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FREEDOM?
Posted on 03/01/2006 10:14:13 AM PST by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
Researchers at Purdue University are mapping a plan for the future of the nation's interstate highways. They provided details Tuesday of a vision of what a road trip might look like 40 years from now.
Researchers say the plan would take drivers off the roads and put them onto the rails. High-speed passenger trains would whisk people along the interstate quicker than the cars and trucks rolling alongside. A trip from Indianapolis to Chicago could take less than an hour.
"If you chose to travel by high-speed rail rather than by highway, that four-hour trip would take you approximately 50 minutes," said Dr. Bonnie Savage, Purdue University.
Savage spent three years researching congestion on interstate highways. She says within ten years, more than half of an average motorist's time will be spent sitting still in traffic jams. Dr. Savage says traffic congestion costs the country about $78 billion a year in lost productivity, wasted fuel and other expenses.
The idea for a new national transportation network is based on an old one. Planners invented the current interstate highway system exactly 50 years ago. The new proposal upgrades the original and would serve the region's needs for the next 40 years.
The new plan calls for putting cars and trucks in separate lanes on rural highways like parts of I-65. Truckers would use their own, exclusive lanes, side-by-side in the country and on elevated highways in the city.
"Of major concern to us in the state of Indiana is increased freight movements. We are in the center of the United States. We're 24 hours away by truck from 80 percent of the US population that consumes goods and services," said Tom Sharp, INDOT commissioner.
Planners say the system would pay for itself by getting rid of a pattern of transportation waste. They suggest corporate travelers, as well as ordinary drivers, can save fuel, time and resources. Drivers would utilize wider lanes, and find less congested traffic.
State officials expect the plan will be attractive enough to draw federal dollars to refurbish the interstate system.
"This isn't something where we say, 'This would be nice if it was a shorter trip.' This impacts us. This impacts our lifestyle. This impacts our economics. We are truly set on the verge of needing this. We are lucky to have the opportunity to develop something like this in the time frame where it's needed," Savage said.
If plan is going to succeed, drivers will have to use it. No one knows how enthusiastic people will be about giving up their wheels and letting someone else do the driving for them. But according to a WISHTV.COM epoll Tuesday, some 71 percent of respondents say they´d absolutely use it.
It might help if we stopped handing out licenses to any idiot who can pass a second-grade level 20 question test and drive around the block without killing anyone.
Germany with its Autobahn has about the same highway accident rate as the US. Aside from far better driver education (you must take a real course including lots of driving time) and a very hard test, the roads and rules are better. Here a few things that help:
"Individual vehicles, but an overall control system.
"
OK, as long as it doesn't run Windows or Linux.
Like in iRobot.
well... i'm not talking the 200mph speeds that nascar runs :) i've never been in a car that couldn't handle 100mph easily on the expressway. and i doubt there's too much difference between our cars and roads in america, and those on the autobahn, and don't cars there regularly run 100mph+?
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FREEDOM?
Engineers: Providing idiots with yet more ways to Darwin themselves!!!
Darwin awards in new and entertaining ways are always a fun read here...
I grew up and lived in Brighton my whole life, if they had a rail system that went to big lots where I could park and ride I would have loved that!
Willie Green what can I say? You are consistant.
There are a lot of differences I listed in 42. I used to do about 110mph to work and back in Germany, sometimes much higher. I've hit 165mph.
One big thing though is stability. You might think the car is fine at 100mph, but wait for a gust of wind and you'll find yourself fighting for control, something you do not want at that speed. The aerodynamics of most cars are just not designed for such speeds. I drove a Lotus most of the time at pretty high speeds, but it was designed with downforce*, so the faster I went the more it was sucked to the road, and wind gusts didn't bother me. Repeat the same in a normal Ford sedan at 120 mph (it got kind of a "floaty" feel to it at that speed) and you'll be in for a scare.
And don't forget to get tires with the proper speed rating. $40 retreads will not do.
One thing I forgot, the German car inspections every two years are far more strict than here, so much that all used car ads show when the last inspection was. This means few ancient beat-up junkers on the road.
* And I don't mean just putting a stupid ricer wing on the back, I mean designing the whole car to provide downforce, at least on the front wheels that you steer with.
Where is the picture of the interstate at 5:00 PM? Besides, who paid for the road the car is driving on?
This comes close to the concept of "road cities" presented by Robert Heinlein in 1940's "The Roads Must Roll."
Heinlein's fiction was way ahead of its time, to say the least.
He was also a "small-l libertarian," so his road-cities were private, not government, projects.
They were, however, unionized, and it was labor trouble that eventually brought the road-cities to a halt. Literally.
Still a fun read, though, as are all the stories collectively known as his "future history."
If your goal is to go from the train station in Indy to the train station in Chicago at the time the train is departing this works well.
However, the less than an hour doesn't include time getting to the train station, time spent waiting in lines. It doesn't include arranging transportation from the train station in Chicago to the person's final destination.
It doesn't take into effect the need to travel in accordance with the train schedule.
It doesn't take into account that the train stations themselve them become major bottlenecks and that it can take a lot of time getting into and out of the train stations.
People use highways and automobiles because they are flexible. Trains are not flexible.
Trains can help reduce traffic on the interstate highways by giving people for whom trains are a good solution that option, however the government nearly always overestimates the number of people for whom such transportation is a reasonable choice, and trains are only cost effective if they are heavily utilized.
If they are not heavily utilized, the schedules have to become less frequent to save costs and they become less and less useful and less cost effective.
IIRC, I think we came close to the 50 minute mark on one of the trips back and forth to Indy. ;-)
What a great time, but a looooong weekend.
Is Canal's still right over the Ben?
LOL. Man this is from PERDUE! (Hog Caller U!) Get with it.
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