Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[JimH]

Small vehicles, in airless tubes, shot under the Atlantic, crossing in an hour.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120601-high-speed-pipedreams

[KingSparta]

when I was a Kid starting about 10 years old I have thought about a Train running In a vacuum, maybe I seen too many SciFi Movies, I designed a whole city, one with no stop signs and no stop lights. and before anyone says it can't be done, yes it can, it just would be cost prohibitive.

[JimH]

Three levels, for cars north/south, cars east/west, and pedestrians.

Minneapolis has two levels downtown.  Pedestrians are mostly on the second level.

[glynor]

Really cool article, Jim.  Makes you think.  I don't know though... Americans like their cars.  How do you get around once you "get there"?  That's always the rub.  Most places in our country, the local public transportation system is dismal, slow, and frankly... Where they do exist, they have an often-deserved bad reputation.

I just want cars that drive themselves.  Imagine underground high-speed computer-controlled highways.  They'd be able to operate at much higher speeds than humans can manage.  Not as fast as maglev vacuum trains, but they could still go very fast (especially if you had maglev cars that still have wheels for regular city streets).  Besides, it doesn't matter as much if it takes a little longer to get there if you can enjoy the ride watching a movie or whatever.  And then, when you arrive, you still have your car for local driving on the existing roads.  You could build them right beneath our existing Interstates, even, where that is convenient.

That's something that might work in America.  I don't know if passenger trains will ever work.

[jmone]

Computer controlled Highways (or cars) has been trialed over and over with little commercial interst (despite technological success) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platoon_(automobile)

[kensn]

Has always been a thought of mine...

[KingSparta]

you could also make cars so another car can be connected in the front and back, with Auto-docking. if they are connected the cars would decrease drag, and would work together to save fuel. once your turn comes up, the car will auto un-dock you and let you go on your way, and the rest of the cars would auto-dock back up.

[AoXoMoXoA]

Really cool article, Jim.  Makes you think.  I don't know though... Americans like their cars.  How do you get around once you "get there"?  

I can think of a couple that work well for me . . . feet. And to boot it is healthy, non-polluting, and energy efficient.

Then there is the bicycle. In some cities there are bicycle co-ops where you can just grab a bicycle at one location and drop it at another, sort of a transportation Red Box.

But yes, Americans love their cars . . . to an unhealthy degree.

[bob]

I use trains for most of my long distance travel. Most of the time I don't need a car on the other end. When I do, either I ride with a friend I'm visiting or just rent one for a day or two. A lot of the time I'm visiting places with decent transit, SF bay area, Chicago, DC, NYC, etc. If I'm in a hurry for some reason, I'll resort to a plane, usually in just one direction.

Now on the coasts, from what I can tell, the train system is essential (Boston / DC corridor for example). I don't think there is a way for the air system to handle the extra traffic and who wants to deal with airports if they don't have to? Especially in the corridor, it's a stress free way to get from on place to another. You don't have to deal with road rage, or airports, or getting to and from the airport, etc.

Chicago is a great example of a city that would be totally gridlocked (way worse that it is now) without the extensive local and long distance rail system it has.

I don't drive a lot any more if I can help it. Though I did do one this spring, in general I burned out on long distance driving trips some years ago.