Future of transport

[paulkerton]

The new enhanced electric railways would be funded by reducing MP salaries

 

Very jingoistic but come on.... MPs basic salary combined is £54,693,600 (We can have another discussion about expenses, but this is specifically salary)

 

At an estimate of £4.5m per mile on the East Anglia Railway, you'd get 12 miles of track a year. That ignores all running costs, train costs and station costs...

[Norphy]

The salary for a MP who doesn't hold any ministerial office is a little over £84k. Yes, it's a good salary but considering the amount of responsibility they take on plus the hours most of them work and other factors I don't think it's unreasonable. There are plenty of public sector workers who earn similar amounts of money, if not more, including headteachers, senior doctors and about 10,000 civil servants. Are you planning on cutting their wages as well? Edited November 30, 2022 by Norphy

[mavhc]

Important to work at the right scale, are you talking millions, billions, or trillions?

 

Seems like the UN's meeting on automated cars last month didn't discuss anything that would allow decent FSD, and the EU adopts their recommendations.

 

UNECE DCAS regulations

[houlta]

The salary for a MP who doesn't hold any ministerial office is a little over £84k. Yes, it's a good salary but considering the amount of responsibility they take on plus the hours most of them work and other factors I don't think it's unreasonable. There are plenty of public sector workers who earn similar amounts of money, if not more, including headteachers, senior doctors and about 10,000 civil servants. Are you planning on cutting their wages as well?

 

Responsibility?

 

The other workers you listed at least have some.

[6Foot2]

Link: Imperial College working with Royal Navy on groundbreaking system to replace GPS on ships

 

...In the near future, it is hoped the vessel will achieve full automation so that it can drive itself. This is desirable in war fighting situations, where a self driving vessel can be put on a threat and gather intelligence mission without putting people in danger. He stressed such trials were important so as to explore and find “back ups to GPS”. “GPS can be denied and degraded, as we’ve seen with GPS jamming,” he said..

[mavhc]

https://www.regentcraft.com/

[dcwhitworth]

https://www.regentcraft.com/

 

Nothing new, ground effect vehicles have been around for a long while and have never caught on. Much like flying boats, the benefits don't outweigh the limitations. I don't imagine strapping electric motors on them is going to change things. The Russians were very serious about these things. A search for Ekranoplan or Caspian Sea Monster will yield much entertainment.

[Andrew_C]

Flying boats, whilst a niche market, are alive and well in areas without runways, but plenty of rivers/lakes.

[stevejp]

Flying boats, whilst a niche market, are alive and well in areas without runways, but plenty of rivers/lakes.

 

Real flying boats, or sea planes?

[dcwhitworth]

Flying boats, whilst a niche market, are alive and well in areas without runways, but plenty of rivers/lakes.

 

True, places such as Canada spring to mind. But that's my point, it's niche technology and since the Seaglider can only operate over water it's even more niche.

[Sheridan]

Public transport is always going to seem a little bit like a backward step compared to having your own personal transport (whatever it is) so its a hard sell

 

Maybe the future should concentrate hard on:

 

a) making cars greener by whatever methods (electric, hydrogen and synthetic fuels)

b) making them smaller - SUVs etc are getting silly now and electric ones even more so

c) actually designing road systems to promote flow

 

Point c) is a big bugbear with me - in the last 15 years around here every single 'improvement' has immediately created a new bottleneck/traffic blackspot where previously it was maybe only busy at certain times. I'm sure a part of that is policy to create environment for city taxes etc but it doesn't help clear the traffic or air!

[Davit2005]

Public transport is not an option for me for work commute at the moment, I'm not wasting 2 hours (if I'm lucky) doing a 25mile each way commute. I only have a car for work and even though I passed my test in the late 80's about 1/3rd of that time I have not had a car and used public transport, walking, running or cycling up to 6 miles each way. If I lived 10miles from work I'd probably not have a car and would use a push bike but 50miles a day is pushing it a bit. Edited June 8, 2023 by Davit2005

[Norphy]

Public transport out of large towns and cities is a no-go for most people I think. The nearest bus stop to me is an hours walk, and even then the buses come hourly at best.

[smurfomatic]

Public transport is not an option for me for work commute at the moment, I'm not wasting 2 hours (if I'm lucky) doing a 25mile each way commute. I only have a car for work and even though I passed my test in the late 80's about 1/3rd of that time I have not had a car and used public transport, walking, running or cycling up to 6 miles each way. If I lived 10miles from work I'd probably not have a car and would use a push bike but 50miles a day is pushing it a bit.

 

In theory public transport would be quite simple for me - train station about 15 minutes walk from my house, three stops down the line to work and the station is across the road. However, that 15 minute train journey would cost about £60 a week, whereas driving an electric car is costing about a fifth of that.

Edited June 8, 2023 by smurfomatic

[Andrew_C]

Other countries can manage public transport. Possibly because they are investing the profits they make from running ours, in their own country.

[LeMarchand]

When I first started working in EDU, a bus a few minutes from my house went pretty close to all my sites. Now it would be an infrequent bus or 30 minute walk to town, bus to the city centre and a bus back out. The train station is 20 minutes walk, but only one school is near a station. As I could be covering more than one site on any given day and have a heavy bag, public transport is currently only an "emergency fallback". Unfortunately, few people live close to their place of work these days. I'd love to have a job at a school within walking distance!

 

In an ideal world, we could have a fleet of self-driving cars on the road that we could just book to come and collect us/drop us off. Even when the tech is ready, it would never happen as too many powerful companies would lose their revenue streams.

[Davit2005]

In theory public transport would be quite simple for me - train station about 15 minutes walk from my house, three stops down the line to work and the station is across the road. However, that 15 minute train journey would cost about £60 a week, whereas driving an electric car is costing about a fifth of that.

 

I actually did near enough the same route as I do now (jus where I am now is further down the line) for 3 years till it got to me, overcrowded trains, trains not turning up, winter was a complete nightmare. there was only one train per hour after a certain time, etc. etc. I can't understand why they charge more for peak time travel do they think people actually like getting on a packed train with barely breathing space out of choice.

[mavhc]

Supply and demand.

 

Self driving should change everything.

 

As soon as you need to buy a car you might as well use it all the time as it's cheaper than public transport, especially if there's >1 person in the car

 

Make everything on demand, put your journey into the app, earlier you do it the cheaper it is, and car/minibus/bus will turn up, depending on demand. And if long journey, drive to railway station

[jmak]

I actually did near enough the same route as I do now (jus where I am now is further down the line) for 3 years till it got to me, overcrowded trains, trains not turning up, winter was a complete nightmare. there was only one train per hour after a certain time, etc. etc. I can't understand why they charge more for peak time travel do they think people actually like getting on a packed train with barely breathing space out of choice.

The theory is that it puts you off travelling at that time...

 

It doesn't take account of the fact that people using the service have no choice about when they travel.

[Ditto]

Public transport is always going to seem a little bit like a backward step compared to having your own personal transport (whatever it is) so its a hard sell

 

Maybe the future should concentrate hard on:

 

a) making cars greener by whatever methods (electric, hydrogen and synthetic fuels)

b) making them smaller - SUVs etc are getting silly now and electric ones even more so

c) actually designing road systems to promote flow

 

Point c) is a big bugbear with me - in the last 15 years around here every single 'improvement' has immediately created a new bottleneck/traffic blackspot where previously it was maybe only busy at certain times. I'm sure a part of that is policy to create environment for city taxes etc but it doesn't help clear the traffic or air!

100% agree. From the other side of the river it is exactly the same. The rail network in to central London is fine if you are on on near a mainline, but journey times to places that are nearer. My nearest town is just over 30 minute bike ride, 40-60 minutes by rail subject to joining connections, up to 30-40 minutes by car and can be over an hour by bus. Much of this reflects the star radial network and near non-existent bus services. Intersecting circular public transport connections are extremely poor and as a result a huge swathe of the south east I ignore for employment due to too long travel times by public transport and jammed packed road systems. I see no easy solutions, so yes, just make what we have a lot greener.

[Ditto]

In theory public transport would be quite simple for me - train station about 15 minutes walk from my house, three stops down the line to work and the station is across the road. However, that 15 minute train journey would cost about £60 a week, whereas driving an electric car is costing about a fifth of that.

For me too, cost of public trains is a killer. It's odd too as all the trains here run on electricity and I hear it stated fares are still subsidised. Trains to London are rammed even now, so there appears to be no economy of scale. Doesn't make sense that it's invariably cheaper for me to drive my ICE car places with just me in it than go by rail.

[Andrew_C]

Someone will be along shortly to remind us that road travel is heavily subsidized* but "we can't do that for trains, buses, or trams" because urop.

 

*central govt fund their construction & maintenance.

[midweek]

Doesn't make sense that it's invariably cheaper for me to drive my ICE car places with just me in it than go by rail.

 

I'm visiting London from Scotland for a weekend soon and it was going to cost me twice as much to take me and the mrs on a train than to drive my diesel-guzzling 2009 BMW down (including the ULEZ fee!). Nuts.

[LeMarchand]

I'm visiting London from Scotland for a weekend soon and it was going to cost me twice as much to take me and the mrs on a train than to drive my diesel-guzzling 2009 BMW down (including the ULEZ fee!). Nuts.

 

If you're near the right city, flying would probably be cheaper. Factoring in getting to the airport etc might take the sheen off the price, though.

[midweek]

If you're near the right city, flying would probably be cheaper. Factoring in getting to the airport etc might take the sheen off the price, though.

 

I have a fear of flying! Even so I checked and it was cheaper than the train but still more than diesel costs.