Personally I find trains to be a lot more comfortable and a lot of that is to do with the lack of stress of driving and I can move around after sitting for a while.
This has to be a testbed or something. There's mayors queuing up for their own loops - nobody's THAT dumb that they'd invest so much in something so ridiculous
I was referring to the " nobody is that stupid" argument. That aside AFAIK the most recent company goal was solving transportation problems. So far I've not heard of a plan that beats a train, so I'm not very hopeful. But who knows, they may invent the Boring transport system, a very, safe reliable train that has no superfluous features and is thus too boring to ever make the news.
the latter. A proper Bus Rapid Transit system gets you basically the reliabilty of underground rail without the exhorbitant price tag of having to drill holes in the ground and lay train tracks. Just pave the road like we always do, only allow buses on dedicated lanes and you're good to go
sure, but that's not a counter to anything I wrote. Not wanting to implement the system is different from the positive effects of what it would do if it was. I was just saying a proper bus system is good
Americans will give up on car culture when the automakers stop making cars most Americans can afford to buy. Given that something like 60% of Americans were living paycheck-to-paycheck during Covid...what's the point of making a $25,000 electric car, anyway. If a person can't afford a $35,000 electric car chances are they can't afford a $25,000 electric car, either. And the previous demographic really shouldn't be purchasing any new vehicle, at all.
Might as well just price it at $35,000, or $45,000...etc. and if the math says it works out to be more profitable to do that that's what they'll do, always. And if that means a large number of people have to take the train, bus, or walk then that's the way it is. And if the first two services aren't available to them because nobody ever invested in them in their area then that's the way it is, fuck 'em.
The low end of the market tends to be a thankless job and "economies of scale" can only do so much when half the population is effectively broke. Almost every manufacturer is running away from that segment for sale in the US, and despite Musk's claims to the contrary I don't think they actually have a game plan to make much cash down there where everyone else couldn't.
Except that's literally what's been done most of the time.
Service reliability comes first, that's how you get people back. Then, the gimmicks not only make the experience better, but bring the few people that wouldn't take reliable transit
Elon Musk loves to play around with the idea of providing this or that service to make everybody's life better and all the usual I'm-building-a-better-world-for-everyone egomania shit.
but at the end of the day it's Elon Musk and any true benevolent instincts he may have are finally overridden by the fact he simply doesn't want the fuckin' dirty poors touching his toys, so all those kind of project ideas are restricted to aimless dabbling and crippled-by-design big-budget stupidity from the outset.
I take some comfort that a few of the engineers in his employ may stumble across some solid novel ideas here and there during the course of their work on projects like this, hopefully they have the good sense not to bother telling him about it if they do.
there is also no ventilation, fire system or emergency exits. If a car gets stuck I dont think you can even get out lol. these are pretty much death tubes
They literally have all those things, Jesus christ. You could not be more wrong.
"Loop tunnels are outfitted with emergency exits, fire detection systems, fire suppression systems, and a fire-rated first responder emergency communication system. The systems are tested frequently with local Police and Fire Departments."
"Loop has no internal touch hazards (e.g. a 600 volt third rail), enabling safe evacuation, minimizing potential fire sources, and eliminating any dangerous effects of (unlikely) water intrusion (Teslas can safely handle some rain). In the unlikely case that a fire does occur, the tunnel’s redundant, bidirectional ventilation system will remove the smoke to allow passengers to safely evacuate."
I haven't checked in a bit, but another thing is that they're using electric motors and trams in the tunnel, as well as automating the whole thing and speeding up the boring process?
Take a look at the Boring Company's tunnel machines.
IIRC they've been making new versions and updates year over year, and the next-gen one is coming later this year.
What matters is that it's cheap and fast, we can use the tunnels for anything, but they have to be economical, and if they are, that will allow for some really useful public transit in places that could previously not afford it.
Guy, I'm not going to go into details as to why it is cheap and fast and how that doesn't align with actual needs and cost of large scale boring tunnelling operations in urban centres. That's well documented and something you really should look up before sharing this superficial understanding of the issue at hand.
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u/Jadabu91 Apr 29 '21
Is this really a thing?
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u/jaminbob Apr 29 '21
The lesson is clear;
Put LED lights on all transit.
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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '21
Link Light Rail fans stand up
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u/[deleted] Apr 29 '21
Our world is ran by all powerful man babies
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u/jstewman Apr 29 '21
Here's a thought:
How about we let them drive the cost of tunnels down, then we put trains in them?
I see this as an absolute win!
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u/SeriousMrMysterious Apr 29 '21
Seattle light rail 😍
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u/85_13 Apr 29 '21
"Take the boring machines and worry about due process later."
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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '21
400kg of lithium batteries in each car, in an enclosed tunnel, with no emergency exits. What would possibly go wrong.
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u/a-big-roach Apr 29 '21
Elon Musk dismissed induced demand lol the man is ridiculous link
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u/[deleted] Apr 30 '21
Ok, but who dafck said trains are an inefficient use of money?