Thursday, June 11, 2009

subsidize taxis

I pretty much hate mass transit, but understand that there is a place for it.

I mostly don't like waiting for things, or sitting next to strangers, or stopping every 20 seconds.

But I was looking at a chart last night that showed the comparative fuel efficiency of a variety of transport options and it is undeniable that buses are quite efficient when they are full.

They are also the least efficient transport option in existence when they are empty.

My idea: only run buses during times of the day when they are the most efficient option, then subsidize other transport options (like taxis) during the quiet hours. I don't know what the exact rate structure should be, but the city would save a silly amount of money by only running buses 10-14 hours/day instead of 24.

The reduction of diesel particulate emissions would be even greater than the reduction of energy consumption, since most buses are diesel powered.

3 comments:

liamk said...

why aren't you in charge of everything?!

shaun said...

Engineers should never be in charge of anything.

Just look at Japan and Germany.

Clean, tidy, and efficient, but also boring, insular, and highly suicidal.

Also, the only Engineer president in the US was Herbert Hoover. He is generally blamed for turning a recession into the first depression.

liamk said...

ok, you've convinced me!

also, according to the transformers movie, hoover also built the hoover damn around the apparently inactive remains of Megatron, which now that you've enlightened me does seek like the type of decision an engineer might make!