Can Something SO TINY Ever Become a BIG DEAL for City Transit?

Can a tiny, electric bus change the future of late-night transit? Join me in Santa Maria, California as we explore how this medium-sized transit system is using a small "baby bus" that could steer the future of big transit.

Vehicle specification sheet (Karsan eJest):

-------------------------
Sources cited:
-------------------------

-------------------------
Time sections:
-------------------------
They Let Me Drive It (0:00)
Making a Transit Plan (0:50)
Three Conflicting Goals (2:05)
Not Enough Drivers (3:20)
The Baby Bus (4:33)
King Falafel (5:39)
Cutaway Buses (5:46)
Narrow Streets (7:18)
Late-Night Microtransit (7:45)
Santa Maria's Experiment (9:46)
Autonomy Means No Drivers? (10:59)
S-M-R-T (11:51)

[VopsVops]

What about a combination of big busses and these baby busses? Use the big busses on the frequency corridor and then baby busses in the surrounding areas off the long frequency route as a way to shuttle people to and from the frequency route.

[MegaLokopo]

People forget a bus driver does more than drive a bus, and a door man does more than open a door.

[michaelcox]

The irony of the city providing transportation from 8:30-10:30 - only for Carls Jr to only be open to car-owners at that time is too much lol

[snowstar]

Services like these are very popular in rural regions in Germany, where normal bus service runs only once an hour or even less. The only problem is the cost, you usualy need additional funding as these never replace bus lines.

[mafarnz]

I work as a bus driver, and I remember how challenging it was for me to get my CDL. It was about two months after I hired before I actually started driving for my agency. I understand that’s a steep learning curve for new employees, and it’s also costly for agencies as well. The problem I see with having non-CDL drivers is that a lot of them are really unsafe drivers. It’s one thing for people to be driving unsafe and crazy in their own car, it’s another when they have passengers on board that the driver and the agency are now responsible for. I would sincerely hope that any agency that plans to implement this solution at the very least gives every driver coming in driver training and refresher courses, even if it’s not to the level of a full CDL class.

[Ljcoleslaw]

What a fun hosting style. This is a throwback to the 2000s and 90s local tv I watched growing up

[slugger]

OMG now I know why the SMRT is so familiar. It's the Homer Simpson gag when he burned his high school diploma. "I am so smart! I am so smart! S-M-R-T I mean S-M-A-R-T!"

[EdwardChan.]

In Hong Kong we have minibuses that runs fixed routes but can skip stops/ take a shorter path when there's few/ full passengers on board. It also travels much faster than a bus (100kmph vs 80kmph) and can drive through village roads!

[jamesrusselleriii]

These have been common in Korea for a very long time now, they're called "maeul buses" and generally run rural and suburban routes, connecting them to train stations. A typical bus make and model would be a Hyundai County. Super convenient. I always wondered why America insists on giant buses or no buses at all.

[blanketstatment]

I am an American living in Moldova currently. They have a similar system called rutieras. They drive through towns and connect towns together. There is a central hub in the capital, and it spiders out from there. It has it's quirks, but with decent roads I can see this being a good idea.

[PraxZimmerman]

Our small farm town had 3 of these that you would just call and ask for a ride (couldn't justify full busses for 14, 000 people (yes shut up that's small by California standards)). During peek times you might be waiting 30-45 minutes so most kids just rode bikes, but for those who couldn't it was an amazing resource.

[highpath]

Generally found in UK with smaller buses costs (inc cheaper drivers) up 130percent, mileage up 200percent, passengers up 150percent, profits up about 17percent. (back in the 1980s) they didnt really take passengers away from most big buses as it was more additional passengers to the existing services that wouldnt have travelled/gone by car.

[OFFICIALDJFLASHBACK]

YOU'RE IN MY CITY!!! I work at Allan Hancock College and we've been told that these buses will help out with a route from the depot to AHC (even though it's down the street from the depot / 5 min walk) but I could see this helping many students who take night classes. Thanks for another great video Rob and hope Santa Maria treated you well! :)

[hsngm]

KARSAN!! TURKEY MENTIONED! These have been extremely common vehicles here for a long time and its very interesting to see them in America too.

[nusbaumtanner]

Seems like it might even be good for smaller areas which dont really have a need for the larger buses but still want to get started in public transit with a good solution.

[ebyuherbjewrg]

LOVE your patreon promotion in this vid, makes me want to subscribe. Gives non-subs value while also pointing those with cash to spare to a way they can pay you

[jordansean]

I am so smrt! 😅 I was hoping you'd make that joke haha

[brianj]

1) You want a mix of sizes; minivans up to buses; 2) A cutaway that lasts 7 years is a better plan that some wierd one-off thing that is more expensive and no one can work on. 3) The issue with finding bus drivers is the lack of accident free drivers 4) If you have an uber-like app why not run it anyway and use the app to figure out the most efficient method for transit for each rider based on their need? 5) Just run the busses down the main corrode and just use the uber-like app for non-dense routes. 6) If you're using that app why not run it like uber-share?

[Hahlen]

Small low-floor busses like this are pretty common in Europe. The important thing is to make sure they’re used to right-size by capacity, not to replace bus routes with silly ride-hailing type services.

[Nhkg]

A similar bus has been running in my town for quite some time. The only difference is that it uses natural gas as fuel instead of batteries.
It serves areas in the middle of the city where normal buses don't go (mostly denser housing with narrow streets).