[btilly]

In most of the country, per passenger, per person transported a mile, cars are more efficient than public transportation. Electric cars take less than half the energy per mile driven. So they definitely have a role.

The reason why is that a bus has to run whether or not it has passengers on it. A lot of empty buses without passengers are running around all day and night in most metro areas.

So yes, public transit makes a lot of sense where it makes sense. But it only makes sense within a relatively small number of very dense cities.

[samfisher83]

Can you please cite your sources.

According to this article as long as you have about 11 people on a bus its more efficient. https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2012/11/can-we-please...

[telotortium]

In my experience, in most US cities where I've taken the bus, having even 11 people on the bus is not that common, especially later at night. Probably Uber Pool would more efficient than the vast majority of night buses, at least, in the US, and self-driving cars using a similar system even more efficient.