[ale] Mass Transit Solutions?
James P. Kinney III
jkinney at localnetsolutions.com
Tue Jun 20 10:59:23 EDT 2006
On Tue, 2006-06-20 at 09:49 -0400, Charles Shapiro wrote:
> Uh, as a mostly pedestrian and bicyclist this scares me to death.
>
> It's dangerous enough out there with the drunks and the SUVs. Add
> trying to cross a street where a minor sensor failure can kill you
> into the mix and it'll become pretty much impossible to move around
> the city EXCEPT in an automobile.
>
> -- CHS
So I guess the specs should include redundant sensors data. Each vehicle
has its own set at the data is shared between nearby vehicles.
Of course an RFID on the bike makes it quite visible as well.
>
>
> On 6/16/06, James P. Kinney III <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com> wrote:
> So the big questions I have to pose is:
>
> What can be done about it that is financially feasible,
> politically
> possible and technically available?
>
> Of course I have some thoughts on this. :)
>
> We already have an extensive network of asphalt. Neighborhood
> associations have enough clout to kill off a rail line in the
> areas
> where it is needed (Why has the Tucker Marta spur never been
> built?).
> The Grand Darpa Challenge has demonstrated we currently posses
> the
> technical ability to auto-navigate a car through some of the
> worst
> terrain.
>
> Is it feasible to have current cars retro-fitted with self-nav
> as an
> intermediate step to a purpose built light vehicle with
> self-nav
> designed in?
>
> There are social issues with peoples current choice of cars
> that can't
> be addressed with technology (Why do so many little, tiny
> women drive
> gigantic 3 ton monsters like Chevy Suburbans north of I-20?).
>
> My thinking on the self-nav is it could allow a smoother
> traffic flow
> process that would be safer and much more fuel efficient. Ad
> 60% of the
> work done by the engine is to simply move the air out of the
> way,
> self-nav would allow cars to safely tail-gate literally
> bumper-to-bumper
> and thus greatly reduce wind drag on the entire mini-train.
>
> A second factor in this (long range proposal) would be a super
> light
> weight, single commuter vehicle. Much of the mass of the
> current vehicle
> design is involve in the safety of the passengers. Let's face
> it, cars
> crash because drivers make mistakes. If the crash likelihood
> is reduced
> by removing as much of the human error as engineering
> possible, the
> overall mass of the car can be reduced dramatically with
> tremendous
> efficiency results. Likewise, the reduction in size increases
> the number
> of these vehicles that can be on the roads at any given time
> (which
> extends the useful lifetime of the existing road size and also
> reduces
> maintenance as the vehicles are lighter and thus don't produce
> the wear
> on the roadway that the heavier ones do.)
>
> Of course, the nav systems would have to be fully open source
> to ensure
> that the travel details of any one person are not used
> nefariously. In
> fact, the entire traffic control system should be fully open
> source to
> engender an enhanced trust of the system by the population at
> large.
> Having a talking guvment head telling me "Of course it's safe
> and
> secure" is rather pointless. Having 40-50 research engineers
> jointly say
> it is means much more.
>
> More?
>
> On Fri, 2006-06-16 at 09:08 -0400, William Bagwell wrote:
> > Catch up? The idiots should never have *abandoned* in the
> 50s what had
> > existed in the 1930s! A bit before my time so I'm not
> exactly sure when
> > they were first built, but depression era trolley lines ran
> as far as
> > Marietta to the north and Stone Mountain to the east.
> (Probably others
> > too.) Cheap, simple rail trolleys that cost a nickel to
> ride... Or so I
> > have been told, I only remember the rotting stations as a
> small child.
> >
> > Lingering bitterness over Atlanta killing the trolley, was a
> primary reason
> > why Cobb county rejected joining Marta when it was first
> proposed back in
> > the late 60s or early 70s.
> --
> James P. Kinney III \Changing the mobile computing
> world/
> CEO & Director of Engineering \ one Linux
> user /
> Local Net Solutions,LLC \ at a
> time. /
> 770-493-8244 \.___________________________./
> http://www.localnetsolutions.com
>
> GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S . Physics)
> <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
> Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C
> 6CA7
>
>
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--
James P. Kinney III \Changing the mobile computing world/
CEO & Director of Engineering \ one Linux user /
Local Net Solutions,LLC \ at a time. /
770-493-8244 \.___________________________./
http://www.localnetsolutions.com
GPG ID: 829C6CA7 James P. Kinney III (M.S. Physics)
<jkinney at localnetsolutions.com>
Fingerprint = 3C9E 6366 54FC A3FE BA4D 0659 6190 ADC3 829C 6CA7
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