Affordable metro systems are bad for traffic, amirite?

I think if we had something like china's metro system many people wouldn't own cars.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Wow, an actually unpopular opinion

by Prudent_Hat9679 2 days ago

You're almost there in terms of understanding peoples' considerations regarding transport. The better way to do it is to push people towards public transport in general. Metros connect long distances between hubs, buses connect those hubs to spoke estates. People want the most accessible and affordable form of transport. If roads are overcrowded and the metro is not, they'll move towards the metro since it's better than the bus. If the metro is crowded and unreliable, people will go for the bus instead. If public transport sucks in general, they'll go for personal transport instead, or whatever the next thing they can afford is. If you make a decent public transport system, you'll give people the choice between a decent bus and a decent metro, balancing the load and enticing more personal transport owners.

by dorothy51 2 days ago

Your ignorance is baffling. I take the Metro to work every day and not once did I take a bus. There's about 50 coworkers on it and neither have they. On average there's 30 people in one carriage and you say that, when these people each take their car to work instead of the metro, traffic would be less? Do you know how many people take the bus or metro? Look it up and that's the amount of cars you want extra on the roads.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

How crowded is the metro where you work. My experience is with Delhi Metro and its so overcrowded that people with cars will drive 2 hrs to work instead of 1 hour by train . And the busses are pretty empty compared to what they were before the Metro started in Delhi.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Brussels, there's an average of, and I have to guess now, a couple of hundred people in one metro train. There's several Metrolines and there's a metro every 15 minutes on average. That means that there would be thousands of extra cars on the roads. You should also take into account that metros, because they drive underground and not on the road, have no significant role when you look at street traffic. I don't know what your sources are but they're not based in reality.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Most of Delhi metro is elevated with the lines only going underground in the city center. Delhi has 12 lines with 440 km of track and trains every 2 minutes. Each train has 8 coaches with the rated standing capacity of each coach 50 people but it often has more than 100 people in it. Initially when it was launched many car owners switched for the time savings but then the govt did not increase fares for almost 20 years and it became dirt cheap. For example it costs 10 rupees or 10 euro cents to go 10 km by metro. The bus costs 3 times as much and Uber costs almost 30 times as much. Net result the bases are running half empty. Anyone with a car or bike drives their own vehicle and the trains are used by only the poor people or students. Traffic is as bad as always. I didn't say metros are bad for traffic. They become bad when they are too cheap.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

That's more of an issue of poor investment than the extreme affordability. Charging less = less money for operations = less money set aside for future expansion and investment = poorer service that pushes people to other services instead. You're jumping multiple steps towards a conclusion.

by dorothy51 2 days ago

If you want better traffic you need to take cars off the road. For that to happen the metro has to be reasonably comfortable and people will give up privacy for speed. But if you have a system where metro costs less than bus but is faster than bus noone uses the bus. In turn it means the metro is too overcrowded for people with an option. Now they could take the bus but that takes just as long as the car so why not take the car and have your privacy.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

It is an unpopular opinion because it is a stupid take. If you have a good metro well connected to other public mass transit systems (buses, tram, bicycle road, ...), then most of the journey are done via those. Car become less used. The problem is when there is no mass transit system or if it is poorly planned, managed and maintained. * Does not serve most journey => use car * Always unreliable => use car. * Always over crowded => use car. * Start late and terminate early => use car. * Feel not safe => use car. * ...

by Anonymous 2 days ago

You could have a well maintained, expansive, clean, safe, reliable metro running 6 AM to 12AM with trains every 2 minutes like Delhi Metro does but as long as its too affordable it will always be overcrowded and car owners will drive instead.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Singapore has an extremely affordable metro system that fits all those criteria, and people actually use it daily. It's far from overcrowded.

by dorothy51 2 days ago

Singapore has a 20000 dollar tax on buying a car. Singapore metro IS overcrowded. Many of my classmates in grad school from Singapore loved the fact they could actually own a car in the US.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

For most car owners the price difference between fuel costs and metro fare is not big enough to take the metro . They may be willing to take it for time savings but if its too uncomfortable they will trade time for comfort. A more workable system is you set the fare at a level where the metro is crowded enough that people are standing but not so crowded that they are literally touching each other. Then car users will use the metro and traffic will improve. For those who can't afford the higher metro fares busses will still get them to their destination just slower.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

if they're paying 10000% on cars of course they will, they will not have a choice.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Is anything ever taxed at 10000%. Not even alcohol or Marijuana is taxed at 10000%

by Anonymous 2 days ago

cars, in this scenario.

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Ok

by Anonymous 2 days ago

Not unpopular, just wrong

by InterviewGlobal3410 2 days ago