Commuters: Better service frequency

Transit: Do you want Wi-Fi on all the busses and trains?

Commuters: We want more busses and trains

Transit: You want RGB accent lights at the stations?

Commuters: Just don’t make me wait an hour at that station

Transit: How about colour LCD screens displaying the next stop?

Commuters: Spend that money on more vehicles!

Transit: We could have a McDonald’s right at the platform!

Commuters: Fuck it we’ll just drive.

      • Wait what? Companies are allowed to use your data to boost the price for you individually when they know you’re desperate? That is some seriously dystopian shit if you’re not joking. Sets a pretty fucked precedent too.

        • Airlines are well known to price flights awkwardly in response to the market. They often price connecting flights lower than direct flights, even if that direct flight is part of the connecting itinerary. It is alleged that they use client data (generic such as time of day or specific such as device/location) to reprice their flights, but I think the limitations of the GDS1 prevent this from happening.

          What companies want to do is sell their product at the maximum price each client is willing to pay. This is already done in some ways by intentionally segmenting the market, such as by having multiple cabins on trains and planes, despite them all providing fundamentally the same service (transportation from point A to point B). More data from each client helps them target the cost of their product to each client and maximize their revenue.

          I wouldn’t be surprised if user data is used more in the future to price products, especially as AI is getting more and more capable.

          [1] https://hostagencyreviews.com/blog/what-is-gds

    • This is the way I see it. If free Wi-Fi calms you when there’s a delay, you were never going to be bothered that much by it. The only time that would work is if you were probably not doing anything time sensitive. If a train delay made me late for the med school entrance exam or something I actually cannot afford to be late for, I’m probably not being consoled by free Wi-Fi, in fact, I’d see it as an insult because I’d realize they could have spent that money improving the actual system and maybe this delay never would have happened.

      A study can pretty easily conclude this because most people mad at delays aren’t actually being seriously detrimented by delays, they’re just inconvenienced. But the biggest problem with delays is not the inconvenience.