Public Transportation

One of the things that I most hope changes soon with new technology (and yet seems least likely), is the matter of our dependence on the automobile. Technology is well underway in creating more fuel efficient cars, and politicians are lauding how we should decrease our dependence on foreign oil (all well and good). But nobody seems to give much thought about public transportation being the wave of the future. As world population increases, we are going to have to use our land more efficiently. Go ahead and look on Google Earth, fully two thirds of our developed land is dedicated towards roads and parking lots. But lets look at some other pros and cons.

On average, we spend $9,000 every year to own, maintain,and run a car. That's $18,000 for a two car family! Now lets start talking about taxes. I'm sure you can imagine the untold billions that are spent on building and maintaining our roads. Now lets think about energy consumption, our dependence on the Middle East, air pollution, water pollution because of impermeable surfaces, and auto accidents being the largest killer of kids 0-25. It seems to me that our use of the automobile is one of the worst habits we've got.

Ok, but lets step back for a moment. The car is what drives our society. It lets us get to work, live where we want to, truck cargo around the country, and it gives us the freedom to go virtually wherever we want. How can we give that up? Also, using public transportation is inconvenient, slow, unstylish, and sometimes dangerous. That's exactly what I would like to change. I think that if our government could spend half of it's transportation budget on public transportation, than these facilities would be clean, efficient, quick, safe, and free. That's right, free. The amount that it cost to run public transportation is so low compared to automobile travel, that I believe it would be simple matter for the government to pick up the cost completely, in order to encourage people to leave their cars behind.

Of course, this newly funded transportation system would need a massive overhaul. When I think of transportation in the future, I am not thinking about buses, subways and trains. When it comes to public transportation of the future, I think Walt Disney had it right; monorails and people movers. 1) Monorails; fairly long distance trains which would go at higher speed, and be elevated above the ground for minimal obstruction in urban areas, and minimal environmental intrusion in nature. The elevated trains might also to less susceptible to vandalism and crime. 2)People Movers; although the ones at Disneyland didn't go very fast (it was a '60s prototype after all), they could go as fast as a car once they sped up. Since you can jump right on at a station in a continuous line, there should almost never be any waiting. And because they are on tracks going a regulated speed, there will virtually never be any accidents. Unlike Disneyland, these people movers would be on a vast network which would connect society much the same way that roads do now, minus the inefficiency, fuel consumption and accidents. Very similar to the cars in Minority Report without the weirdness of going up the sides of buildings.