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Avicebron 4 hours ago

Why don't we just build high speed electrified rail and busses. Why this rollout of electrified golf carts? My car is fast and fun to drive, that's part of it's job alongside getting me where I need to go.

If I just need to get somewhere, I want to take a clean fast train like Japan and then walk.

eigenspace 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Is this implication here that you think this car is an electrified golf cart? What makes you think that it wouldn't be fast or fun to drive? Most electric cars are extremely fun to drive due to their extremely high acceleration.

The development and building of newer, more efficient electric vehicles does not preclude the investment in more high speed electrified rail and busses. That complaint is a non-sequitor.

crote 4 hours ago | parent [-]

That depends on your definition of "fun to drive". Flooring it loses its charm within a week, and with the additional weight most EVs are awful when it comes to taking corners at speed.

EVs might be fun for drag racing, but if you want to drive on a circuit ICE is still the better option for now.

eigenspace 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Yeah I can't speak much to circuit racing (nor drag racing for that matter). I just know that the EV's I've driven have been fun to drive. I don't believe that most people talking about "fun to drive" are taking their cars to a racetrack either though.

I guess I haven't taken any corners agressively enough to really notice the problems you describe with weight.

I will say though that at least for non-racetrack scenarios, the extra weight isn't always as noticable as you'd think because the centre of mass tends to be extremely low relative to an ICE vehicle.

noir_lord 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

More and more buses in my local mass transit system have moved to EV's (these specifically https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_GB_Kite) as they age out their older buses and build out the infrastructure they needed.

I like them, they are smoother and quieter than the ones they replaced (in fairness that was the oldest diesel buses mostly), I don't like the new on board announcement "Next stop <X>, You are at <X>" style but that's because I'm not partially sighted/blind and it's a small price for making life a lot easier for those folks (and headphones exist).

Lio 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why can't an electric car be fun to drive? I have an old car I'm not planning on changing but electric cars I've driven just seem quieter, smoother and just better than ICE vehicles.

rtkwe 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

That /just/ is bearing a lot of weight there. And what is Volkswagen going to do to build highspeed rail, they're a car company so they're making cars...

The US is trapped in a local maximum due to history, geography and finally politics. There's a lot of local resistance specifically to highspeed rail because to stay highspeed the trains usually bypass smaller local towns so they don't get the benefit but all the negatives of it's construction.

swiftcoder 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> electrified golf carts

I'm not clear how something that ran up to 138 kmph (85 mph) during an (intentionally low-speed) efficiency test, would be equivalent to a golf cart?

kotaKat 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Why don't we just build high speed electrified rail

Good luck convincing all those Americans the rail line has to run through their property to freely give up the right-of-way. You're already dead in the first few hundred feet of rail when the first person says "fuck off, no" and starts challenging your eminent domain.

oklahomasports 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

How on earth would that work in Houston? Why on earth would people want to arrive at any destination soaked in sweat? Everyday on here someone makes a tendentious post about the viability of public transit.

eigenspace 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

What does that have to do with being soaked in sweat? I could understand if they suggested everyone get around by bike, but this is just silly.

Electric busses and trains can have quite powerful and good air conditioning systems.

The problem with this in Houston is the disgracefully stupid urban layout that makes it very hard to effectively serve the city with public transit.

oklahomasports 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Trains can only get you right next to a very small fraction of the city. The rest of the way you have to walk(I call it the “last mile” problem)

eigenspace 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Mostly due to the poor design of the city, yes.

Do we really need to turn this into a discussion of lost causes? Yes, you monumentally fucked up urban design in many parts of your country.

Yes, fixing it is theoretically possible. No, it can't be done in any reasonably small time scale.

oklahomasports 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Euros own hundreds of millions of cars

eigenspace 2 hours ago | parent [-]

What is your point?

fuzzfactor 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The light rail is especially chilly, but it has to be with how often they open all the doors at every stop and let in a little heat each time.

As a planned city the downtown urban area was ideal for all kinds of transportation, with streets wide enough not to be obstructed by double-parked wagons, and suitable for streetcars to be installed just about anywhere when they arrived. Much more amenable to public transport than SF or New Orleans, even though horses were the primary consideration to begin with.

The problem was always overpriced real estate downtown, and it got to be too late for newcomers to afford, so anyone that could then started or settled in nearby communities at different distances outside city limits.

With unbridled growth, the city gradually annexed or enclosed these "suburbs", some of which are inside the 610 loop. Pretty much part of the urban area now, but not originally connected by more than one trail usually, which must have left some residual bottlenecks to this day. And that's inside the loop, where people once commuted in from the western suburb of Bellaire, or the close-in location of the Heights.

Just outside the loop to the southeast, people used to consciously depart from Houston and drive "all the way out" to Pasadena. When public transport was on the rise in the county (far too late) about 50 years ago, Pasadena voted not to pay the extra 1% sales tax which was earmarked for Metro, simply because they did not want innumerable people in the big city who couldn't afford cars to descend on their much smaller industrial suburb so easily.

I guess without intervention, stupidity trumps planning if growth is excessive or too accelerated.

For me, I'm just fine on a bike in 100 degree heat with (life-giving) humidity to boot, but I'm probably not the average senior citizen. The homes I like best were built specifically for this climate before A/C, and have more than enough windows to open, and I prefer not to use A/C when driving alone either.

I came from Florida so this is Northern Living to me, if I didn't like it hot I wouldn't be here :)

crote 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

"No way to do this", says only country not doing it yet.

oklahomasports 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

No country has a city the size of Houston with its low density where you can get anywhere with public transit.

fragmede 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Yeah that's because it's not a city. Cities are dense enough to support a bus network or else it's just a town or sprawling suburb.

JumpCrisscross 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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