The self-driving car is a red herring

Re:The self-driving car is a red herring by dragonwriter on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @01:16PM (#24921434)

> 25 cent tax on gas would do it. If even 2 people average rode each bus, it'd break even on traffic density as well?

Busses accelerate, decelerate, and turn differently than cars, so even if in terms of steady-state flow the two-riders = break-even argument is correct, it's not in city traffic.

Moreover, I'd like to see your work on operating and capital costs, especially accounting for road wear for which the usual approximate rule of thumb is that it varies with the fourth power of vehicle weight.

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Re:The self-driving car is a red herring by JoeAltmaier on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @02:49PM (#24922620)

Well, I'm repeating something my old boss Eric Carlson at Unisys said, in his Master's thesis on City Planning.

And remember, the City busses are running only every 15 minutes. So whatever effect they have on localized traffic, it's very intermittent.

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