W. Banks Anderson Jr.: Smart buses the answer
Planners often ignore possibilities. Uber has revolutionized the taxi business. Trains must have tracks. Buses can go wherever there is asphalt.
Imagine a smart bus that like an elevator stops only where sensors tell it that riders are waiting and then asks those boarding to tell it where they want off.
Imagine a bus that knows when it is full and takes the quickest route to take its riders closest to their desired corners.
Imagine a bus that records every rider’s waiting and travel times by weekday and location and then continuously updates its routes to minimize waiting and maximize ridership.
Imagine an entire system wirelessly responsive to riders and optimized to find them where they are, to tell them how long and how much, and to quickly take them where they want to go.
Trains are locked to rails.
W. Banks Anderson Jr.
Durham
This story was originally published October 3, 2015 at 2:00 PM with the headline "W. Banks Anderson Jr.: Smart buses the answer."