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What you’re leaving out is CO2. California is committed to reducing CO2, but emissions from transportation are the largest component of state emissions, and the
by ebikelaw 9y ago
What you’re leaving out is CO2. California is committed to reducing CO2, but emissions from transportation are the largest component of state emissions, and they are growing. Air travel cannot be done except by burning hydrocarbon fuels. Train travel, while still energy-intensive at high speeds, can be powered by any electric source. Therefore rail, and not air, has the capability to cut the state’s CO2 emissions.
- sjg007 9y agoThey are working on electric powered jets kind of like the Chevy Volt. That may reduce the CO2 burden.
- redorb 9y agountil battery power/weight ratio gets 10x better electric flying vehicles (specifically passenger jets) are dead in the water. I don't know that we're making the right trade from atmospheric pollution co2 vs the pollution of throwing away batteries.
- pretendscholar 9y agoThis is one of my biggest gripes about the tech community. We can't wait for tech that may or may not come to fruition when we have working solutions now. Don't let great be the enemy of the good.
- 0xffff2 9y agoThey who? I work in aerospace and while I have heard many proposals (most 20-40 years from commercial production) for improving efficiency, including hybrid electric systems, I have never once seen anyone propose an electric commercial passenger aircraft.
- bluthru 9y agoAs a rule of thumb high speed rail is 1/10 the CO2 of flying. However, I wonder what the carbon footprint of creating the tracks is?
- dx034 9y agoThe track can be used for 1-2 centuries (as they have been in Europe). That includes many refurbishments and replacement of steel but much of the construction cost will be low per passenger.
- baud147258 9y agoOlder tracks can't be used for high speed trains. In France, all the new high-speed lines are constructed for this usage (lot of straight lines). On older lines, an high-speed train will be at the same speed as a normal commuter train.
- ebikelaw 9y agoHe didn’t say they could. But tracks built today can be used forever, because wheel-on-rail technology has a hard limit at Mach 0.5 and we’ll never have faster trains than we have today.