3 ms·

Why do you think so? I believe it would work better than the current system. We could utilize roads, vehicles, parking space, other infrastructure, as well as

by barnacs 10y ago

Why do you think so? I believe it would work better than the current system. We could utilize roads, vehicles, parking space, other infrastructure, as well as manpower more evenly. Rush hours are a weird concept and painful for pretty much everyone every day - waiting in traffic or lines is not much of a joy. The fact that 9-5 workers all work at the same time means that any one worker doesn't have much chance to take advantage of what other businesses have to offer. Like, if you work exactly at the same time banks and government offices are open, when do you even run your errands? And why do we assume that from say 10pm to 6am everyone just wants to keep quiet and rest? Fck that noisy pub down the road, let's just shut it down already! To put it another way, since we currently have no practical control over the passage of time, it would make sense to separate activities spatially instead.

emodendroket 10y ago
Well, for one thing, a great many people commute to their jobs. For another, I doubt the zones would be far enough apart in hyper-local time for this to actually help congestion at all. That's before we account for headaches of the time changing six times as you drive to the grocery store.
- barnacs 10y ago
  I think in the future the number of people commuting to their jobs will be decreasing. Anyway, let's keep to the present. You could optimize the location of the zones for traffic. For example, we know that everyone will sleep at some point, so the resting zone could be at the center of the city. Then throughout the day, people would commute in and out of the center in all directions at about a constant rate. That's already a lot better if you consider road and parking space utilization, than 2x1 hour rushes in specific directions like we have now. The main benefit is spreading traffic across time, not space though. Also, rush hours are not limited to traffic. You can experience them in stores, offices, restaurants, pretty much everywhere as most people with 9-5 jobs try and run their errands in the very limited time before/after work. And time wouldn't change between zones, neither would our measurement of time. This is all in addition to abolishing time zones. Once you dump the notion of 'local time night is for sleeping, local time 9-5 is for working' all this seems like the next logical step to me.
  - grzm 10y ago
    "Once you dump the notion of 'local time night is for sleeping, local time 9-5 is for working' all this seems like the next logical step to me." Can you expand on this? I read this as setting up schedules to potentially rotate everyone's sleep/work schedules, independent of the diurnal cycle. Though I wonder if I'm not reading too much into it.
    - barnacs 10y ago
      I didn't really mean to imply that, but it would be interesting to see how reliant humans are on ~24 hour cycles apart from convention. It may be more deeply rooted in the way of nature than our work/sleep/leisure schedule within such cycles and changes in temperature and natural light may throw off our biology but with so many advances in artifical lighting and temperature control we shouldn't be so strict as to not even experiment with it :)
      - grzm 10y ago
        Thanks for clarifying! There's been quite a bit of research on circadian rhythms. I've heard that even our gut bacteria follow a daily cycle, slightly independent of other body systems. Pretty wild, eh? And there's been recently research on the effects of artificial light on sleep and circadian rhythms as well. If we're going to have these kinds of experiments, can I opt out? :)
        barnacs 10y ago
        Maybe the gut bacteria simply follow a cycle based on our eating habits? But who knows, those things are weird and I keep running into them a lot lately. The experiments are not mandatory at this point, though I would love it if more people were inclined and allowed to experiment freely with what works best for them. For some reason I feel like most people don't have their schedule determined by trial and error :)
      - emodendroket 10y ago
        Our bodies respond to natural light. If we're deprived of it we run on more of a 25-hour cycle.

by barnacs 10y ago

emodendroket 10y ago

Well, for one thing, a great many people commute to their jobs. For another, I doubt the zones would be far enough apart in hyper-local time for this to actually help congestion at all. That's before we account for headaches of the time changing six times as you drive to the grocery store.

barnacs 10y ago
I think in the future the number of people commuting to their jobs will be decreasing. Anyway, let's keep to the present. You could optimize the location of the zones for traffic. For example, we know that everyone will sleep at some point, so the resting zone could be at the center of the city. Then throughout the day, people would commute in and out of the center in all directions at about a constant rate. That's already a lot better if you consider road and parking space utilization, than 2x1 hour rushes in specific directions like we have now. The main benefit is spreading traffic across time, not space though. Also, rush hours are not limited to traffic. You can experience them in stores, offices, restaurants, pretty much everywhere as most people with 9-5 jobs try and run their errands in the very limited time before/after work. And time wouldn't change between zones, neither would our measurement of time. This is all in addition to abolishing time zones. Once you dump the notion of 'local time night is for sleeping, local time 9-5 is for working' all this seems like the next logical step to me.
- grzm 10y ago
  "Once you dump the notion of 'local time night is for sleeping, local time 9-5 is for working' all this seems like the next logical step to me." Can you expand on this? I read this as setting up schedules to potentially rotate everyone's sleep/work schedules, independent of the diurnal cycle. Though I wonder if I'm not reading too much into it.
  - barnacs 10y ago
    I didn't really mean to imply that, but it would be interesting to see how reliant humans are on ~24 hour cycles apart from convention. It may be more deeply rooted in the way of nature than our work/sleep/leisure schedule within such cycles and changes in temperature and natural light may throw off our biology but with so many advances in artifical lighting and temperature control we shouldn't be so strict as to not even experiment with it :)
    - grzm 10y ago
      Thanks for clarifying! There's been quite a bit of research on circadian rhythms. I've heard that even our gut bacteria follow a daily cycle, slightly independent of other body systems. Pretty wild, eh? And there's been recently research on the effects of artificial light on sleep and circadian rhythms as well. If we're going to have these kinds of experiments, can I opt out? :)
      - barnacs 10y ago
        Maybe the gut bacteria simply follow a cycle based on our eating habits? But who knows, those things are weird and I keep running into them a lot lately. The experiments are not mandatory at this point, though I would love it if more people were inclined and allowed to experiment freely with what works best for them. For some reason I feel like most people don't have their schedule determined by trial and error :)
    - emodendroket 10y ago
      Our bodies respond to natural light. If we're deprived of it we run on more of a 25-hour cycle.