Re:The self-driving car is a red herring
by ska on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @12:20PM
(#24920604)
> The fundamental prerequisite for functional mass transit is a high population density.
This just doesn't seem to be true. It probably needs some density (think "town", not "farmland") but the fundamental prerequisite is a commitment to planning and building public transit infrastructure, rather than automobile focused infrastructure.
Lot's of relatively low density places in Europe, Japan, etc. have very functional public mass transit. It's not universal, but there are good examples.
If you start with the assumption that approximately everyone has a car, you can choose build cities in ways that only support that...
Re:The self-driving car is a red herring
by jsinai on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @04:16PM
(#24923628)
Precisely. And the second fundamental prerequisite is frequency. Make public transport frequent enough, and with privileged access (eg bus lanes) and it will be more convenient than private cars.
Lot's of relatively low density places in Europe, Japan, etc. have very functional public mass transit. It's not universal, but there are good examples.
If you start with the assumption that approximately everyone has a car, you can choose build cities in ways that only support that...