Saving lives through infrastructure
One of the very few responsibilities of government is to provide, maintain and secure sane infrastructure, which emanates from its Constitutional duty to make post roads.
Think about it. More than half of all accidental deaths occur on the public roadways. Tens of thousands of traffic tickets are handed out every day. The national cost to city, county and state governments to manage this fiasco is so incredibly ridiculous that it's really impossible to calculate.
Imagine if we would design a sane transportation infrastructure. It would almost eliminate traffic injuries and deaths. Imagine no more drunk and reckless driving and no more speeding tickets! And all it would take is restoring and enhancing the 100-year-old rail rights-of-way that were dismantled (stolen) by the auto industry -- one of the biggest killers in the world.
If you're thinking light rail or high-speed trains, you're only partly right. I dismiss multi-car trains, light or heavy, because they carry too many people whose destinations are too varied to make train travel viable on a universal scale.
No, I'm talking about small, single car trams that are nearly completely automated, but incredibly speed efficient. So much so that you could eliminate 2/3rds of the roads if you replace them with an automated rail system.
And imagine how green these would be. Solar and wind-powered energy applied directly to the tracks in an sectional, on-demand fashion. You could conceivably cover or bury the tracks underground and eliminate winter travel advisories and the dangers they pose.
Lots of positive here:
a) easy for police to track bank robbers
b) no highway sand/salt
c) no need for traffic lights or frequent starts & stops
d) no gas fumes and exhaust
e) watch videos/news or correspond on commutes/vacations
f) plays nice with urban sprawl and farmland
g) super high-speed possible
h) automatic re-routing, eliminating congestion
i) plan eta almost to-the-minute
j) pleasant ambiance, roomy feel through 3D, LCD and hi-tech sound
k) the world would be more bicycle, pedestrian and eco-friendly
The automation element has so many possibilities, I can only scratch the surface here. At any given time, you'd have fewer cars on the road because they could get to their destinations so much faster than in the traditional. Plus, they could travel much closer together because you don't have to worry about the human condition screwing up traffic patterns. It's all very mathematically preplanned, much as data travels (actually, data in the ether crashes a lot, but I hope you get the concept anyway).
No one's saying that recreation vehicles would be eliminated under this concept. Lots of people still want motorcycles, four-wheelers, etc., and why should we give those up? In fact, you still have to get groceries and furniture to your front door, so there'd have to be an off-rail, last-mile solution in place, like golf car-like vehicles that ride on very conservative trails between the rail system tracks.
Clearly the construction trade would be affected. Building materials would be made to fit smaller-format vehicles, but the benefits of unmanned shipping of many goods would far outweigh the downside.
The concept's not without some issues though, even though a little thought could overcome them.
a) who would own the cars?
b) where would you store them?
c) how would you get the cars on and off the tracks?
d) how much would the system cost?
e) what about schedules, embarking and debarking?
The rails could double as pathways for other essentials, like water delivery, fiber, mail (package services) and even refuse hauling.
Mile-for-mile, the maintenance costs would be a fraction of those we're paying for our current chaotic highway and street systems -- especially if you consider the sheer reduction in roads that could be accommodated.
But clearly, it's the government that has to implement this system. Private companies and states couldn't ensure the level of standards that would have to be in place for it to work seamlessly from town-to-town and state-to-state.
Think about it. More than half of all accidental deaths occur on the public roadways. Tens of thousands of traffic tickets are handed out every day. The national cost to city, county and state governments to manage this fiasco is so incredibly ridiculous that it's really impossible to calculate.
Imagine if we would design a sane transportation infrastructure. It would almost eliminate traffic injuries and deaths. Imagine no more drunk and reckless driving and no more speeding tickets! And all it would take is restoring and enhancing the 100-year-old rail rights-of-way that were dismantled (stolen) by the auto industry -- one of the biggest killers in the world.
If you're thinking light rail or high-speed trains, you're only partly right. I dismiss multi-car trains, light or heavy, because they carry too many people whose destinations are too varied to make train travel viable on a universal scale.
No, I'm talking about small, single car trams that are nearly completely automated, but incredibly speed efficient. So much so that you could eliminate 2/3rds of the roads if you replace them with an automated rail system.
And imagine how green these would be. Solar and wind-powered energy applied directly to the tracks in an sectional, on-demand fashion. You could conceivably cover or bury the tracks underground and eliminate winter travel advisories and the dangers they pose.
Lots of positive here:
a) easy for police to track bank robbers
b) no highway sand/salt
c) no need for traffic lights or frequent starts & stops
d) no gas fumes and exhaust
e) watch videos/news or correspond on commutes/vacations
f) plays nice with urban sprawl and farmland
g) super high-speed possible
h) automatic re-routing, eliminating congestion
i) plan eta almost to-the-minute
j) pleasant ambiance, roomy feel through 3D, LCD and hi-tech sound
k) the world would be more bicycle, pedestrian and eco-friendly
The automation element has so many possibilities, I can only scratch the surface here. At any given time, you'd have fewer cars on the road because they could get to their destinations so much faster than in the traditional. Plus, they could travel much closer together because you don't have to worry about the human condition screwing up traffic patterns. It's all very mathematically preplanned, much as data travels (actually, data in the ether crashes a lot, but I hope you get the concept anyway).
No one's saying that recreation vehicles would be eliminated under this concept. Lots of people still want motorcycles, four-wheelers, etc., and why should we give those up? In fact, you still have to get groceries and furniture to your front door, so there'd have to be an off-rail, last-mile solution in place, like golf car-like vehicles that ride on very conservative trails between the rail system tracks.
Clearly the construction trade would be affected. Building materials would be made to fit smaller-format vehicles, but the benefits of unmanned shipping of many goods would far outweigh the downside.
The concept's not without some issues though, even though a little thought could overcome them.
a) who would own the cars?
b) where would you store them?
c) how would you get the cars on and off the tracks?
d) how much would the system cost?
e) what about schedules, embarking and debarking?
The rails could double as pathways for other essentials, like water delivery, fiber, mail (package services) and even refuse hauling.
Mile-for-mile, the maintenance costs would be a fraction of those we're paying for our current chaotic highway and street systems -- especially if you consider the sheer reduction in roads that could be accommodated.
But clearly, it's the government that has to implement this system. Private companies and states couldn't ensure the level of standards that would have to be in place for it to work seamlessly from town-to-town and state-to-state.
