Friday, February 18, 2011

[hcvxehju] Transit range versus frequency

To improve mass transit, e.g., high-speed rail or buses or subways, should one increase the range or increase the frequency?  It's always politically popular to increase range (more population served).  This can be measured, but I suspect it's nonlinear: a dramatic change at threshold frequency (maybe once every 20 minutes?) when people don't have to schedule their lives around the availability of transit, much like owning a car.

Experiments and measurements are very difficult as people make housing and car purchase decisions on a timescale of decades.

Also consider increasing speed, though that may require technological improvement.

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