Ideally we’d have an electromagnetic power transfer network with pods instead of trains, and stations where the pods could leave the track and wait in queue. But I suspect that would be no better for passengers prone to motion sickness, since my understanding is that it’s the size of the vehicle that makes it easier for them to deal with trains, big ships and big airplanes versus little boats and island hoppers. Still, I think a modular pod system may be where we’re ultimately headed. You have companies like Uber talking about people just renting self-driving cars for each trip. You have electric vehicles slowly but steadily replacing gasoline powered vehicles. You have rapid charging stations appearing in more and more places. In the next couple of decades we’ll probably see charging rails tried in some city by a company like Google or Tesla.
However, I don’t see the electric vehicles mechanically attaching to the rails. More likely they will simply have a contact boom. Mechanical attachments would only limit their mobility, which, if they’re controlled by a distributed app, would only decrease their efficiency. Robot cars just don’t need tracks. A network of power transfer roads and resilient light vehicles could potentially be much more energy and transportation efficient than a train or heavy bus based mass transit system. Ironically, America’s insistence on roads and individual cars might turn out to be the best solution in terms of efficiency, cost-effectiveness and even energy conservation, albeit while giving up the very independence that’s been the prevailing motivation behind American car culture. It will be interesting to see if people still care about owning their cars/pods when they can no longer pilot them.
Much appreciated. But it’s just not safe on a bike to assume drivers see you. Think of the act of faith you have to place in other drivers noticing you whenever you change lanes or pass through someone’s blind spot. Even if you’re a model driver and only change lanes when there’s ample space, you’re still counting on the person you’re getting in front of or behind not suddenly zooming ahead or slamming their brakes. On a bike, you have to assume drivers won’t notice you’re there at all. I’ve literally lost count of how many times drivers have pushed me between lanes, onto the shoulder, forced me to slow down or speed up, simply because they decided to try an occupy the same space as me. I’m sure most of them didn’t mean to try to kill me, but that’s not much help.
