4 ms·

Cars/trucks are way less efficient than trains in terms of fuel and vehicle overhead per passenger or ton of cargo. The article is a bit rambling, but the envir

Cars/trucks are way less efficient than trains in terms of fuel and vehicle overhead per passenger or ton of cargo. The article is a bit rambling, but the environmental argument seems the strongest to me - tiny little combustion engines are disastrously inefficient and polluting, and electric just isn't there yet for true long distance. An electrified rail network is the high-throughout, bulk-process solution. I'm also willing to bet that trains are much easier to maintain in aggregate then the same amount of capacity in trucks, due to there being fewer individual engines/motors needed. Track maintenance is slightly harder than road maintenance, but probably not harder than roads plus whatever solution you'd need for an automated truck to make it across the country (charging stations, electrified roads, etc.).

M_Grey 10y ago
EV's, and automated road-trains would hugely boost efficiency... hence the dedicated smart-lane.
- justanotherbody 10y ago
  The Seattle area already has decided bus lanes (with non - bus right turns). Basically, at-grade transportation that interacts with traffic fails during the peak periods of travel, particularly at turning points, because of other traffic. During the off peak it would work well, but then you've failed to solve the commute problem If you operate dedicated routes that have limited interaction with traffic you found achieve higher efficienct, but now people are being dropped off at what is functionally a bus stop and have to walk to work. This could actually work really well, except choke points like highway ramps will wreak havoc. Building an entire extra set of lanes everywhere is prohibitively expensive, and even then is only feasible in the outlying areas It's a very challenging problem in terms of space utilization and management, even if the technology magically worked in the best possible way. AV only solves some of it
  - M_Grey 10y ago
    We're talking about an alternative to new railways, so the issues are already on the table in terms of space and money.
undersuit 10y ago
Those are very good arguments for long distance travel, what about in city distribution?

M_Grey 10y ago

EV's, and automated road-trains would hugely boost efficiency... hence the dedicated smart-lane.

justanotherbody 10y ago
The Seattle area already has decided bus lanes (with non - bus right turns). Basically, at-grade transportation that interacts with traffic fails during the peak periods of travel, particularly at turning points, because of other traffic. During the off peak it would work well, but then you've failed to solve the commute problem If you operate dedicated routes that have limited interaction with traffic you found achieve higher efficienct, but now people are being dropped off at what is functionally a bus stop and have to walk to work. This could actually work really well, except choke points like highway ramps will wreak havoc. Building an entire extra set of lanes everywhere is prohibitively expensive, and even then is only feasible in the outlying areas It's a very challenging problem in terms of space utilization and management, even if the technology magically worked in the best possible way. AV only solves some of it
- M_Grey 10y ago
  We're talking about an alternative to new railways, so the issues are already on the table in terms of space and money.

undersuit 10y ago

Those are very good arguments for long distance travel, what about in city distribution?