>> The best EV is an electric bus with trolley lines or a tram

>Or a train. Massive numbers of passengers.

>cars seem useful in low-density, very spread out regions.

Well, while I'm here already . . .

Urban trains can be counter-productive in unintended ways.

The electric "mass-transit" Metrorail in Houston runs at street-level on many streets that were originally designed for horse & carriage.

Taking up space that was previously available for freer movement of buses, but worse with the rail crossings which almost always require more passengers in cars to idle much longer while waiting than there are passengers on the trains at the time.

Electric buses would have been much better and less wasteful of finite resources.

The light rail was originally intended for ambitious people who could not afford cars to have a quick commute to downtown jobs, reach Texas Medical Center & Astrodome area to the south, and higher education to the north.

"Massive" numbers of passengers outside of rush hours mainly only occur during Rodeo time or other special events where massive numbers of visitors come from out-of-town.

The rest of the time passengers are quite sparse, somewhat divided between workers & students versus those carless and/or on the streets whose ambitions do not include either. Some of these passengers can be quite predatory on ordinary citizens, and this gives them more efficient ways to travel or gather in places where prospective victims can more likely be found at different times, and a quick way to escape after a crime has been committed:

https://abc13.com/metrorail-violence-light-rail-harris-count...
>6th violent incident on or near METRORail in 2 months

I still ride it weekly but never would bring my laptop or even cellphone outside of rush hours since there are always at least one or two questionable characters and that's the only time they are usually well outnumbered by ordinary riders.

But the collisions are quite common and these could have been more amenable to better engineering planning:

3 MAY 2023 "Video of the crash". Notice how the bystander throws up his hands knowingly right after the 1 minute mark:

https://abc13.com/houston-news-ambulance-turns-in-front-of-m...
>On Tuesday, METRO said the investigation is over, and no one is being cited for the crash that resulted in multiple people being hurt. ABC13 also called HFD on Tuesday to ask, specifically, if the ambulance driver is still operating ambulances. But they are still citing an open investigation, an investigation we know is closed.

For both of these parties this time liability is limited, same range as for buses:

>Why METRO bus crash victim has to pay up - despite being innocent
https://abc13.com/metro-bus-crash-houston-tort-claims-act/62...
>Even if everything goes his way, Leger will still be out hundreds of thousands of dollars because he was hit by a bus.
>That's because METRO's buses and the rail is protected by the Texas Tort Claims Act.
>It caps their expenses regardless of if the victim dies or is severely maimed at $100,000 per person or $300,000 total.
>"If a negligent METRO bus driver runs a red light and hits a van that has 14 children from a daycare and kills them, the most that METRO would ever be responsible for is $300,000," said Matt Willis, Leger's attorney.

If the full monetary damages of every incident were to have been recoverable, Metrorail might have been bankrupt long ago. But they still have money to burn going forward:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/opinion/outlook/article/Met...
>Unfortunately, we're already all too familiar with low ridership on light rail. The $1.4 billion Green and Purple lines have dismally low patronage.

A while ago there was an article posted on HN about an old Japanese rail line that still maintained an end-of-the line terminal which was now only used by one passenger. This seemed to be a benevolent gesture. I was thinking how much more benevolent could it be in Houston where they built new rail lines for almost nobody to use very much?

>So how should Metro redeploy that $2.45 billion light rail budget instead?

Sometimes (or even with some currencies) there can be more environmental emissions earning the money to begin with compared to spending it wisely later. Depends on the scale and how wisely:

>For future planning purposes and MetroNext, it really does not matter if autonomous vehicles become available in 5 years or decades in the future. Anything built in the MetroNext plan can be expected to be in service to the year 2100 and beyond. MetroNext needs to be ready for autonomous transit, if and when it comes. The plan also needs to maximize mobility benefits of transit investments if autonomous transit is slow to develop or has a minimal impact. Practically, that means concrete guideways with rubber-tired vehicles than can evolve as the technology does.

IIRC rubber tires are a more modern & versatile technology than rail.

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southcentral/2017/12/2...
>Some drivers said Metro should turn its efforts internally instead of policing drivers.
>“Why don’t they ticket their own drivers for blocking intersections or not blowing the horn?” said Salvadore Martin, who drives downtown daily.
>Other drivers said Houston should have anticipated safety problems with a street-level rail system from the beginning.

Engineers are usually aware of things like this more so than bureaucrats, but you can't fix stupid either way.

>“This is why you build a subway,” said Georgine McDonald, another driver in the area.

Not in downtown Houston, 20,000 leagues under the bayou floodwaters ring any bells?

Naturally Houston has the most light rail collisions under a number of terms, averaging about 90 per year in recent times:

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/lig...

https://abc13.com/metro-traffic-accidents-pedestrians-killed...

>"Everyday people go in front of that train thinking they can beat it,"
>Those near misses happen all the time.
>If anyone should know better, it's Jim Robinson, the chairman of METRO's public safety committee.
>"I was thinking about something else and almost stepped off in front of a train," Robinson said. "It got my attention when he blew his whistle."
>"There's still work to do," Robinson said.