On Thu, Apr 05, 2012 at 03:56:56PM +0100, Robert Lynn wrote: > Flying cars can eliminate the need for cities, and many of the problems > that cities create: > -crime and other social problems arising from lack of community > -hugely expensive housing driven by high land prices > -wasted lives commuting > -environmental issues from high population densities > -expensive and bad environment for children, (cities are huge population > sinks where people cannot afford to have children, unlike rural areas) > -massive expense of transport infrastructure
As hinted at by Jed and Eric, the problems you are describing are very US-centric, and I don't think flying cars are the way to address them. In Europe (for example) cities are designed to live in, rather than commute from/to I was born in the US, and you pretty much have to have a vehicle: the public transportation is poor or nonexistent, there are few bike lanes, and important places (home, work, market, pub) are so geographically separated that you have no other options. Over here things are much better. Every place I want to go is accessible by foot. There are dedicated bike paths to and from every city, and if you don't have a bike there are trains and buses which run frequently around the clock. The social life certainly benefits from this. Perhaps better planning would assuage some of these problems, but I'm not so sure. It's possible this urban sprawl/car culture runs too deep. -X > Electric VTOL aircraft can be extremely efficient and cheap and not too > noisy if they are sized to carry one person (the majority of all needed > trips). Here is a nice example that is being developed at the moment: > http://www.jobyaviation.com/animation.php > 100miles in an hour point to point with <$3 in electricity and no roads > from an aircraft that would cost <$10k in mass production (with a concept > that really can work). This form of transportation would be far cheaper > than cars, buses or trains, and would have better range for lower cost than > electric cars. Automated aircraft control is a much easier problem to > solve than automated car driving owing to consistency of air and lack of > obstacles. > > There are many other similar concepts. High powered brushless motors and > batteries + GPS and cheap digital communications and computing have really > opened up tremendous opportunities in this area, I expect to see a > breakthrough product in next 10 years. > > > On 5 April 2012 03:32, Eric Walker <eric.wal...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 6:24 AM, Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com>wrote: > > > > The solution to the traffic problem is to stop going places. Reduce > >> commuting distances with full screen video telecommuting from home and from > >> satellite offices. > >> > > > > Agreed. Make cities beautiful and livable and compact enough for people > > to get around by foot and use mass transit. This is the pattern of > > European cities. Many American cities had the misfortune of expanding when > > the automobile was becoming common and people were infatuated with the > > freedom of movement they allow. People don't appear to have appreciated > > how much strip malls, traffic, automobile pollution and urban sprawl would > > detract from their quality of life. > > > > It's possible to increase urban population density without getting rid of > > cars altogether. They can be kept in compact garages near the outskirts of > > a city. Flying cars would only add to the noise and clutter. > > > > Eric > > > >
