From: jeff davis (jrd1415@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Mar 14 2002 - 02:23:38 MST
spike wrote:
> We have a distorted view of the world because of
> the fact that we drive,
The more I think about, it the more I come to believe
that the single greatest plague on modern quality of
life is bad transport. Hell is a world built to serve
transport, rather than a world where transport is
built to enhance living.
I love the New York subway, dirty and noisy as it is.
I love the Bay Area Rapid Transit (Bart) because it is
clean, quiet and (when above ground) scenic. I love
leaving the street, going down to the train, getting
off at my destination station, and climbing back up to
the street and being where I wanted to go. If it
weren't for the traffic hell at the street level, the
horrific incessant noise, the exhaust, the visual
clutter, and the neaver-ending
pedestrian-vs-motor-vehicle restrictions on personal
movement/physical jeopardy, life could be one
continuous stroll/bike ride from mall to mall to
Mayberry to park to mall to Willoughby etc.
I say follow the Disneyland model, put all (the
utilities and) the traffic that isn't local, isn't for
pure cruising pleasure, and isn't serenity
compatible--like San Francisco cable cars; slow
pleasant hop on, hop off--put all the noisy hustle
below ground. The surface level should be a
people-friendly social/living/lounging area. The
below-ground 'transport' should be made maximally
efficient:almost certainly electric and most certainly
ultra-automated. Which is to say, leave the driving
and the traffic management to computers.
I envision everyone having their own personal
transport pod, equipped according to your particular
wishes, and containing your personal property.
Propulsion and guidance would be provided by
ubiquitous and interchangable units. When you wanted
to go somewhere, your pod, mated to a propulsion unit,
would be there to meet you, automatically. You pod
would be demated from its current propulsion unit when
appropriate, either for propulsion unit maintenance or
for pod maintenance, or when transferring from one
mode of transport to another--high speed long distance
tube transport to a shorter-range local grid, for
example.
You get the idea. In the midst of a city, I live on a
dead end, traffic-free street/hill. My dog sits, ever
vigilant for vagrant felines, complacently in the
middle of the street. This is life as it should be.
Road rage is logical. Traffic is evil.
Best, Jeff Davis
"Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
Ray Charles
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