The Future of Transport Does Not Lie in a Pod

Mobility innovation is a term that gets thrown around a lot these days, but for *true* mobility innovation, you only need to go to see the subways of cities in Asia.

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Ever wondered why your city's transit just doesn't seem quite up to snuff? RMTransit is here to answer that, and help you open your eyes to all of the different public transportation systems around the world!

Reece (the RM in RMTransit) is an urbanist and public transport critic residing in Toronto, Canada, with the goal of helping the world become more connected through metros, trams, buses, high-speed trains, and all other transport modes.

[kenny]

As spoiled users of Hong Kong MTR, we get irritated if
- we wait more than 5 mins for a train
- trains not departing in 20 seconds
- trains not come at same time in cross platform interchange
- no convenient store/teller machine in the station
and so on

[fmobus]

It's crazy that San Jose already has light rail within 1Km of the airport and never considered branching/extending it to reach the airport. Easiest airport connector ever.

[jsrodman]

As a silicon valley resident and worker, most innovation here is opportunidtic and relatively lacking in any benefit. Pods are of course the kind of stuff we'd create.

[electric]

People obsessed with "pods" have never experienced proper public transportation in their lives. These "PRT" systems do more to reinforce the status quo of car dependency than providing any useful innovation, _id est, _ they're solutions looking for problems.

[ARod]

The frustrating thing is that they *already have light rail* on about half that corridor, and for decent integration with their existing system they could just build a spur out to the airport.

[HappyBeezerStudios]

Yeah, replacing cars with automated, rented cars won't solve traffic. And that is what all these pod ideas are.
Looking at european and asian cities makes clear that tiered public transport works.
- Planes for really, really long, often intercontinental journeys.
- Long distance trains to connect big cities.
- Slower trains that run the same routes, but stop at every moderately sized place along the way.
- Trams that connect within the big cities.
- Buses to fill the gaps where the others aren't possible.

[MikeWillSee]

I wish people would learn to not take these gadgetbahn systems seriously

[louismakesmusic]

Anything a pod can do, trains can do better.

[zackakai]

Most of these "mobility innovation" concepts (because thankfully, that's what they usually ultimately amount to) can be best summed up with the phrase "they were so obsessed with whether or not they could, they never stopped to think if they should." Kind of like flying cars - sounded cool and sci-fi on paper, actually kind of pointless in real life and inferior to more conventional solutions.

[eratonysiad]

I recently had to be in Rotterdam for a job interview and there they had the Rivium Park Shuttle (a pod line) which went to where I needed to go. It required its own asphalt, taking up a ridiculous amount of space. It was quite a bumpy ride, still had to wait a decent amount of time for it to arrive, and it was really slow; cycling is faster on the entire route and you can even rent a bike at the station. This thing was built in 1999 probably as a showcase and nowhere else in the country has tried this because it's just not even good at what it does.

[ashbill]

6:32 As a transit fan watching this from Shenzhen, I'm really glad that you recognized and praised the developments of this city. And it seems like Shenzhen is looking to double, almost triple its metro system's mileage in the next 15-20 yrs the with the recently released phase 4-5 metro construction plans.

[私気に成ります]

US as a whole needs to adopt a more group-based thought process instead of how we came up with pods and hyperloops in the first place. Silicon Valley pod infrastructure, like you said, aren't mass transit. And it wasn't designed to be; it was designed to appease the people who demand for mass transit while keeping American individualism. Who in the US could stomach such an idea of some stranger on my train! Bah god!

[HonestlyThor]

I mean, Elon Musk said it pretty explicitly. Silicon Valley "innovators" don't like mass transit at all, because they don't like sharing space and air with strangers. They just think other people are icky at best and dangerous at worst, so they want to isolate themselves — hence tiny little individual pods. Efficiency isn't the goal, so it's not the outcome.

[li_tsz_fung]

The train in the thumbnail SP1900 from 1999 is GOATed.
Not many train feels more modern than it

[anthonysnyder]

Silicon Valley is just suburban sprawl, with a downtown similar to Tulsa, OK. Go just 50 miles North and San Francisco has streetcars, suburban rail, subways and frequent buses. It’s wild that San Jose has not taken a page from SF’s playbook.

[nakomaton]

"The reality here is that mass transit is so good because we don't have much innovation left to do."
This is exactly the point. Not every problem requires an outside the box solution that we haven't thought of or implemented before. The state of transit in Silicon Valley already leaves much to be desired, we can't afford to throw money at unproven "solutions" when transit funding is already hard to come by, just go with what has already been proven to work. I will say that the city of San Jose is the one that chose to pursue this, not VTA, so while VTA has its share of issues, this one isn't on them.

[placeholdername]

If you want a pod, just build a train with automated shunting. Like a classification yard but for passenger wagons.

[sakshamgoyal]

UP Government of India has literally issued tenders for a PRT. And people are just so stroked about it. At the same time an urban Ropeway system is being implemented in Varanasi, which still seems way more viable to me compared to a prt.

[ibiuld]

hey rmtransit, there is a new rail opening in hawaii in a few days (the first commuter railway in the state). it has platform screen doors and is fully automated, and i think it's quite notable for an american rail system.

i am hoping someone will make a video on this because i haven't seen any coverage of the project outside of local news stations, and public sentiment for it is low due to the cost and years of delays despite honolulu's terrible traffic problem. i hope you can add this to your list of ideas, if you would be interested!

love your videos, it's really changed my perspective on transit. thanks

[transitcaptain]

Given the Silicon Valley thumbnail, it’s the tech companies saying that they have solved traffic with a flashy new technology that looks good