There’s a quiet transport revolution going on in different corners of the UK, from “the world’s most ambitious and complex autonomous bus system” in Edinburgh, to a minibus network in Milton Keynes that picks you up and drops you off (almost) wherever you want. This long read contains clues to a “small vehicle-small infrastructure” vision of public transport that is likely to be a big part of all our futures.
I’ll believe it when I see it, we still can’t get trains right
This, for me, is the crux. We need to sort out what we’ve got first, 'cos what we’ve got is crap
We’ve got one of those mini-bus services in Leicestershire and it’s frankly…wank.
Half the time they won’t get you because the route doesn’t fit in with their larger route and then even if it’s already been agreed they’ll cancel on you without warning leaving you utterly screwed.
I don’t see a lot of point.
If you have a human driver, it reduces labor costs to have a larger vehicle. More passengers per driver. More reason to use larger vehicles like busses.
But if you have a computer driving, car size or even smaller become more relatively-appealing.
I mean, the article even brings up the labor costs issue.
Yep, this is a solution looking for a problem really. Either that, or it’s a really bad solution to the car problem.
We’ve over-invested in cars and planes, and under-invested in buses, trains, bicycles and walking. The idea in the article may or may not be a good idea but it seems like redressing this balance is the bigger issue.
The ruling class know fine well that funding public transport would solve a lot of problems, but the problem is that it would also reduce profit for a lot of industries. So that’s why it doesn’t happen and why it won’t happen, if anyone was wondering.
The obsession with technical solutions (like these self-driving buses) is because it gives them an excuse to funnel more wealth to the wealthy.
That’s what it’s all about, it’s what it has always been about. If we want to improve our world then the people with power need to be stripped of that power, completely and utterly.
self driving cars and buses are a scam perpetrated by people with connections to the oil and motor industry, they’re currently pissing themselves over the idea that we’d go back to using trains and bikes.
