Elie: Elie moved page Old:Public transit to Archive:000/Old:Public transit without leaving a redirect: Huge_refactor

2024-10-26T20:30:05Z

Elie moved page Old:Public transit to Archive:000/Old:Public transit without leaving a redirect: Huge_refactor

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Elie: Created page with "thumb Public transit includes city buses, trams and trains. Compared to private cars, public transit has the potential to prevent traffic congestion, save fuel, and save time for the average rider. However, public transit ''done wrong'' could actually use ''more'' fuel per rider - especially in places where buses run mostly empty most of the time.{{qn}} Low-density suburbs are particularly hard to service in an energy-efficient way, for thi..."

2024-02-24T12:26:48Z

Created page with "thumb Public transit includes city buses, trams and trains. Compared to private cars, public transit has the potential to prevent traffic congestion, save fuel, and save time for the average rider. However, public transit ''done wrong'' could actually use ''more'' fuel per rider - especially in places where buses run mostly empty most of the time.{{qn}} Low-density suburbs are particularly hard to service in an energy-efficient way, for thi..."

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[[File:publictransit1.jpg|thumb]]

Public transit includes city buses, trams and trains. Compared to private cars, public transit has the potential to prevent traffic congestion, save fuel, and save time for the average rider.

However, public transit ''done wrong'' could actually use ''more'' fuel per rider - especially in places where buses run mostly empty most of the time.{{qn}}

Low-density suburbs are particularly hard to service in an energy-efficient way, for this reason. We often end up with a particular conundrum:
* Not many people ride the bus, so it's a waste of fuel to send buses often.
* But if buses don't come often, then the service is too hard to use, so fewer people ride the bus. No one wants to walk 40 minutes to a bus stop or wait 40 minutes for a bus, for example.
This naturally creates controversy between the folks who want to expand public transit vs the folks who don't.

To help resolve this controversy, I propose a simple '''thought experiment:'''
* Imagine a typical suburb.
* Suppose everyone was fully willing to take public transit instead of driving, ''if only'' the public transit was convenient and easy to use. For simplicity sake, let's say that people would take the bus if there was 1 bus passing every 8 minutes during peak hours{{x|peak hours could be defined in any number of ways; also we could assume that people would still use their cars in off-peak or wherever the bus service is lacking}}, and if bus lines were spaced out only 400m from each other.
* How much fuel per km<sup>2</sup> would it take to send that many buses?
* How does that compare to the status quo of suburban car usage, in fuel per km<sup>2</sup>?
* Also compare to the estimated fuel usage of a "no public transit, but people choose to carpool" scenario.
* From this, we can get a clue as to whether public transit could really help the suburbs save fuel or not.
{{aip}}

==See also==
* [[Walkability]], which would reduce the overall need for transport altogether.
* [[Intensification]] - if suburbs were denser, the benefits of public transit might be easier to achieve.

Archive:000/Old:Public transit - Revision history

Elie: Elie moved page Old:Public transit to Archive:000/Old:Public transit without leaving a redirect: Huge_refactor