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

Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Leap Buses Are Hitting SF Streets This Week

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 87 posts

Re: Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Leap Buses Are Hitting SF Streets This Week

#21

Post by dagw »

lotsofmangos wrote: post #17

Leap buses are not also currently accessible to wheelchair-using or disabled passengers, but Kirchhoff plans to add that in future buses. They redesigned the entire bus interior from the ground up and didn't include this? Surely if you are going to rebuild your fleet before you start, it is insane not to do the work then. Doing it in the future will be far more expensive and is a difficult decision to make, given you…

You make it sound like they completely forgot about disabled passengers, when the reality is almost certainly that they intentionally excluded them because they are a pain to deal with (slow getting on and off, take up more space than an able bodied passenger etc.)

Re: Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Leap Buses Are Hitting SF Streets This Week

#22

Post by pdq »

I'm interested to see the next evolutionary step in transit.

I would have gone with the "dollar van" model would be a better entry. Cargo vans are less expensive to own/maintain than busses, more nimble, and use less fuel.

Either way, more options is great for the consumer.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Leap Buses Are Hitting SF Streets This Week

#23

Post by krschultz »

AWolfAtTheDoor wrote: post #18
ceallen wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who drop an extra 4 dollars so their morning commute is reliable and moderately pleasant are now white privileged elite. I'd hate to hear what you think of people who drive cars. Wanting to be at work on time without allotting an extra 30 minutes for public transit shenanigans is hardly the epitome of privilege.

What aspect of a fancy bus that drives in normal traffic like any other bus (or car, assuming there are not bus-only lanes) makes it any more capable of getting a person to their destination sooner? Addendum: this is a private company that technically speaking does not have to adhere to any schedule and isn't liable for various things (according to the TOS posted in this tree), so if anything you're more likely to be…

You are assuming that there is no better way to define the schedules, no better way to communicate bus location, and no better way to start buses on time than what currently exists.

There are two sides to on schedule performance - what the bus does, and what the schedule says. You are probably right that the bus can't move any faster just because it is private. On the other hand, I bet a tech savvy company can do vastly better at predicting what the actual bus schedule will be as well as communicating any deviations from the schedule in real time.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Leap Buses Are Hitting SF Streets This Week

#24

Post by cryptoz »

AWolfAtTheDoor wrote: post #18
ceallen wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who drop an extra 4 dollars so their morning commute is reliable and moderately pleasant are now white privileged elite. I'd hate to hear what you think of people who drive cars. Wanting to be at work on time without allotting an extra 30 minutes for public transit shenanigans is hardly the epitome of privilege.

What aspect of a fancy bus that drives in normal traffic like any other bus (or car, assuming there are not bus-only lanes) makes it any more capable of getting a person to their destination sooner? Addendum: this is a private company that technically speaking does not have to adhere to any schedule and isn't liable for various things (according to the TOS posted in this tree), so if anything you're more likely to be…

Not sure about SF, but in Toronto, the only problem is scheduling and management. Also, I won't vouch for Leap or make any assumptions about SF's transit, but if it's anything like Toronto, the only thing you need to change is scheduling. Traffic is not a problem. ONLY SCHEDULING.

The problems in Toronto result in 30-60 minute waits for a bus or a streetcar in the wintertime (during -20°C weather too). Then you will get about 5-10 in a row, all within a few seconds or minutes of each other.

This happens because Toronto does not schedule its transit very well (or at all). So everything is late and miserable.

If Leap schedules things correctly, in part because they are a private company and have incentive to do so, they may be able to beat public transit solutions - in terms of reliability of service - without breaking a sweat.

Again, I don't know how much this info is relevant here or for SF. But there are multiple ways that a private company can improve on the timing and scheduling of existing public transit.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Leap Buses Are Hitting SF Streets This Week

#25

Post by tomasien »

ceallen wrote: post #14
AWolfAtTheDoor wrote: post #4

It seems like San Francisco is one of the few places where you can have a company completely fail, only to see it revamp its product in a way that it will probably completely fail again. While I can't speak for San Francisco's bus system, everything about this product video screams to me that the solution that is being provided here does not actually solve a problem other than "I am white, privileged, and want to rid…

People who drop an extra 4 dollars so their morning commute is reliable and moderately pleasant are now white privileged elite. I'd hate to hear what you think of people who drive cars. Wanting to be at work on time without allotting an extra 30 minutes for public transit shenanigans is hardly the epitome of privilege.

It's not an extra 4 dollars, it's an extra 1-2 dollars!

Re: Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Leap Buses Are Hitting SF Streets This Week

#26

Post by a2kadet »

krschultz wrote: post #19
untog wrote: post #8

I'll be interested to see how this works from afar in New York. To my mind it's likely to just make for more traffic and not take a sizable number of cars off the road, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Why would you think it would just make more traffic and not take cars off the road? A bus takes up the space of 3-4 cars. If there are more than 4 people on the bus, it is increasing the capacity of the road. Surely there are some negative effects because busses stop & take longer to turn, but I also don't think their business plan involves driving busses with only 4 people on them.

That's assuming the bus would only be converting drivers and not other forms of commuters.

I have a fifteen minute walk to work. If there was a convenient bus that cut that in half, I would use it. I used to ride the subway to work. That took about 40 minutes. I would definitely consider using a bus instead if the circumstances were right.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Leap Buses Are Hitting SF Streets This Week

#27

Post by whatok »

krschultz wrote: post #19
untog wrote: post #8

I'll be interested to see how this works from afar in New York. To my mind it's likely to just make for more traffic and not take a sizable number of cars off the road, but I'd love to be proven wrong.

Why would you think it would just make more traffic and not take cars off the road? A bus takes up the space of 3-4 cars. If there are more than 4 people on the bus, it is increasing the capacity of the road. Surely there are some negative effects because busses stop & take longer to turn, but I also don't think their business plan involves driving busses with only 4 people on them.

untog was mentioning NYC. Majority of people commuting in that I know already catch public transportation into the city. I can't imagine this working very well for transportation within Manhattan but I could be wrong.

Re: Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Leap Buses Are Hitting SF Streets This Week

#29

Post by lotsofmangos »

jsprogrammer wrote: post #6
AWolfAtTheDoor wrote: post #4

It seems like San Francisco is one of the few places where you can have a company completely fail, only to see it revamp its product in a way that it will probably completely fail again. While I can't speak for San Francisco's bus system, everything about this product video screams to me that the solution that is being provided here does not actually solve a problem other than "I am white, privileged, and want to rid…

You might also want to look at the discussion of their TOS from yesterday: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9220210 Basically, the TOS disclaims pretty much everything claimed by their marketing material (ie. they are not a transportation company, don't claim to be one, don't make any guarantees or promises about what they do, etc; also, you are dependent on the bus driver to actually transport you because the dr…

The circular logic looks somewhat familiar.

This isn't a subsidiary of M & M Enterprises, by any chance?

Re: Andreessen Horowitz-Backed Leap Buses Are Hitting SF Streets This Week

#30

Post by mvc »

sgrove wrote: post #7
AWolfAtTheDoor wrote: post #4

It seems like San Francisco is one of the few places where you can have a company completely fail, only to see it revamp its product in a way that it will probably completely fail again. While I can't speak for San Francisco's bus system, everything about this product video screams to me that the solution that is being provided here does not actually solve a problem other than "I am white, privileged, and want to rid…

An alternative comment (that would likely be more useful and spark more interesting conversation) might focus on listing the ways in which you see public transportation in SF as broken, and thoughts on how they might be sustainably (and profitably) fixed.

I don't live there yet but I will in a couple of weeks and have been researching where to live. One problem from my point of view is that there appears to be no monthly pass you can get that works from the places that one might reasonably want to commute from (e.g. Oakland, Alameda, Berkeley)
Post reply on HN