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wow, almost a week without updates. Sorry kiddies, life's been happening.

Here's another idea of mine. Why do people hate rush hour traffic so much? Because there's nothing really to do except inch along the highway for an hour or so before reaching your destination. There's absolutely nothing to distract us, except the radio/CD, etc. If the music sucks, or you sick of hearing the same 16 songs, you're in trouble.

So, here's my proposal. Install sensors imbedded into the highway, which communicates with our cars, updating often, so that it knows the shape of the road, and can steer itself. This isn't impossible, just costly. I mean, a lot of the major highways in Ontario go straight, with slight bends. There isn't a 90 degree turn in sight. So it's definitely possible to have a system where a smart car can stay in its own lane. I'm sure of it. And it wouldn't really need to take that much processing power to do so. It's just expensive.

Now, install big magnets at each ends of the car, all with the same negative or positive sides, so that they repel the vehicle in front. This automatically evens out the spacing between each vehicle. Put them very close to each other so that less space is wasted between each car. Our smart car should also be able to detect the need to slow down. Slow the first car down, and the rest will use the magnet to sense the braking power needed to slow the rest of the train. When the computer doesn't feel the magnets are pushing hard enough, accelerate to "catch up" Grand!

Now, install TVs in every car which can ONLY operate while the vehicle is travelling in this state, (safety regulations and all that). Provide one lane exclusively for these smart cars, and you will see traffic congestion ease up. One, because the automatic spacing of vehicles will sever the idiot who constantly cut others off to be ahead. Two, prevent people from pumping their brakes to keep spacing from the car ahead, when all they need to do is let off the accelerator. This alone will help, because brake lights make everyone slow down, which starts traffic jams. Three, constant movement, however how slow, feels faster than spirts of speed, followed by long non-movement. Four, eliminate human errors which lead to accidents; this is the #1 cause of traffic congestion.

So now you have a system that would work even when traffic is heavy, and you have a good distraction which allows people to do something other than glare at the bumper in front of them, cursing at their misery. TVs, internet, electronic books, and/or knitting can be alternative. Heck, even a nap is possible if everything works out the way I envision.

How would we get on the highway? Well, we could form a queue of 4-6 cars. When assembled, they take off like a train, intelligently slowing down/speeding up when it knows that the next entrance onto the highway ahead also has cars wanting to join the line or needs spacing to fit the cars already waiting.

This could also save on gasoline, as a constant non-excessive speed and drafting of the vehicles would help that. Nothing burns fuel quicker than jack-rabbit driving. Maintaining speeds of 100km/h consumes much less gas then slowing down to 50km/h and then speeding up to 100, only to slow down again.

I think it would work, but not with our present mindset of a society of car lovers. We need to learn that some government control will ease our lives, and this would definitely only work at the federal level. I know stuff like is borne out of the sci-fi world, but it could happen if we work towards it.

....See, I can be a visionary. posted by losir at 11:51 AM