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10 comments on Prof Peter Newman Diamonds of Hope (Part A)
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There is no one solution. But there are many steps that can be taken. The one area we have been working on for 10 years is to increase efficiency in urban transport from 4% to 70%.
We will have to re-tool, but that re-tooling will create jobs and pay for itself with gas savings.
The basic mechanics were recommended by US DOT in 1975 (PB-244854) as a way to permanently prevent future oil embargoes. Recent studies by the EU and State of New Jersey affirm the earlier study.
Morgantown was built in response to that oil embargo. It has since delivered 110 million injury-free passenger miles.
They exist now and are expanding. ULTra is building at Heathrow. MISTER building in Poland. Vectus is building in Sweden. PodCars is raising a $1 billion fund in Sweden/California. JPods expects its first deployment in 2008.
Efficiency pays its own way. In the case of JPods, transport requires 200 watt-hours to move a pallet of cargo or 4 people a mile. Solar collectors 2 meters wide mounted over that rail gather 2.5 million watt-hours in a typical day, or power for 12,000 vehicle-miles.
When the 1st oil crisis hit in 1973/74 such a people mover project was on the drawing boards of the German city of Karlsruhe. This concept failed i.a. because we could not accommodate the empty cabins off peak. Councilors did not want to convert newly built multi level car parks to become holding bays for these cabins.
Instead, Council opted to modernize the then existing trams to modern light rail. In the last 30 years, an extensive system was built up.
Dual voltage trams use heavy rail track:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cS6B1Tgr5Y
They service large rural areas as "regional trams":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHZ9mYTxsOo
pass through small towns and villages
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcM1xCJ_0fY
(this movie could be from a post peak oil world where occasional cars cross the tram's tracks in traffic calmed areas)
and access the city centre directly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsVNGLLQ3b4&feature=related
Amazing how pedestrians and trams mix in the shopping mall.
More details in these links:
http://www.railway-technology.com/projects/karlsruhe/
http://web.presby.edu/~jtbell/transit/Karlsruhe/
"In the case of JPods, transport requires 200 watt-hours to move a pallet of cargo or 4 people a mile. "
My electric bike will take me a mile for 15 watts (without peddling) and go pretty much anywhere I want it to go. You can electrify a bike for as little as $400.
I'm sorry. Your obvious point will be ignored by BillJames as it does not support what he's a pimp'n.
(and 15 watts for a mile? Damn, that is better than any of my elecro-bikes)
The basic mechanics were recommended by US DOT in 1975 (PB-244854) as a way to permanently prevent future oil embargoes.
So hanging, moving baskets in one land mass will prevent other land masses from withoiding material extracted from the sub-soil. An amazing power hanging moving baskets have!
We will have to re-tool, but that re-tooling will create jobs and pay for itself with gas savings.
Interesting claim. Yet in other posts you claim your for-profit solution is a 'niche' solution - and here you state urban transport - not a niche market.
And yet you still have not addressed the public takings of private land for your private profit. Or how you expect others (TOD) to support your private profit.
(nice pandering/hoping to get on the government dole with the yellow 'support the troops' in the picture. Most cars/SUVs have stopped sporting such, and the stores had such Support-Americans-by-Buying-Stuff-Made-in-China in the closeout-discount rack over a year ago. If you want the governments money these days - make the jpod a weapons system.)