I think a better analogy would be a cruise ship vs tramp steamer. You can book a cruise on a large scale reputable ship and go around the Caribbean or the Mediterranean. Or you can book passage on a smaller tramp freighter (with the attendant questions of food and hygiene) for a week on the same cruise.
There are not a lot of people who choose the latter, but the ones that do are the more adventurous type and claim it was the best time ever. Crew was great, food was awesome (and local), got to see sights the tourists miss, etc.
I do think the tramp freighter passengers are not your normal people, but I don't think they're quite as off the deep end as you imply.
On 5/6/2015 4:55 PM, Craig Berry wrote:
I think passengers would have to be pretty desperate for overbooking to lead to
a Free Trader trip. Transpose it to the current world: You've just been bumped
off your flight from Los Angeles to San Jose, and a disreputable looking
character sidles up to you and says "I have a Piper Cub, ready to go...same
price as they were going to charge you." And then consider that in the Traveller
scenario, you'd be stuck with this person and who knows what kind of other crew
members for a full week, dealing with whatever they consider adequate food and
hygiene.
Some passengers are in fact going to be that desperate (or crazy, or
adventurous), but I think most of us would choose to wait for the next regular
commercial flight in both cases, but especially the Traveller case.
On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 1:48 PM, sjard <sjard@emerytelcom.net
<mailto:sjard@emerytelcom.net>> wrote:
Also consider that here on earth today, almost every large passenger service
overbooks. Airlines, cruise ships, buses, etc. Usually this doesn't cause
problems because they overbook by the margin of no-shows. But sometimes
everyone shows up, and then something has to be figured out.
In Traveller, that's where I see the major passenger pool for Free Traders
coming from. Those who don't want to wait too long to travel, but have been
bumped due to overbooking.
That, or people like me. If given the choice and time isn't an issue, I'll
take the train (several days) instead of flying (couple of hours), simply
because I like that mode of travel.
On 5/6/2015 2:33 PM, Craig Berry wrote:
I agree that "big trade" is the only reasonable model. The bush pilot or
charter service analogy is spot on. Between major hubs, essentially all
traffic goes on scheduled liners (akin to commercial jet traffic in the
modern developed world). Out in the less populated "wilds", there might be
occasional scheduled runs, but there's a lot more room for entrepreneurs
to nab what little passenger traffic exists. And even between hubs, you'll
occasionally find a passenger who simply can't wait a day for the Tukera
liner; she needs to be in the ducal court at Mora in 7 days, not 8. And
that sure sounds like an adventure seed right there. :)
On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 1:22 PM, Bruce Johnson
<johnson@pharmacy.arizona.edu <mailto:johnson@pharmacy.arizona.edu>> wrote:
> On May 6, 2015, at 11:57 AM, Richard Aiken <raikenclw@gmail.com
<mailto:raikenclw@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> On Wed, May 6, 2015 at 2:12 PM, Ethan McKinney<mailto:listmom@travellercentral.com><ethan.mckinney@gmail.com <mailto:ethan.mckinney@gmail.com>> wrote:
> The actual number of hulls going back and forth isn't going to
increase at the same rate as the increase in passenger traffic because
the size of the hulls is also going to increase with traffic volume.
>
>
> Wouldn't there also be jump lag involved? E.g. it would take time
for it to become known that Route X needed more passage space, while
Route Y didn't need as much.
>
Again, we’re running into the issue of is the OTU small trade or big
trade.
All of the trade rules in all the supplements are oriented towards PC
scale ships; ie: free traders.
If there’s a LOT of trade between systems in the OTU, then pretty much
any passage you ant is available, presuming the systems in question
are large enough to warrant the traffic. Akin to airline travel in the
US today. The PC-scale stuff is equivalent small single aircraft bush
pilots or charters, which is all well and fine, but I don’t hire a
bush pilot to fly between NY and London.
If not, travel on small PC-scale ships is all there is.
(and I contend that the OTU simply could not exist with so little
trade between systems).
--
Bruce Johnson
University of Arizona
College of Pharmacy
Information Technology Group
Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs
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