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Originally Posted by AZCivic
Makes you wonder why mini-busses aren't more popular. Kind of like short school busses, but for adult transit. It seems that the smallest city busses you ever see are designed to hold at least 30 people still, but like you said, often times have only 5 people on them. You could use a GM full-size van frame at maybe 1/3 of the up front cost and probably 50% of the operating cost and still seat at least 8 to 10 comfortably. With smaller, cheaper mass transit, you could then operate, say, 50% more of them and improve ridership by offering more routes and more frequent pickups.
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MDI, the company that makes the AirCars in my sig also have plans to build busses that can be scaled up, or down depending on the number of riders at that time of day.
Each car is self powered and has it's own climate control (operated from the driver's location) and follows the first car by re-playing the same actions as the driver performs as they come to the same position. Radio signals communicate between vehicles as well as between electrical components within each car to minimize wiring bulk, only a power wire is required to run to each component. The effect is a vehicle that can be driven like a train on the road with up to 4 cars total, and no mechanical linkage between them. The projected cost of running
and leasing (to own) these for a city is
less than the cost of diesel fuel to operate a normal city bus. They can also be adapted to overhead wire trolley systems and would be able to leave the 'track' on air power alone, as well as be able to refill other air vehicles.
[img]http://schwa.kicks-***.net/img/multicats-b.jpg[/img]