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Is there such a thing as being too safe? Jeff Kaufman writes that buses are much safer than cars, by about a factor of 67 but buses are not very popular and one of the main reasons is that if you look at situations where people who can afford private transit take mass transit instead, speed is the main factor. According to Kauffman, we should look at ways to make buses faster so more people will ride them, even if this means making them somewhat more dangerous. Kauffman presents some ideas, roughly in order from "we should definitely do this" to "this is crazy, but it would probably still reduce deaths overall when you take into account that more people would ride the bus": Suggestions include not to require buses to stop and open their doors at railroad crossings, allow the driver to start while someone is still at the front paying, allow buses to drive 25mph on the shoulder of the highway in traffic jams where the main lanes are averaging below 10mph, and leave (city) bus doors open, allowing people to get on and off any time at their own risk. "If we made buses more dangerous by the same percentage that motorcycles are more dangerous than cars," concludes Kauffman, "they would still be more than twice as safe as cars."
(Score: 3, Informative) by bart on Saturday March 19 2016, @12:48PM
Here in the Netherlands pretty much all highway shoulders are being used by public transport buses during congestion.
You can still buy a ticket in the bus, and the driver is pretty much always driving while doing the transaction :-)
And stopping for a railroad, what nonsense. There's this barrier in front or at least a red light that is supposed to tell you not to drive when there's a train coming.
So we're 100% there dude :-)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 19 2016, @01:01PM
Never underestimate the stoneage-ness of parts of the US rail system. Automated safety systems - while ubiquitous in the Netherlands - are probably not universal there.
Sad, isn't it?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Francis on Saturday March 19 2016, @02:38PM
The US is the 3rd largest country by land mass and has one of the most developed rail systems in the world. Do you have any idea how much it would cost to install and monitor all the crossings throughout the entire country?
Even if you just restrict it to actual urban areas, that's still a huge amount of money. But we already tend to do that. Unfortunately, people and cars still wind up being struck by trains because people are fucking stupid.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 19 2016, @10:25PM
In the United States, buses are largely confined to urban areas. Intercity buses are a rarity, and they mainly travel by expressway. Hence adding barriers to the level crossings in rural places would have little effect on bus travellers.