On the Convenience of Buses Making Self-Driving Cars Obsolete

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In the last two days I ran 8.7 and 7.6km. I also walked 7km and 6 or more kilometres. I’m also recovering from a cold. That’s why yesterday I broke a fundamental rule, by catching a bus.

For clarity, I am opposed to buses because their frequency is low, and at 3 CHF per trip per direction the bus is an expense I don’t need, as I am happy to walk.

Last night was different in two key way. The first is that it was around 23:30 and getting home faster made sense. The second is that the people I was with were also taking buses or trains. We still took three different trains and buses but the departure times were similar.

In the process I saw how fast and convenient the bus is. Within a few seconds you get from A to B, and within a few minutes you’re at your destination. The price was 2.40 CHF. I thought it was more. I think it was about 1.90 or so before. I don’t remember.

The trip takes 9 minutes down to Nyon by bus, and 6 minutes by bike. It takes about 28 minutes on foot but that is distracting us.

The convenience of Buses Replacing Self Driving Cars

Years ago I overtook someone driving beneath the speed limit, and it was serious enough for me to lose the right to drive for a month. I saw this as a legitimate excuse not to drive. This was an opportunity to take advantage of a new freedom.

When you drive you become traffic. You need to be attentive to what others are doing ahead and behind you. You also have to be attentive to the road. You can’t be distracted by your phone. This means that for every commute you need to be focused for the entire time. If you take buses, and trains you get an added bonus. You get the daily walk from your home to the bus, and from the bus to the train, and from the train to your office. If you’re lucky you will get 10,000 steps with this routine.

Every morning I see the A1 parking lot, Actually a motorway, saturated with cars driving to Geneva and other driving away. It is often congested to the point of traffic being jammed. I refuse to call it a queue.

If you, as an individual, have the bonus of having to pay for parking, for the entire day, when you get to work, then you’re paying 30 CHF per day, for the pleasure of parking your car.

In contrast if you took the train, you’d pay for an abonnement de route or the half-fare and you’d have the freedom of using the train for the daily commute to and from work, but also for pleasure.

With buses and trains, unless there are delays you get from A to B, chatting with a group, and you have the freedom too start from one point, and do a linear hike to another point. With the car it has to be a loop.

Fewer Vehicles on Roads

If you replace your use of the car, with the use of a bus, and if sixty people per hour on that route do, then that’s a potential of sixty fewer cars on the road. Imagine how this changes the quality of life for cyclists and pedestrians. Now imagine if we increase the frequency to be every half hour or quarter hour.

In theory we eliminate the need for cars, but more than that, we reduce the need for cycling and walking infrastructure, because, with fewer cars, the roads are more welcoming to cyclists. The pandemic demonstrated how true this reality is. Cyclists, like poets, like the road less traveled.

The Pendulum

In cities, like Nyon, they’re spending millions on cycling and walking infrastructure. The issue that I see, on a daily basis, is that the infrastructure kicks cyclists off of the road, but they quickly have to get back into traffic.

Between Nyon and Eysins, daily, I see that when a bus and a truck, or a bus and a car are heading in opposite directions, then cars, buses and trucks mount the pedestrian and cycling lanes, even when they’re being used. The result is that instead of making walking and cycling safer, they’re actually increasing the likelihood of an accident.

Aside from anything else, if you’re walking, and suddenly you have a car or bus mounting the pavement in front of, or behind you, it’s frightening, and annoying. The very infrastructure that is meant to be "better" for cyclists, and pedestrians, in effect removed the safe pavement that pedestrians had, and made it wider for cars when they need the road to be wider.

Less Likely to Walk and More Likely to Drive

The paradox of the new infrastructure is that it’s designed by people who don’t walk, or cycle, so they don’t realise that what looks excellent on paper, and in theory, is unpleasant for pedestrians and cyclists. Now I am more tempted to take the car away from Nyon to run, and walk, because my regular walks feel more dangerous, rather than safer.

Investing in Buses, Rather than Infrastructure

At the moment, by investing in cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, rather than bus frequency, they’re doing nothing about traffic density. Traffic density is what makes cycling and walking unpleasant. If you replace the rush hour river of cars, with a few buses, then you imporve cycling and walking, because with less traffic, ‘rivers’ are easier to cross.

Due to road works, for nine months, car traffic has increased along routes that used to be cycle and pedestrian friendly. By "improving" infrastructure they have made things much worse.

The False Promise of Self-Driving Cars

Self-driving cars are in effect, a re-invention of the wheel because their niche is filled by buses. It takes people from their home to the nearest train station. We don’t need self-driving cars for that. We need a bus stop and a convenient schedule, both for getting to work, and back from work. If you have one bus, you need 50-70 fewer cars. Self-driving cars still take up the same resources as human driven cars. Buses don’t. Buses already exist. Self-driving cars don’t.

And Finally

If we replace the need for a self-driving car, with the appeal of a bus pass, then, by removing the automatic habit of driving, we increase the appeal of cycling, walking, and running, without spending millions on modifying roads, because healthier commuting habits, via public transport, will increase other forms of mobility through an increased sense of security.