[ExI] mass transit again

[Damien Sullivan]

On Thu, Jan 20, 2011 at 10:56:57PM -0800, spike wrote:

> Ja and I thought of something else too.  It could be that one particular
> route is bad for having few riders.  It goes to that big industrial park

There's also the possibility that San Jose has not done public transit
well.  This does not cancel out the many other places, some of them even
American, that have done it well.

But having an low-volume route is also possible.  A really good public
transit system has to be competitive with cars for convenience, which
means going lots of places lots of times; this may often mean not many
people on board, especially in a sprawling area.

Is that wasteful, or is it the price paid for convenience?  A private
car is typically parked for at least 20 out of 24 hours per day, and
modally carries a single person, its driver, and generally less than its
full capacity.  Isn't that wasteful?  Aren't you inclined to defend that
waste on the grounds of convenience or comfort to the car owner and
family?  So it goes.  A convenient system of private cars has tons of
cars sitting around taking up space; a convenient system of public
transit has tons of vehicles moving around, even if sometimes not fully
packed.

50 miles to your north is a much better public transit system, despite
being far from top of the line itself.

> allow a light rail car to pass with two persons aboard, one of whom is
> driving.  That's how we get such an attitude.  

> This is the only train I see on a regular basis.  I can imagine there are
> other lines that are more heavily used.  That one to Moffett should probably

It strikes me yet again that extropians and SF fans can be great
dreamers about space and the future, and quite parochial down on Earth.

-xx- Damien X-)