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Fife isn't city living; that's not relevant to the article. Mind you, with your self-driving vehicle, you'll be able to sip coffee and spot herons. And I belie

Fife isn't city living; that's not relevant to the article. Mind you, with your self-driving vehicle, you'll be able to sip coffee and spot herons. And I believe packetized self-driving vehicles grouping together into convoys ought to be able to exceed 200mph in the future. That future isn't today, but the article is explicitly forward looking, about geometry that doesn't change. I think the article is ideologically blind to how mass transit has similar supply and demand problems (e.g. when I take the train home, I often have to skip multiple departures due to overcrowding), and it drastically underestimates the potential for technology change.

StudentStuff 9y ago
Stopping distances aren't about to magically improve in the next decade such that any vehicle can speed down the street at 200mph (or anywhere close to that) safely. This whole scheme your dreaming up is just not realistic, the faster you go, the more dangerous a road is for everything else on it, from pedestrians and bikers to other cars sharing the road with you. Making your car drive itself won't magically double road capacity either, as you'd need much more traction & better brakes to support tighter packing of cars in any vaguely safe manner.
- barrkel 9y ago
  > Stopping distances aren't about to magically improve in the next decade such that any vehicle can speed down the street at 200mph (or anywhere close to that) safely. What makes you think the vehicles wouldn't be coupled together mechanically? Pedestrians wouldn't be on a road going 200mph; I'd expect that kind of road would be fenced off like rail is today, or in a tunnel, and perhaps even be on tracks. The point is that automation will change the nature of transport in ways that don't fit into the current mass transit / individual vehicle binary that we have today. That binary is based on limitations on current technology.

StudentStuff 9y ago

Stopping distances aren't about to magically improve in the next decade such that any vehicle can speed down the street at 200mph (or anywhere close to that) safely. This whole scheme your dreaming up is just not realistic, the faster you go, the more dangerous a road is for everything else on it, from pedestrians and bikers to other cars sharing the road with you. Making your car drive itself won't magically double road capacity either, as you'd need much more traction & better brakes to support tighter packing of cars in any vaguely safe manner.

barrkel 9y ago
> Stopping distances aren't about to magically improve in the next decade such that any vehicle can speed down the street at 200mph (or anywhere close to that) safely. What makes you think the vehicles wouldn't be coupled together mechanically? Pedestrians wouldn't be on a road going 200mph; I'd expect that kind of road would be fenced off like rail is today, or in a tunnel, and perhaps even be on tracks. The point is that automation will change the nature of transport in ways that don't fit into the current mass transit / individual vehicle binary that we have today. That binary is based on limitations on current technology.