Bus stop balancing is fast, cheap, and effective • Hacker News Board

Re: Bus stop balancing is fast, cheap, and effective

#651

Post by wussboy » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 3:14 PM UTC

ErroneousBosh wrote: post #627

gpvos wrote: post #624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you're parking it in other places as well, I assume, unless you're only making pleasure rides with no stops at all. I am speaking more generally than just about your particular situation, which I obviously don't know. But in case you live in an American suburb: their entire financial setup is unsound, which arguably means even your own ground is subsidized. I find the arguments of Strong Towns and Not Just Bike…

I'm half a planet away from America, and I (mostly) don't live in a town. Consider that the "one size fits all" approach into forcing people out of cars breaks down very rapidly once you get out of sight of the sickly LED glow of streetlights.

Nobody claimed one size fits all. Nobody claimed you shouldn't be able to use a vehicle outside of the city.

Re: Bus stop balancing is fast, cheap, and effective

#652

Post by gpvos » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 7:25 PM UTC

cyberax wrote: post #641

gpvos wrote: post #624

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, you're parking it in other places as well, I assume, unless you're only making pleasure rides with no stops at all. I am speaking more generally than just about your particular situation, which I obviously don't know. But in case you live in an American suburb: their entire financial setup is unsound, which arguably means even your own ground is subsidized. I find the arguments of Strong Towns and Not Just Bike…

Stronk Towns and NJB are just propaganda outlets. Suburbs are _cheaper_ than dense cities. In fact, they generate most of the wealth of the country. It's easily proven by checking the amount of personal income taxes from suburbs versus cities. People who claim that "suburbs are subsidized" typically check the _corporate_ taxes that are paid (surprise!) usually at their headquarters' locations. Usually in downtowns. B…

Fascinating. Apparently you want the last word, I'll let you have it, this isn't going to be a fruitful discussion anyway.

Re: Bus stop balancing is fast, cheap, and effective

#653

Post by XCabbage » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 8:29 PM UTC

rkangel wrote: post #546

XCabbage wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the heavy end, SUVs weigh about 3 tonnes, while at the light end buses weigh about 12, a 4x difference. 4^4 = 256. So if the claim about the fourth power is true, you'd need to replace 256 SUVs to break even on wear, which is obviously impossible. (I don't really understand how the fourth power of axel weight thing can possibly be true, though. Why would joining two vehicles together into a mega vehicle with doubl…

Joining two vehicles together with double the weight and double the axle count does not change the load on each axle . So, scenario A: 4 ton vehicle, 2 axles load per axle is 2 tonnes. 2^4 is 16 2 axles - so load is 32. Another vehicle the same - also loading 32 Total: 64 Scenario B: 8 ton vehicle, 4 axles load per axle is 2 tonnes 2^4 is 16 4 axles - load load is 64 Total: 64

Ah, right, sorry, I misunderstood the definition of "axle weight" I got when I hurriedly googled it even though the name should've made the meaning obvious.

Re: Bus stop balancing is fast, cheap, and effective

#654

Post by sporkland » Tue, Mar 03, 2026, 11:52 PM UTC

janalsncm wrote: post #118

I believe the central thesis of this article is unsupported, and other assertions are false. One, the article asserts that too many stops is the main cause of low ridership in the US. I didn’t even see a correlation (which would still not prove one causes the other) between number of stops and ridership. This is the central thesis of the article. Two, removing stops will likely not make the remaining stops nicer. Cit…

You're talking abstractly but the author mentions SF and NYC in the intro where cars come with deep pain points, but at least in SF there are so many bus stops it leads to trip times that are much slower than say an Uber/lyft/waymo.

Re: Bus stop balancing is fast, cheap, and effective

#655

Post by xp84 » Thu, Mar 05, 2026, 5:18 PM UTC

rjmunro wrote: post #580

iamcalledrob wrote: post #377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incidentally, London has a "Freedom Pass" (free transport for retirees), which is funded in the way you describe. Instead of TfL being forced to take the loss, they are reimbursed by local government cost of the transport. As an aside, I also take some issue with this pass being completely free to use. In my experience, people end up using it to go a single stop just because it's free, so why not -- which slows bus s…

I agree and disagree with this. Sometimes older people using the busses are what keeps the routes busy and makes it worth running a good service for everyone else. But on the other hand, I have seen abuses. Years ago I somehow got chatting to a fellow bus passenger who liked to ride the busses all day as a hobby. I think rather than charging I'd limit it to 10 free rides a week or something, where a ride is equivalen…

Idk... If the tiny population of those bored "hobbyists" taking up space is the only reason a given route was overcrowded, I'd be surprised. If it's basically at capacity in general, I'd rather they add more busses than to crack down on the elderly, because I guarantee that if you just subtracted those "abusers" (and not elderly people who actually need to ride the bus for legitimate trips) the same bus would still be basically as crowded.

Re: Bus stop balancing is fast, cheap, and effective

#656

Post by phendrenad2 » Sat, Mar 07, 2026, 7:14 PM UTC

wat10000 wrote: post #154

avazhi wrote: post #99

People don’t use public transport for many reasons other than this, personal safety and comfort being two big ones that no amount of optimisation can fix. I’d rather get to work half as quickly if it means I don’t have to listen to a druggie issue schizophrenic violent threats towards random women throughout my journey (occurred just last week on a tram in Melbourne). Other cities I’ve been to and used public transpo…

Increased ridership can help a lot with that. People typically behave better when there's a large audience.

This cuts out certain types of crime, but doesn't do anything about the people having psychotic episodes, or robberies, and with enough people, you get the added crime of groping. What can help a lot is more enforcement, but in the current climate, where all police are seen as Nazi-adjacent, I don't think that's going to fly.