[ale] Mass Transit Solutions?
Charles Shapiro
hooterpincher at gmail.com
Tue Jun 20 11:11:45 EDT 2006
Uh... And trackable by Law Enforcement Authorities. I'm _really_ not sure
about that. Part of the great thing about being outside an auto is that my
civil rights are preserved. I don't have to identify myself to a policeman;
a driver must display ID at all times. And what happens when I'm on foot?
Must I wear a special badge just to walk around, lest I be run over? Foo. I
already have to carry a badge for work. One's enough.
I personally myself think that mass transit offers far safer and simpler
solutions to this problem. But of course gas has to get to $3.50 a gallon to
convince the SUV drivers that they'll have to rub elbows with peasants.
-- CHS
(Who might be a peasant himself)
On 6/20/06, James P. Kinney III <jkinney at localnetsolutions.com> wrote:
>
> 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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> >
> >
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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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>
>
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