On Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 6:34:44 PM UTC+1, Nightjar wrote:
On 01/04/2015 18:05, wrote:
On Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 5:17:29 PM UTC+1, Nightjar wrote:
On 01/04/2015 14:39, wrote:
On Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 9:23:07 AM UTC+1, Nightjar wrote:
On 01/04/2015 08:11, wrote:
On Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at 10:57:39 PM UTC+1, Nightjar wrote:
On 31/03/2015 21:00, Capitol wrote:
Nightjar cpb@ wrote:

They also work well if run through pedestrianised areas, both keeping
them separate from other traffic and putting them close to where people
want them.

Pedestrianised areas are bad news for local town centre shops (and
locally for small shopping areas). A number of US towns have
depedestianised the town centre as no one would go there.

Which is why you need public transport bringing people into them.

A whole lot of people arent into the time waste of public transport

If the area is pedestrianised, the only other option is walking.

there are a couple more options
1. don't pedestrianise

I am strongly in favour of traffic separation, wherever possible.

2. have available or rentable individual transport units of any of several sorts

That is only a different form of public transport. Indeed, driverless
shuttles, such as those being tested at Greenwich, may be the future of
public transport.

Its something very different to what we know as public transport. The main problems with uk public transport are
a) the vehicle usually doesnt go from your origin or to your destination

Taxis do and they are a form of public transport. If necessary, mix with
train, light railway or other long distance PT.

Aiming to increase use of taxis is a mad idea. Of all transports they are the most wasteful of resources, both material and human. Its only sensible to use them to fill in gaps in any other system implemented.


b) journey time is generally hugely increased compared to car travel, resulting in a vast waste of human resource.

Well, I wouldn't do a long distance trip by bus, but around town, the
traffic usually ensures that everybody travels at much the same speed,
unless there are bus lanes, when the bus will probably be quicker. I
also suspect that the days when I could drive across London faster than
getting there by tube have long gone.

I can drive from A to B in town in a fraction the time it takes to walk to a bus stop, wait, go to the nearest stop then walk the rest. Long distance buses/coaches are worse since there are inevitably less people doing any given long distance journey, thus times between vehicles are far longer.


Hirable vehicles of some sort would go part way to solving it, but only part way. Permitting small vehicles, eg kart size, in all zones might, if implemented sufficiently well, be the best option.

Which is what some of the driverless car experiments seem to be aimed at
doing.

Yes... its the sensible option. Huge vehicles made sense in Victorian times, but today much less so.


NT