And that's because buses are THE WORST form of transportation imaginable. Anything is better than a bus. Buses have never been the opposite of obsolete. They were always a step backwards. Trolleys with dedicated lanes make sense. When travelling distances of less than 30 miles, buses are for people who hate themselves.
You're probably American, I've learnt from HN that you have a sub par bus network there. I live in Istanbul and find buses quite pleasing. Your city design and your public transportation system are to blame.
Waaaay too many moving parts if you ask me. I have an alternative idea: Electric monowheels(or kick scooters): -Not fixed-route. -Barely any maintenance. -Even the non-exploding ones cost as much as (subsidized) public transport over their lifetime. -Same speed as this moving sidewalk and bicycles - could potentially share the bike lanes with the latter. Two major disadvantages though are weight and usability in bad…
Why is being fixed-route a bad thing? When you already have city-scale capacity-planning data saying that 100k people make a particular trip on a particular route daily, building fixed infrastructure to accommodate that route usually ends up with a much lower TCO than the equivalent mobile infrastructure. A subway train costs less in maintenance, fuel, and road-congestion than the equivalent number of busses, to serve the same load on the same route. Mobile infrastructure only gains an advantage where the load on a route isn't enough to pay back the capital costs of fixed infrastructure (e.g. busses out to a depopulated exurb.)
I don't really want to be on a moving sidewalk when its ten below zero fahrenheit and snowing - but hey that's just me. But if they could enclose them in a glass or plastic dome it would be far more preferable than riding the bus.
I wish Boston would put one (or a 4mph one) underground walking path between Bowdoin station and MGH so that people could easily transfer without having to either clog the green line or cross traffic in the rain/snow.
Ha, I was sitting here looking on Cambridge St. and thinking the exact same thing.
In related news, Teleportation Could Make Airplanes Obsolete if only physicists can figure out how to transmit and re-assemble humans correctly.
Moving sidewalks are like electric cars - the fact that they are used or not is not about basic infeasabilities of engineering (although there is development needed) but of politics.
A moving sidewalk seems much more plausible and practical than a hyperloop in improving transportation.
I don't really want to be on a moving sidewalk when its ten below zero fahrenheit and snowing - but hey that's just me. But if they could enclose them in a glass or plastic dome it would be far more preferable than riding the bus.
The problem with the bus is you have to wait for it outside, when it's ten below and snowing. The sidewalk would run continuously.
Waaaay too many moving parts if you ask me. I have an alternative idea: Electric monowheels(or kick scooters): -Not fixed-route. -Barely any maintenance. -Even the non-exploding ones cost as much as (subsidized) public transport over their lifetime. -Same speed as this moving sidewalk and bicycles - could potentially share the bike lanes with the latter. Two major disadvantages though are weight and usability in bad…
Buses and trams and subways are fixed route. Also, they are dependable. Sometimes foolproof and simple is better than infinitely flexible.