No. That only solves some of the issues, and creates brand new ones.
You haven’t solved the inherent inefficiencies of having everyone sit in their own cars. The same bottlenecks will still exist and will still cause congestion, only with automation you can have slightly more capacity because it’s taking out the delays between one driver moving and the driver behind reacting and starting to move as well.
All the issues with tires rubbing asphalt creating micro rubber particles will stay, as will the massively cost ineffective infrastructure needed to support mass car travel like freeway interchanges, as will the fact that you need orders of magnitude more materials to manufacture enough cars to do the job of just a few hundred trains.
And having the cars autonomous will make them even more vulnerable to cyber attacks than modern cars already are.
Also, trains are even easier to automate than cars. I live in Vancouver and we’ve had autonomous trains since 1986.
@HiddenLayer555 In NYC, my example, how many more train lines do you suppose you would need? Above ground? Underground? Are you going to lay track on every street? underground? Are you sure this would be more efficient than a network of smaller vehicles? There is no need for everyone to sit in their own car if it is all electric and automated. A single person vehicle, if if even existed, could be much smaller.
So to get from where it is to a “no private vehicles” utopia thre isn’t that much more to do. Probably as tramways on roads that will now be closed to cars. So not that expensive. But a couple more subways for some links that need more volume would probably be needed.
Unironically yes. Tear up all that fucking asphalt and replace with paving stone and/or grass, with tram tracks embedded. Streets would be so much nicer without all the hot black asphalt and dirty annoying loud cars.
No. That only solves some of the issues, and creates brand new ones.
You haven’t solved the inherent inefficiencies of having everyone sit in their own cars. The same bottlenecks will still exist and will still cause congestion, only with automation you can have slightly more capacity because it’s taking out the delays between one driver moving and the driver behind reacting and starting to move as well.
All the issues with tires rubbing asphalt creating micro rubber particles will stay, as will the massively cost ineffective infrastructure needed to support mass car travel like freeway interchanges, as will the fact that you need orders of magnitude more materials to manufacture enough cars to do the job of just a few hundred trains.
And having the cars autonomous will make them even more vulnerable to cyber attacks than modern cars already are.
Also, trains are even easier to automate than cars. I live in Vancouver and we’ve had autonomous trains since 1986.
@HiddenLayer555 In NYC, my example, how many more train lines do you suppose you would need? Above ground? Underground? Are you going to lay track on every street? underground? Are you sure this would be more efficient than a network of smaller vehicles? There is no need for everyone to sit in their own car if it is all electric and automated. A single person vehicle, if if even existed, could be much smaller.
@farbel @HiddenLayer555 Not much more, PT already moves more people than private vehicles around NYC: https://a816-dohbesp.nyc.gov/IndicatorPublic/data-explorer/walking-driving-and-cycling/?id=2415#display=summary
So to get from where it is to a “no private vehicles” utopia thre isn’t that much more to do. Probably as tramways on roads that will now be closed to cars. So not that expensive. But a couple more subways for some links that need more volume would probably be needed.
Unironically yes. Tear up all that fucking asphalt and replace with paving stone and/or grass, with tram tracks embedded. Streets would be so much nicer without all the hot black asphalt and dirty annoying loud cars.
@balsoft That would be a big improvement in the end, but filthy to accomplish.
As the Netherlands had showed us, you can do it incrementally just by repaving old streets when their time comes.
Not necessary. You can walk a few hundred meters to your end destination. It’s actually good for your health.
Not to mention, laying tons of tracks on streets for a light rail network is a thing that’s been around since before personalised cars.