Not Just Bikes
5 HN mentions · mentioned in 4 months, 2022–2023
16:52 · 2.3M views · Jul 18, 2022
Not Just Bikes explains why Swiss trains are considered among the best in Europe and the world, covering frequency, connections and what riding them is like.
HN cites it as an example of public transit that runs like clockwork and is convenient enough to rival cars.
5 comments from Hacker News
I want trains and public transportation. Have lived 18 years in cities that had good public transportation. The kind where 95% of the population uses it often, many daily. Had friends who owned cars and they still mostly used public transportation. The cars were something for weekend trips but those friends were the exception. Unfortunately to get to that level in California means adding 60-80 lines with 20 to 40 stops each, having a train every 5 minutes, having express trains that skip stations, having the trains go fast, having busses every 10 minutes, keeping all of it clean and safe. We'll never get that and so people will keep asking for more freeways but the train can be so much nicer. Also, a common excuse is population density but.... Switzerland has tons of trains, is a 3x the size of the bay area with the same population Switzerland ~8 million people Bay Area ~8 million people Switzerland size: 41000 sqkm Bay Area size: 18000 sqkm Switzerland train tracks: 5200 km Bay Area train tracks: ??? (I think It's under 500 km so 1/10) Traveling on a train can be great! You get more space than a plane, you can work, relax, eat, etc... Vs a car where you mostly have to spend all your time concentrating on driving. this video
I think this is the wrong way to think about it. It's not about taking away people's cars, it's about making public transit so good (and building cities/neighborhoods that you don't need a car in), that you don't want to take a car, because it's less convenient. this video I think this quote really nails it: "A developed country is not where the poor have cars, it's where the rich use public transit" It's also worth noting that car driving is the worst kind of positive feedback loop (not a positive thing). Cars need Parking, which makes it harder to put things close together, which makes you need to drive places to get there, which makes you need parking. And cars are much bigger than humans, so the amount of space needed for cars, also increases much bigger than it would for humans.
> Public transit is no good. It's easy and convenient: • [LINK] • this video > I don’t want to walk to a station and then share the space with other people. I don’t want to lug grocery bags around. Alright, use a bicycle then. I hear ebikes are pretty good these days. Or use a micro car if you must: [LINK] . > I want to make pit stops. A bicycle is better than a car for this. > I want to go off road. Bicycle again, but if you really wanna use a car the few times a year you may wanna go off road, go ahead. > Want to live in the suburbs or semi rural areas so I can have a lot of land. By all means, go ahead. Just as long as you pay in full for all the negative externalities you inflict on everyone else by doing so.
> Good luck in Poland, where an hour delay for a train is not a surprise. Worth remembering this is not inherent to trains, as evidenced by countries who run their trains like clockwork, e.g., the Swiss: * this video Also the Japanese, who issue official apologies when trains leave 20-25 seconds earlier : * [LINK] * [LINK] (Presumably because people time their connections so closely.)
You can do without schedules if they are frequent enough (as in, people don't have to check the schedule) This is one thing that seems to be severly lacking in the US, afaict. this video