Re:The United States needs fewer bus stops
by closeparen on Wednesday February 25, 2026 @09:19PM
(#47160978)
Even in a dense city with no parking, it takes an unusually fast and frequent bus to compete with a brisk walk, and a heavy-rail subway to beat a fit or electric-assisted cyclist.
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Re:The United States needs fewer bus stops
by AnthonyMouse on Wednesday February 25, 2026 @10:13PM
(#47161349)
That's assuming you're only going a short distance. The average commute is around 15 miles. That's something like a five hour walk.
Re:The United States needs fewer bus stops
by closeparen on Wednesday February 25, 2026 @11:00PM
(#47161662)
And the average commute duration is around 27 minutes. If you happened to live in one of the very few places in America where there even are 15 urban miles to cross, doing it at city bus speeds of under 10mph would be a catastrophic collapse in your standard of living.
Re:The United States needs fewer bus stops
by ninalanyon on Thursday February 26, 2026 @11:01AM
(#47167843)
> doing it at city bus speeds of under 10mph would be a catastrophic collapse in your standard of living.
LA average vehicle speed during rush hour is 27.6km/h (17 mph) according to Tom Tom [1]. So a 10 mph bus would turn that 27 minute journey into 46 minutes which I'll admit is more than desirable, hardly catastrophic though.
But remember that each bus can carry about fifty people which would remove close to fifty cars from the road resulting in less congestion and faster buses. Fifty cars need 400 m of road, one bus needs only 20 m.
And on your way home you can doze in your seat without causing an accident.
[1] https://www.tomtom.com/traffic-index/city/los-angeles-ca