"No, I don't thank you for the fish at all" (notindetroit)
08/01/2014 at 01:10 • Filed to: None
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"No, I don't thank you for the fish at all" (notindetroit)
08/01/2014 at 01:10 • Filed to: None | 0
| 1 |
This really isn't meant to be a coherent post per se rather than a collection of random musings of some write-ups I've been thinking of doing - but, sadly, to truly appreciate them requires !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . I'll explain why as I run down through each idea:
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Public Transportation Alternatives from Suburban to Urban: !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , having been both stuck in traffic next to and on a bus quite frequently. A lot of the traffic problems that spring up for us 'MURICA-ites stem from going from our suburban community homes...to another part of same said suburban community home. Too far to walk or bike (or maybe just lazy, or even weather, or whatever) so here we go in our cars, pollute, stuck in traffic, listenin to jams on the jam etc.
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Despite our propensity towards avoiding walking we actually have a pretty extensive sidewalk network, with even relatively remote communities being connected by sidewalks as well as roads. I'd like to explore the idea of perhaps setting up a autonomous transportation network taking advantage of this sidewalk network. Because it'll be bound to the sidewalks going at very slow speeds across short distances, range and safety issues will be reduced and it can pretty much just be a glorified electric golf cart. They can form a train or a convoy going from one direction and then back the other, and perhaps suburbanites can rent them on-demand, or have their association dues cover them. Another advantage of using the sidewalk network is that even rudimentary AI should do the trick - there's no worry about collision avoidance as long as there's a system for pedestrians (and especially bicyclists) to pass by them, which should work on at least standard bicycle or park-style "double-wide" sidewalks. That said, there's still a multitude of issues to overcome, not the least of which is the start-up costs and trying to figure out a system to get the maximum utility out of these little convoys or trains for best capacity instead of just sitting idle.
The Optimum Urban Commuting Environment: On a related note I think a major part of the transportation issue is that 'MURICAN urban centers are just designed in a really, really shitty way. Many towns in the West grew up from cattle or wagon weigh stations, train depots or other spots that at one time consisted of nothing more but fewer permanent structures than can be counted on a whole hand, or even tents - and the haphazard street networks we have to deal with today tend to reflect that. Parts of Denver were in fact intentionally designed for convenient access for cars only (homes a good distance from shopping and commerce centers) because apparently in the 50s that was futuristic. To many people, urban living has gotten so undesirable that they say to hell with it and pick up towards the suburbs or even beyond (along with other issues, bringing in the stories of "White Flight" and other uncomfortable unfortunate implications that have been covered previously, and more experienced bloggers can fill in).
To really solve it, the urban center itself needs a complete redesign - I mean physically, including the demo and rebuild of entire blocks of downtown city. In their place would be skyscrapers that themselves would be multi-zoned with living and shopping/commercial floors with the hope that a resident's daily commute might be a simple elevator ride. "Hanging Gardens" (yes just like in Babylonian times) would bring some of the suburban and wide-open park experience too. In fact, groupings of such skyscrapers can be physically networked together to form an entirely different urbanscape on of themselves - skybridges can form a continuous looping walking path from one rooftop park to the next, and additional skybridges on lower levels can link other floors of other skyscrapers to ensure residents never even have to get down to street level and be protected from the weather on commutes to other buildings. While we're at it urban centers can be redone to not only better optimize the road networks but public transportation networks too, particularly commuter rail systems.
You can probably see the obvious issues with something like this, not the least of which would be necessary investments rapidly approaching billions and billions of dollars - and that's just for each individual urban center redo. The areas most ripe, economically, for such heavy redos are also areas that tend to be populated by "projects" and other low-income housing - which likely means displaced residents will be unable to afford the fancy new hipster homes that just replaced theirs. That said, we're already seeing what's essentially a low-level version of this in urban centers all over the nation including in Denver.
The Most Jalop Plane Ever Designed: This one's a bit more complicated than a simple lack of artistic skill and it was going to follow-up several other articles (which are still pending, not just for lack of time to write but lack of time for research). There have been a great many general aviation aircraft with a lot of Jalop appeal, but for various reasons had their production runs ended (even though in many cases the production runs were quite lengthy). This final write-up was going to be centered around the ultimate Jalop plane, taking the best features of those covered in previous articles, and discuss why it could or could not work. Some airplanes actually come pretty close, particularly the Vans RV-series (which you can build yourself!)
The Future of Drones: Speaking of Torchinsky, this was !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which probably gives you an idea how long I've been thinking of this shit. Being a teacher/educator wasn't my first college degree choice and I spent a lot of time thinking and studying about drones. Drones really are the future, or at least they should be - and I'm not talking about drones that can shoot off Hellfire missiles at goat farmers or have cute little Koala-inspired faces that can drive us anywhere for us. I mean exactly what Amazon.com is talking about. A lot of commuting issues can in fact be resolved with little drones like what Amazon proposed - replacing heavy trucks weighing several tons and running off of dead dino juice and operated by someone who needs to be paid $20 an hour or so with benefits with autonomous devices weighing a few ounces and running off of battery power that can be recharged with the sun. From that, you can hopefully see how the price of goods delivery should drop dramatically (like replacing a heavy Saturn V with some of the modern, super-lightweight rockets we're working on from SpaceX and what not). Sure, they can only deliver one package at a time - but an apparent disadvantage becomes a benefit when you're running point-to-point delivery anyway. Jason's actually pretty spot-on with what needs to happen, but I think a lot of that technology is around the corner. I've always said the ultimate goal of drone technology is when we can have one show up at your door hovering with your latest Pizza Hut order.
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GeorgeyBoy
> No, I don't thank you for the fish at all
08/01/2014 at 01:31 |
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I really find urban development interesting. Look at downtown Detroit and see how screwy it is. Cars were never meant for there..