Re:The self-driving car is a red herring
by 908B64B197 on Wednesday October 28, 2020 @01:31PM
(#24921638)
The issue is throughput and latency.
Public transit is high throughput (and can be low latency if you are lucky and stay on the same link) but as soon as you have to make a transfer (bus to train or bus to bus) the latency immediately spikes up. And the latency pretty much is unbearable as soon as you move to and from a non-central location (suburb to suburb) or not during peak hours.
To further use the computer network analogy, the last mile is generally also a problem. Doesn't matter if most of the network is fiber, if my house can only get a twisted pair the network is going to be bad. Same thing if the bus station or train station is 2 miles from my house; it's like it didn't exist.
Public transit is high throughput (and can be low latency if you are lucky and stay on the same link) but as soon as you have to make a transfer (bus to train or bus to bus) the latency immediately spikes up. And the latency pretty much is unbearable as soon as you move to and from a non-central location (suburb to suburb) or not during peak hours.
To further use the computer network analogy, the last mile is generally also a problem. Doesn't matter if most of the network is fiber, if my house can only get a twisted pair the network is going to be bad. Same thing if the bus station or train station is 2 miles from my house; it's like it didn't exist.