Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Dial-A-Bus

 Pre-booked bus journeys
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One of the reasons the masses currently shun public transport is that it doesn’t take you where you want to go when you want to go there. Companies run buses along pre-determined routes regardless of the number of passengers they pick up. There is currently no system to match supply and demand.

Presenting Dial A Bus.

Dial your request for bus journey(s) before, say, midnight the previous day. Huge supercomputers toil through the night to optimise the next day’s schedules. Drivers are issued a printout on arrival detailing their routes and stops.

Last minute bookings can be arranged using Lastminutebus.com or 0800-BUSPANIC. Bookings that can’t be incorporated economically into the day’s schedule can have a slightly more expensive minicab despatched, thus encouraging passengers to get together with neighbours and arrange block bookings. Spare seats can be indicated on the outside of the vehicle and filled by request stop passengers.

Every route will automatically enjoy maximised convenience and profitability otherwise it won’t run.

—egbert, Oct 02 2002

Dial-a-Bus http://www.google.c...0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,090 [calum, Oct 02 2002]


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Annotation:







       Isn't the scheduling going to result in an NP-complete problem?
—calum, Oct 02 2002
   

       2,090? D'oh! Baked and selling like hot cakes! Not a good start. Retreats with tail firmly between legs.
—egbert, Oct 02 2002
   

       We discussed this before: it is one of the more Bakeable ideas in Queen of Angels by Greg Bear, where all buses are mini-buses and bookings are arranged by your PDA.
—DrCurry, Oct 02 2002
   

       None of the probs, egbert. Welcome to the halfbakery.
—calum, Oct 02 2002
   

       What you mean like taxis? Any halfwitted driver aims to omptimise his/her route. BAKED! allthough I suppose a bus is a tad bigger.
—big_boy_gun_bell, Oct 02 2002
   

       Well, no, I mean like buses, but with schedules set by public demand. Taxis don't usually run pre-set routes picking up and dropping off passengers along the way. This seems to be an old and successful idea, (see link) thanks to calum for doing my research for me. Lesson learnt.
—egbert, Oct 02 2002
   


 

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