I have some theories about a new mode of organizing public transport and I'd like to see if it'd be viable. Is there a publicly available database of traffic patterns in a given city (preferably European). Like how many people go from what place to where, and by which vehicle at what time.Since I'm blocked from posting for a good 3 minutes, I might as well write it down. I want a self -driving microbus system, inspired by American schoolbuses. which goes around the neighborhood, but has a single destination.How the system would work is a small bus (housing like 8 people) would go around the city and pick up people, and drop them off either at their destination. or transport them to a series of mini-hubs. These mini-hubs would be arranged around the chosen destination, so that people at each hub would want to go in the same general direction. Then a second bus would take them there.
You've just described a community bus/shared taxi with dynamic optimization in the Uber sense. Been there, someone else's is doing that.>database of traffic patterns in a given city (preferably European)Just look up "cultural enrichment" stabbings. Correlates (in the covariate sense) and is causal in most cases
>>2018673Congrats, you reinvented a jitney and ignored economies of scale.
>>2018673>inspired by American schoolbusesAmerican school buses have terrible routes, have terrible commute, and often have the shittiest kids in the system. If anything they train children to hate public transportation.
>>2018673>How the system would work is a small bus (housing like 8 people) would go around the city and pick up people, and drop them off either at their destination.My metro area, Kansas City, Missouri, has this part of it.They call it O.A.T.S. It's free for seniors and people with disabilities. For other people it's 1.50 a ride. You call at least 3 days in advance and give OATS the times you want to get picked up and they roll up with a short bus (handicapped accessible). They'll take you anywhere within the metro area and pick you up. Seniors use it to go to Doctor appointments and grocery stores. My mom used it for 6 months after she had a knee replacement and couldn't drive for a while. Took her to PT twice a week and the grocery store 2x a week.https://www.oatstransit.org/Usually red states don't go out of the way to do something neat like this but this saved me $4000 in Ubers. Jah bless. Now I can take that money I saved and buy a fredsled carbon bike for Christmas. Found money since I discovered OATS at the 11th hour.
>>2018673>Is there a publicly available database of traffic patterns in a given city (preferably European).Strava Heat Map
I just can’t see why they would want to go to a series of mini-hubs instead of just taking a bus downtown. If they’re going to two places far away from each other downtown, they can rent a bike or call an Uber I guess.
It's called DRT (Demand Responsive Transit), and it sucks. The problem is simply if you had enough density, it would be more efficient (for passengers and operator) to simply run various fixed routes. The most efficient last mile is always walking.
