The End of the Road
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At the turn of the 20th century, the internal combustion engine started to take over from pure horse power for personal transport. Over time, tracks turned into roads and metelled road networks evolved to the extent that soon nearly every property had a direct connection to the road network suitable for the cars of the day.
But the evolution of this system has generated its own problems, largely as a victim of its own success
It seems that hardly a day goes by without another 'solution' appearing in the media to address the issues attributed to road transport as the car continues to be developed with ever more sophisticated technology
Electric vehicles start to address the single issue of pollution.
Self Driving vehicles would start to address driver frustration.
However, these simply accept the current situation, and do nothing to address the underlying fundamental problems faced by people trying to get from one place to another
The Real Issues
The real issues are that
- Streets, cities and inter- city motorways become gridlocked due to congestion
- Travel times are continually increasing and increasingly unpredictable due to unexpected delays, which increases driver and passenger stress levels
- Parking close to your destination is frequently impossible and at best a lottery
- Air pollution from fossil fuels is increasinly recognised as a health issue
- Rising sea levels will make whole areas of coastal cities impassable.
The problem is not the car, and the solution is not to enhance the driving experience.
Nor is it to make cars navigate the road network for themselves. While these are interesting marketing and technical diversions, they will not address these issues
The problem is the road, and the solution is to replace roads with an infrastructure which is far more efficient in its use of space, natural resources and travel time.
The solution is to address all of the fundamental issues at once, as a single problem.
What is needed is a fundamentally different infrastructure and suitably different vehicles to run on it.
This site explores a single concept as a solution to all of these issues.
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Contact - davemcalder@icloud.com
