[CydeWeys]

Once AVs become commonplace it's entirely possible that the majority of the cars on the road will have zero occupants, either because they're running errands or doing the deadhead leg of an occupied trip.

It's absurd to think that transit buses containing dozens of riders are going to be held up behind zero-occupancy vehicles. The roads are going to get much much worse.

[akadruid1]

There are some rays of sunshine hidden in there though. Transit buses are awful and expensive because they must pack the maximum riders per driver to economical and politically viable. With zero-emission self driving vehicles they will be obsolete because you can redesign buses around passenger convenience and comfort, and you can make each journey much cheaper than the privately owned vehicles can manage. Think self-driving Uber Pool / Lyft Line, but the journey cost is 1/10th of the cost of driving your own vehicle. And you can give occupied vehicles priority over unoccupied ones in software.

[CydeWeys]

> Transit buses are awful and expensive because they must pack the maximum riders per driver to economical and politically viable.

Source? Buses actually work very well in many places (and are much more economical and efficient than cars). The simplest way to make buses work well is to give them their own lanes; there's no reason a vehicle holding dozens of people should be held up behind single-occupancy vehicles.

Buses are the best blend of resource efficiency and cost efficiency in transportation, full stop. And that's today, no additional inventions necessary.