Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
With the advent of Uber, electric cars, and self-driving cars, it's time to stop building rail lines to nowhere that make people feel good, but hammer taxpayers and provide poor service.
My former hometown of Washington, DC has a rail system that's unreliable, falling apart, and run mostly not to serve riders, but the ATU Local 689. Their pension benefits are out of this world, their quality of service is third world.
Consumers need to be able to choose something better than this union boss nonsense, and it's not 1997 anymore, we can build great cities without them.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
44,570 posts, read 81,147,605 times
Reputation: 57792
Uber, electric and hybrid cars are big in our area, but the buses and light rail are still packed with commuters. In fact, the transit system is short 250 drivers and begging for people to hire. Ride sharing is not practical for commuting, too expensive, and risk of being late if there is no driver available nearby at the time you need to leave. Electric vehicles are still a very small minority, 0.66%, and self driving cars on the city streets are still far off. Still, I voted against a big tax increase for expanded rail here, it wouldn't reach anywhere near our home until I'm 89 years old, but I'd have to pay those taxes starting in 2017.
With the advent of Uber, electric cars, and self-driving cars, it's time to stop building rail lines to nowhere that make people feel good, but hammer taxpayers and provide poor service.
My former hometown of Washington, DC has a rail system that's unreliable, falling apart, and run mostly not to serve riders, but the ATU Local 689. Their pension benefits are out of this world, their quality of service is third world.
Consumers need to be able to choose something better than this union boss nonsense, and it's not 1997 anymore, we can build great cities without them.
I don't know the DC metro system. However, it should be noted that our transportation infrastructure--road and rail, public and private--would collapse if major metro areas closed their current rail systems in favor of travelling individually or in small groups (ie, carpooling).
Simply, there isn't enough capacity for that because ridesharing nor autonomous vehicles magically change the mathematics of capacity. How much space does a person on a packed bus use? Three or four feet square? Compare that to a person in a Prius (85 ft2 for the vehicle footprint, no margins) or Tesla (105 ft2).
A quick search tells me the DC metrorail has an average of >700k daily weekday boardings system-wide. Where would the capacity for all those riders come from, even if we ignored that each one might be consuming 42x more space than as metro riders? No amount of vehicle autonomy could compensate for that.
Also, in your argument, it is unfair to fail to differentiate between major projects that don't make sense and systems that are either underfunded or improperly organized/managed. We DO need to be careful about how public dollars are spent, and transit expansions to nowhere are a bad idea. That doesn't mean, however, that transit systems overall are a bad idea or failure.
I don't know the DC metro system. However, it should be noted that our transportation infrastructure--road and rail, public and private--would collapse if major metro areas closed their current rail systems in favor of travelling individually or in small groups (ie, carpooling).
Simply, there isn't enough capacity for that because ridesharing nor autonomous vehicles magically change the mathematics of capacity. How much space does a person on a packed bus use? Three or four feet square? Compare that to a person in a Prius (85 ft2 for the vehicle footprint, no margins) or Tesla (105 ft2).
A quick search tells me the DC metrorail has an average of >700k daily weekday boardings system-wide. Where would the capacity for all those riders come from, even if we ignored that each one might be consuming 42x more space than as metro riders? No amount of vehicle autonomy could compensate for that.
Also, in your argument, it is unfair to fail to differentiate between major projects that don't make sense and systems that are either underfunded or improperly organized/managed. We DO need to be careful about how public dollars are spent, and transit expansions to nowhere are a bad idea. That doesn't mean, however, that transit systems overall are a bad idea or failure.
Not to mention parking all of those autonomous cars...and of course the usual energy expenditures.
What's better than self-driving cars?
Self-driving transit! Freeing up people to do the important people facing work.
Don't even get me started on how few problems autonomous cars even solve (environmental, sprawl related, etc). Also, FYI, uber and taxis aren't super different, and taxi service never killed the subway.
The driverless car crap seeps into every discussion about rail. It drives me nuts. Rail carries more people and it is quicker. Urban planners don't want to ban private autos. They just want alternatives-- especially in areas where it makes more sense to have people using transit.
With the advent of Uber, electric cars, and self-driving cars, it's time to stop building rail lines to nowhere that make people feel good, but hammer taxpayers and provide poor service.
My former hometown of Washington, DC has a rail system that's unreliable, falling apart, and run mostly not to serve riders, but the ATU Local 689. Their pension benefits are out of this world, their quality of service is third world.
Consumers need to be able to choose something better than this union boss nonsense, and it's not 1997 anymore, we can build great cities without them.
It's very simple the highways don't have enough capacity. Rail has a higher thruput based on how much land it occupies it's just a more efficient way to move people.
Self driving cars will only work in an ideal world and we don't live in one.
Close down the railways and everything in the big transit cities would come to a screeching halt. They can probably hold far more cars per space but one little accident or ambulance would send traffic backing up for miles.
Self driving cars maybe great for the elderly but they will never catch on en mass for one simply reason.............people love driving their cars
It's very simple the highways don't have enough capacity. Rail has a higher thruput based on how much land it occupies it's just a more efficient way to move people.
Walking is more efficient than the DC Metro rail.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
