There is a certain happiness sighted when your bus comes along. It is of course a small specialized form of happiness and will never be a great thing.

-Richard Brautigan, The Old Bus

Sunday, May 3, 2009

A tiny idea with big problems

Of all the wrong ways to solve our traffic problems, putting twice as many cars on our highways certainly sounds the most wrong.



You can read more about this at CommuterCars.com. I'm all for electric cars, but this idea needs more thought:
The Tango's ability to maneuver through traffic is second to none. Like a motorcycle, it can change lanes to gain advantage in traffic better than any car in history. Unlike a motorcycle, it is safe, dry, climate controlled, and can securely carry a reasonable amount of cargo. Where lane splitting is permitted (i.e., driving between lanes of stopped or slow-moving traffic), such as California, Europe, and Asia, the advantage can be staggering. In extremely heavy traffic, a Tango or motorcycle can travel in 20 seconds the distance that cars travel in 20 minutes.
I can just see the suburban moms in their SUVs squashing these things like bugs in June.

Worse yet is the suggestion that a sea of these cars running in 6-foot half-lanes "can make the traffic jam a fading memory."

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