Deep Thoughts
 
     
  • The solution to rising energy costs isn’t alternate fuel for cars. The solution to traffic congestion isn't more roads. The solution to both problems lie in alternate transportation for commuters.
     
  • More than $78 billion is lost annually by Americans stuck in traffic jams. That’s more than triple the amount required to build the US highway/interstate system in 1956.
     
  • In time, the American investment in an asphalt/concrete automobile-based transit system, will come to be seen as one of the greatest blunders of the 20th century. Trillions spent on an unscalable, fragile, extremely inefficient transit infrastructure that, by 2020, will be rendered all but useless due to rising energy costs.
     
  • The American transit system will eventually be scrapped because:
        1) It’s too expensive. Compared to electric rail alternatives commuters pay far more in terms of time, money and health in auto traffic than they would on rail systems.
        2) It places far too much responsibility of operation upon the commuter. The system demands one's full attention, something very few are willing to give.
        3) Commuter throughput is extremely low (compared to rail).
        4) It’s too fragile. It only takes one person to bring it to it’s knees. If Charlie makes a mistake the 25,000 people behind him, over the next 2 hours, suffer. Thanks Charlie!
        5) It’s not scalable. The American commuter transit system consists almost entirely of massive rivers of asphalt and concrete. Set, as it is, in stone, it cannot be practically modified to meet expanding transportation needs. Transportation systems ought to be built from a medium that is easily expandable, configurable and pliable, such as steel. They ought to be built with the smallest possible environmental footprint such as elevated rail.
     
  • People don’t want to drive. They want to ride. They want to arrive refreshed and relaxed. The American road system can no longer offer this. It is far more common now for people now drive enraged, irate and reckless. The American commute has become a war zone; it has degenerated into a repulsive mix of the Road Warrior and NASCAR.
     
  • Why are the rich chauffeured? Because the can afford it. You wouldn’t drive another day in your life – if you could afford not to.
     
  • Ironically, under a private transportation model, such as most commonly relied on in the United States, commuters are more delayed and frustrated by their fellow general public than in a public transportation model. In a public transportation model (such as various rail systems) there is practically no way for commuters to delay the system. However, with a private transportation system, commuters can and do cause seemingly unending delays and frustrations upon each other.
     
  • Cars are human envelopes. They’re something humans “put on” or “get in” in order to be transported.
     
  • Roads reduce humans to rats in tubes. They bring out the worst in people.
     
  • e-rail: electric rail systems.
     
  • When one system is burdened to the point of failure another system is brought online, load is transferred and balanced. Commuter load should be transferred from current roadways onto dedicated e-rail systems.
     
  • Commuters should never share transit lines with cargo or freight traffic. Commuters should have lines dedicated to commuter traffic alone. This keeps freight out commuter’s way and commuter’s out of the way of freight.
     
  • Traffic accidents are not “accidents”. Usually, the responsible party has been driving reckless for a long time; it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened.
     
  • Cars are like grains of sand passing through an hourglass; rush them and they jam up and become gridlocked. Move them slowly and evenly and they flow unabatedly through the gap. Drivers don’t understand this. (but of course if they were riding trains they wouldn’t suffer the consequences of their ignorance!)
     
  • People love the American private transportation system because of it's "freedoms". However, they also hate it because of the commuter’s overabundant freedom to drive irresponsibly and cause delays. The only freedom a transportation system should provide is the freedom of movement. The commuter should be free to pick a destination and the system takes her there. Commuters should not have the ability to delay other commuters.
     
Home