I am sorry for the pain I have unwittingly caused you.
I think the important bit of data missing from your comment is how many routes stayed open that would otherwise have closed.
Hidden in this is the question of subsidy. How much subsidy were the buses attracting? How much of this subsidy was reduced and handed back to tax payers instead of spent on additional services? Difficult to tell.
We could see no more routes opened up but a big reduction in subsidy. Which would not be a bad thing but it wouldn’t be my favourite thing to do with the saving.
The issue of crowd control, anti-social behaviour and collection of fares is one to puzzle over.
Mind you, the survielance opportunities now available to bus companies coupled with the fact that if you are on a self-driving bus you have just stepped onto a moving prison might make serious anti-social behaviour less of a problem.
I think we would see wholesale replacement of buses. The savings from replacing a bus (and driver) mid way through its live with a self-driven bus are I think strongly NPV positive. Especially, if you can persuade / con some city in India to take the old buses off your hands for some money.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2012-02-23 03:18 pm (UTC)I think the important bit of data missing from your comment is how many routes stayed open that would otherwise have closed.
Hidden in this is the question of subsidy. How much subsidy were the buses attracting? How much of this subsidy was reduced and handed back to tax payers instead of spent on additional services? Difficult to tell.
We could see no more routes opened up but a big reduction in subsidy. Which would not be a bad thing but it wouldn’t be my favourite thing to do with the saving.
The issue of crowd control, anti-social behaviour and collection of fares is one to puzzle over.
Mind you, the survielance opportunities now available to bus companies coupled with the fact that if you are on a self-driving bus you have just stepped onto a moving prison might make serious anti-social behaviour less of a problem.
I think we would see wholesale replacement of buses. The savings from replacing a bus (and driver) mid way through its live with a self-driven bus are I think strongly NPV positive. Especially, if you can persuade / con some city in India to take the old buses off your hands for some money.