a ride (and even schedule one a day ahead of time!) makes things a lot easier, more reliable, and faster. Previously they would have to walk a few blocks to the main street and wait in the 100F weather for up to 10-15 minutes. Potentially they'd have to change busses depending on where they were trying to get to, often having yet another wait in the 100F weather. Now they're able to schedule their ride ahead of time, the car meets them outside their apartment, and they're able to get a ride directly to nearby shops or the light rail/major bus terminal to get someplace else.

Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

#59

Post by gruez »

woodruffw wrote: post #35
pif wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They don’t help with congestion, they don’t help with pollution, So what? The first and only point of a public transport system is, you know, transporting people. Limiting congestion and pollution comes very far in terms of priority, and only once the core mission is fulfilled.

The object of a public transportation system is to transport the public , not individual people. That means mass design considerations, which are the same considerations as anti-congestion. Reducing pollution is a nice side effect.

>The object of a public transportation system is to transport the public, not individual people

"Individual people" comprise "the public".

>That means mass design considerations

In a town of 49,000 people, and where there are only 5 buses that run once per hour, I think such considerations isn't really worth considering, at least compared to the convenience factor of not having to wait 1 hour.

Re: In microtransit, passengers order a shuttle van instead of having to take a bus

#60

Post by martopix »

whatever1 wrote: post #37

Public transit that is not subway on rails suck big time. I have wasted thousands of hours waiting for the bus that either came early, or is late, under 100 degrees of sun and under snowstorms. Add to that the I have walked thousands of miles because the bus stops do not align with my destinations. Since I got a car and live in the suburbs, I pay much lower housing costs, I start exactly 20’ before my punch in time,…

Except in Switzerland.
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