What would the future of in buses be like?

[catsaregreat333]

Hi guys I am wondering what will the future of buses in Australia be like especially in suburban areas , maybe dynamic routing, on demand smaller vehicles maybe?

Or will buses in the suburban areas be completely replaced by uber ridesharing.

Thanks

[digitallagasse]

Originally Posted by catsaregreat333

Hi guys I am wondering what will the future of buses in Australia be like especially in suburban areas , maybe dynamic routing, on demand smaller vehicles maybe?

Or will buses in the suburban areas be completely replaced by uber ridesharing.

Thanks

Ridesharing is far more expensive than transit. Unless the trips are short and infrequent the economics are not in rideshares favor. That said some people are willing to pay more for it.

Las Vegas did recently start a pilot program with small shuttle buses that function as a ride share between the strip and airport. The shuttle buses are ran by the RTC. That is the transit agency. It has an app and the more people in the party the lower the price is per person. They also don't charge surge pricing. Will see in a year how this program is going. If the program works well the plan is to expand it outside the core strip to the rest of Las Vegas Blvd.

I think a fusion of ride share like service and transit may work out well. The biggest challenge is lack of walk-ability in all car centric areas. Depending on the trip both first and last mile can be a challenge for transit ridership. Use a ride share like service for the first and last mile to connect with transit. Transit then runs on the major congested corridors. If the whole trip can be seamlessly planned and featured a unified fare I believe it would have success.

[mrnyc]

^ the answer around here in nyc is ... dolla vans:

https://projects.newyorker.com/story/nyc-dollar-vans/

[Doady]

Ridesharing isn't hurting bus ridership in New York, Seattle, Las Vegas, Pittsburgh and other US cities that have decent bus service, so I doubt it will hurt Australian bus systems which generally provide even better service.

In some US cities, like New York, Boston and Pittsburgh, it was the rail system that lost riders in 2018, while the bus system gained riders.

Many bus systems have an on-demand service in addition to a fixed-route service. It's nothing new.

[llamaorama]

I think the problem with on-demand buses is there's no good way to know if you'll get to your destination quickly. An optimal traveling salesman route algorithm is only optimal in the sense it makes do with the initial set of edges and nodes you plug into it, it doesn't magically get you there faster.

The other issue with very small capacity vans and minibuses might be safety and the perception of safety. A benefit to riding a very large bus or train is that someone onboard makes you uncomfortable you can move. In a mini pod bus you might have to stare at a guy in a sleeveless shirt with a teardrop tattoo the entire ride. If a bum takes a shit or pukes in the mini pod, you get to sit in it the whole trip.

People are animals and will trash out autonomous taxis absent a cantankerous cabbie to stop them, I guarantee it. Facial recognition cameras inside the vehicles and every technical method you can think of to hold riders accountable for vandalism will be defeated and no camera can detect horrible BO that penetrates everything.