On Thursday, April 2, 2015 at 2:34:47 AM UTC+1, Rod Speed wrote:
wrote in message
...
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.

Not when using fixed public transport systems like trains
for the bulk of the trip.

for long trips that can make sense. Too often it doesnt

Of all transports they are the most wasteful of resources, both material
and human.

No, they are in fact much less wasteful of resources than privately owned
cars because they are in use much more of the time when used at the
start and end of the trip with a train being used for the bulk of the trip.

The main resource they waste is human time. Car cost is worth less on the whole. They also waste fuel by increasing mileage per journey.


Its only sensible to use them to fill in gaps in any other system
implemented.

That's not true either, they are a very viable alternative to private cars
just
because they do get used a lot more in a day than most private cars do.

only for people that do very little mileage, or cant drive

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.

But its not so true of a train in a capital city.

yes, of which we, like every country, have only one

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.

That assumes you wait for the bus to show up instead of getting there when
you know it leaves which is what most do with long distance bus trips.

no it doesnt. Mass transport timings here are often a farce, partly thanks to the level of congestion


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.

Only if driverless is viable.

indeed. I certainly hope it is


Huge vehicles made sense in Victorian times, but today much less so.

Still make sense for some situations tho like taking
the kids to school or home after its finished.

In some cases yes. It would seem sensible to use the same buses & drivers for other routes at other times.


NT