• 2 Posts
  • 27 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • My understanding is that trams are much more cost effective long-term than buses, because the rails last much much longer than asphalt or even concrete.

    They also have other benefits:

    • Smoother, less bumpy ride
    • Bigger capacity than buses, with the possibility to add up to 5 cars
    • Don’t have to wait at traffic lights (We can install sensors to detect a tram is coming and switch the light so that it can go ahead without waiting. That’s technically doable for an BRT/SRB, but it’s more complex and as you can see, they didn’t do it for SRB Pie-IX…🙁)
    • Less noisy
    • Easier to electrify
    • Easier to automate (make them self-driving)
    • No tires means less pollution
    • Grass can be added between the 2 rails, making it more pleasant looking, absorbing heat and noise
    • Level boarding make them more accessible
    • and more

    You can see this thread for more benefits: https://www.reddit.com/r/notjustbikes/comments/qftru7/why_trams_and_trains_over_buses/










  • Yes, and no. It’s not as easy. We do need to switch to renewable energy if we want to solve the crisis, but more importantly we need to stop using fossil fuel. Unfortunately, if you look at history, every time we discovered a new energy source like solar, hydro or wind, we never actually stopped using the older energy sources. For example, if you look at coal, we use more coal today than ever before in history, despite having found “better” options like petrol.

    So yeah, it cool that we have new ways to build solar panel, but unless we actually stop using fossil fuel, then it won’t stop the crisis.