How An Autonomous Train-Bus Hybrid Could Transform City Transit

Autonomous Rapid Transit is a cross between light rail and a city bus. Created by the CRRC in China, it's a cost-effective alternative to Mass Rapid Transit. Check out this video to see how it could be utilized in U.S. cities.

Produced by: Liam Mays
Supervising Producer: Jeniece Pettitt
Editorial Assistance: Katie Brigham
Graphics by: Alex Wood, Mallory Brangan

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How An Autonomous Train-Bus Hybrid Could Transform City Transit

[calebpan]

The reason why the buses are awful in New York City is because they share the same traffic as passenger vehicles and trucks. You can automate the buses, you can make it ride like a cloud, you can have seats that are made with gold, but if it doesn't have it's own right-of-way, it's still a gold-plated piece of junk.

[jfkusa]

God damn. The US will do anything but build trains.

[SmthPositive_]

So the innovation here is a bus in a bus lane…

[dkwamre]

The reason many people avoid busses is because they sit in the same traffic as cars. It's not a good alternative to driving if I'm still stuck in the same traffic

[hroman_codes]

What kills me about this is that we (NEW YORKERS) used to have trolleys and trains that ran on the street. Taking them down was the worst decision ever.

[chriswill]

This is called a trollybus and it was invented over a 100 years ago 😂😂 they are super underrated though for sure

[NXaiUL]

"They have re-invented the tram" - NJB

[guillermocruz]

Now presenting the tram with extra steps and worse

[shashank]

At this point, why not just have more buses. A lot of people don't use buses simply because they are too infrequent so it's difficult to plan your commute around bus timings.

[mwl]

Ride quality isn't the problem. The problem is outside of huge cities, often buses only run once every hour and there are not enough routes.

[Chocolate-wbbu]

What people care about in transit is not a bumpy ride, but speed and cost. If a bus ride is faster and cheaper than the alternative then you'll see more people taking it. The best way to achieve that is dedicated bus lanes, and considering how wide the streets are in the U.S. that's not difficult to achieve. It's infuriating to see "transit experts" in the U.S. constantly dodging around tried and tested solutions and instead go for the new shiny, often inefficient and wildly expensive gadgets that end up in a museum.

[ej_tech]

1:22 I take the subway as much as possible over the bus because the bus gets held back by other cars on the road.

[chriswill]

How is this different from a trollybus on a dedicated bus lane ???

[saulgoodman]

More people take trains, because it is faster then the bus.
It's like these people never seen NYC traffic before.

[herlescraft]

just build tracks and have it be a tram

[TheDatura]

only $17b for mass transit. Thats not bad at all. I-10 in Texas was $100b in the 90's (not including maintenance).

[ManicEightBall]

It's hard to know where to start because there's so much wrong in this video, but this thing does not solve any transit problems. Look at Europe and see how they do it. A combination of buses, trains, trams, and bike paths along with walkable neighborhoods would be doable if we decided we really wanted to solve these problems.

[SofaSpy]

Soooo a longer articulated bus....in a BRT style layout.... But but just look better....got it.

[gitgut]

Adam Something Army... Assamble!!! :D (Also other Urbanists)

[BrandtAbsolu]

The thing that every North American city needs to focus on is giving their buses dedicated lanes. That is much cheaper and has a greater impact on service quality and willingness to take transit than any of these "new" solutions.

Also, I'm willing to bet that ride quality is near last on people's reasons for not riding the bus. The most important factors are that it's not frequent enough and gets stuck in traffic.