Should diesel vehicles be banned from the city centre?

[Flexo]

Proterra electric buses have a nominal range (on battery only) of up to 350 miles.

[Puggie]

Better public transport is much more effective.

 

Across the world cities have been investing in trams, trains, and bus networks. As a general trend these systems have been getting cleaner and more efficient, but there is a fundamental limitation - these MRT systems are only capable of moving people on pre-determined static routes, often requiring an individual to make additional journeys either pre or post MRT, sometimes both.

 

MRT does not offer a door-to-door service in its current form, and there's little room for flexibility with these systems.

It should come as no surprise therefore that despite investment in mass transport, there has been no correlative reduction of in-city congestion, or the number of vehicles on the roads within our cities. We are still building vertically to accommodate our love of cars. If you look at photographs of Sheffield's skyline for example you'll be able to identify numerous structures that serve a single purpose - to house our cars. We give these structures affectionate names like 'kitkat' and 'cheese grater'.

 

Car sharing only works if you're going to and from the same place and all work the same hours.

 

Ten or twenty years ago this would be a valid argument. Employers with limited parking facilities would encourage members of staff to share rides to and from the workplace. This was mostly delivered on an ad-hoc basis, and schemes were few and far between.

 

Fast forward to the 21st century and technology is fostering new ways of fixing old problems. The emergence of the 'sharing economy' has created platforms for individuals to share resources with ease. The most emblematic of course being Uber. The uberPOOL product for example allows riders with similar dropoff locations to share the same car in exchange for a cheaper fare.

 

Imagine rolling this out en-masse - it's not hard to see how door-to-door might end up solving the limitations of public transport whilst simultaneously reducing congestion on the roads.

[geared]

Across the world cities have been investing in trams, trains, and bus networks. As a general trend these systems have been getting cleaner and more efficient, but there is a fundamental limitation - these MRT systems are only capable of moving people on pre-determined static routes, often requiring an individual to make additional journeys either pre or post MRT, sometimes both.

 

MRT does not offer a door-to-door service in its current form, and there's little room for flexibility with these systems.

It should come as no surprise therefore that despite investment in mass transport, there has been no correlative reduction of in-city congestion, or the number of vehicles on the roads within our cities. We are still building vertically to accommodate our love of cars. If you look at photographs of Sheffield's skyline for example you'll be able to identify numerous structures that serve a single purpose - to house our cars. We give these structures affectionate names like 'kitkat' and 'cheese grater'.

 

 

 

Ten or twenty years ago this would be a valid argument. Employers with limited parking facilities would encourage members of staff to share rides to and from the workplace. This was mostly delivered on an ad-hoc basis, and schemes were few and far between.

 

Fast forward to the 21st century and technology is fostering new ways of fixing old problems. The emergence of the 'sharing economy' has created platforms for individuals to share resources with ease. The most emblematic of course being Uber. The uberPOOL product for example allows riders with similar dropoff locations to share the same car in exchange for a cheaper fare.

 

Imagine rolling this out en-masse - it's not hard to see how door-to-door might end up solving the limitations of public transport whilst simultaneously reducing congestion on the roads.

 

What sort of disconnected and idiotic rubbish is this??

 

People NEED to know how they are getting to work in the morning, they NEED to know how they are getting home after. Car sharing is a dream for a perfect world, it should be encouraged but it's not a solution to larger problems.

 

Public transport improvements is the best solution we have at the moment.

People need to get to work, they need to earn a living, you can't ignore the obvious.

Edited April 4, 2017 by geared

[Puggie]

People NEED to know how they are getting to work in the morning, they NEED to know how they are getting home after.

 

Ride sharing is happening my friend and it's rolling out across cities all over the world.

 

I pooled last month in fact. East Midlands train down to London, pressed a button on my phone and within 5 minutes my uberPOOL car carrying another passenger picked me up outside St Pancras station.

 

Again this can only happen in liberal markets where creative ideas for getting people from A to B aren't molested by 17th century regulation. There are many jurisdictions which still criminalise the sharing economy.

 

Here is an example of an Uber-like bus service that has recently started in Boston Massachusetts. Routes are dynamic based upon who's going where. All delivered using clever algorithms with customers getting to their destinations at 2x the speed of traditional bus service.

 

http://www.bridj.com/

Edited April 4, 2017 by Puggie

[Eater Sundae]

Ride sharing is happening my friend and it's rolling out across cities all over the world.

 

I pooled last month in fact. East Midlands train down to London, pressed a button on my phone and within 5 minutes my uberPOOL car carrying another passenger picked me up outside St Pancras station.

 

Again this can only happen in liberal markets where creative ideas for getting people from A to B aren't molested by 17th century regulation. There are many jurisdictions which still criminalise the sharing economy.

 

Here is an example of an Uber-like bus service that has recently started in Boston Massachusetts. Routes are dynamic based upon who's going where. All delivered using clever algorithms with customers getting to their destinations at 2x the speed of traditional bus service.

 

http://www.bridj.com/

 

Surely that IS public transport, not car sharing.

[Puggie]

I would say technology is slowly starting to erode how we define public transport.

 

We share a physical space with people on trams and busses, so why would sharing a car be any different?

 

Modern cities need flexible ways of getting individuals from A to B.

 

There's an interesting example of a town in Canada who have decided uberPOOL was more effective and cheaper than running a bus network so the council decided they would subsidise the car-pooling service as their own "public transport".

 

https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/uber-public-transit-canadian-town-innisfil/

Edited April 5, 2017 by Puggie

[Flexo]

I would say technology is slowly starting to erode how we define public transport.

 

We share a physical space with people on trams and busses, so why would sharing a car be any different?

 

We already have car rental by-the-hour where you just reserve the car using a website or phone app and then go to its parking bay, wave a card at it and get in.

 

Self-driving car technology is advancing amazingly rapidly -

.

 

Put the two together and it's easy to imagine opening up a phone app, choosing what size of car you want, then one drives itself to you.

[geared]

Ride sharing is happening my friend and it's rolling out across cities all over the world.

 

Not saying it isn't, or that it's not a good idea.

 

It's just not something you can count on as a solution.

[tinfoilhat]

Ride sharing is happening my friend and it's rolling out across cities all over the world.

 

I pooled last month in fact. East Midlands train down to London, pressed a button on my phone and within 5 minutes my uberPOOL car carrying another passenger picked me up outside St Pancras station.

 

Again this can only happen in liberal markets where creative ideas for getting people from A to B aren't molested by 17th century regulation. There are many jurisdictions which still criminalise the sharing economy.

 

Here is an example of an Uber-like bus service that has recently started in Boston Massachusetts. Routes are dynamic based upon who's going where. All delivered using clever algorithms with customers getting to their destinations at 2x the speed of traditional bus service.

 

http://www.bridj.com/

 

Uber lost about $2.2 billion last year. Just let that sink in a minute.

 

At some point the price is going to go up and that Canadian town without the buses (and I'm sure I've read of similar situations in the states) will suddenly get a large increase in the bill from uber and they won't be able to do much about it.

[geared]

Uber lost about $2.2 billion last year. Just let that sink in a minute.

 

At some point the price is going to go up and that Canadian town without the buses (and I'm sure I've read of similar situations in the states) will suddenly get a large increase in the bill from uber and they won't be able to do much about it.

 

Standard market dominance tactics.

 

Kill off all other competition, set whatever price you see fit.