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#111
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We Know The Future II
"me" wrote in message om... It's important to maintain some context here. There is a tendency to discuss mass transit like every city is NYC or something. One of the key principles of engineering is that cost goes up exponentially as you try to reach perfection and handle all the worst cases. In general the worst cases are not worked. If NYC with its legacy of designing for very high density, little parking, lots of transit is too hard a problem to solve with the new technology, NYC will be ignored. This will mean that transportation will stagnate as transportation improves in most of the rest of the US. NYC will become less competitive and less desirable to work in and live in. It will go into decline which will feed on itself to increase the rate of decline. By their emphasis on transits and not making a good transition to the 20th century car, they set themselves up for an even harder transition to 21st century transportation technology. It will be very hard for NYC to recover from those past mistakes. Europe will have as bad or worse problem making the transition because of their emphasis on preserving the past instead of planning for the future. NYC and Europe can make the transition, but that requires major changes in culture which politicians would be terrified to implement. Remember cities to fail in the real world. Once you get behind, it very hard to catch up. |
#112
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We Know The Future II
Jack May wrote:
This will mean that transportation will stagnate as transportation improves in most of the rest of the US. NYC will become less competitive and less desirable to work in and live in. It will go into decline which will feed on itself to increase the rate of decline. This I'd be fascinated to see. Transportation is excellent in New York, better than anywhere else I've been or lived. I lived in Harlem and could get to any job in midtown in 15 minutes, door to door. I could get to a supermarket in 5 minutes. I could get to a hardware store or clothing store or anything else useful in 10 minutes. And I could get to the largest range of restaurants and other non-rural entertainment in the world within 20 minutes. I know of noplace that offers this, and I'd be surprised at the advent of any technology that would make it possible in, say, Boise, in my lifetime. miguel -- See the world from your web browser: http://travel.u.nu/ |
#113
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We Know The Future II
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#114
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We Know The Future II
This I'd be fascinated to see. Transportation is excellent in New York, better than anywhere else I've been or lived. I lived in Harlem and could get to any job in midtown in 15 minutes, door to door. I could get to a supermarket in 5 minutes. I could get to a hardware store or clothing store or anything else useful in 10 minutes. And I could get to the largest range of restaurants and other non-rural entertainment in the world within 20 minutes. I know of noplace that offers this, and I'd be surprised at the advent of any technology that would make it possible in, say, Boise, in my lifetime. miguel -- See the world from your web browser: http://travel.u.nu/ Good post, Miguel, but we are dealing with a belief system here. ******Martin Edwards.****** Come on! Nobody's going to ride that lousy freeway when they can take the Red Car for a nickel. Eddy Valiant. www.geocities.com/Athens/Agora/1955/ |
#115
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We Know The Future II
In article
, Orval Fairbairn wrote: In article 0MsAb.320950$ao4.1083140@attbi_s51, "Jack May" wrote: "Miguel Cruz" wrote in message ... If cars get replaced by fuel cell or electric variants, or even flying air cars, they are still cars. You can quibble about how they change. Fuel cells don't address the problem of space efficiency. Flying might, but I sort of doubt it unless our brains get a lot larger. What makes you think people will be flying cars like airplanes are being flown now? The plans are for both the car and the flying car (if it ever becomes practical) to be mainly driven by computer technology. This gives you all the freedom of the car but allows putting far more vehicles in a dense area with a far lower accident and death rate. You also have the option of the pleasure of driving or flying once you get into less dense areas. BTW, Moller is taking down payments now for his flying car for delivery in I think 2005. Its a lot more expensive at this time than I consider practical. IMHO, Moller is a scam artist -- his machine is a controls nightmare and has never flown successfully without thethers. He has been promoting his Aircar for at least 20 years and has nothing tangible to show. As an aeronautical engineer, I cannot see how he can make any of his performance claims come anywhere near to reality. Worse than scam artist since he kills the entire concept. Moller has been taking downpayments on a vehicle that will go into production "next year" for about 20 years. The "secret" is "fluidic amplifiers" that extract more thrust from the engines than their max power rating. In other words, transit math. |
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