Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Great Britain is much smaller, and has a better transportation system.
We could ramp up public transportation (even super fast transportation between major cities, crisscrossing the nation, like the interstate system did so many years ago). We don't HAVE to drive everywhere.
Electric cars are doable, if there are numerous electric stations to charge up along the way, like there are gas stations.
I'm sure it seemed undoable when we were converting to gasoline vehicles from horses. People who think that are stuck in yesterday's and today's way of doing things, the current system support, not realizing that there will be a different system support for the new transportation.
The horse to car analogy isn't a good comparison as a car is way easier to live with than a horse.
What you're suggesting doesn't make anybody's life any easier than it is now, unlike the transition from horses to cars.
Look at the price of California's bullet train for a glimpse of why nodody else here wants one.
Much more likely to happen in small European countries, UK could certainly pull this off.
But in the US where public transit is near non-existent. There can be vast distances between destinations. And yeah car ownership is deeply embedded in the culture that is another story.
The US is not developmentally homogenous so I think that this model would catch on, to some degree, in any and all of the US's 380 metropolitan areas. 81% of Americans live in medium-high density metropolitan areas.
I do agree that our car culture and lower density areas will retard the wide spread of this technology compared to more compact countries, but it will happen in America's urban areas just as fast as in Europe's and for the same reason, it will likely be cheaper and in many ways more convenient than owning a car.
Now people who live in rural areas and have a rural occupation and need cargo space will continue private ownership here in the US as well as their counterparts in Europe. It is the urban condition that will warrant it, not national culture.
I have to say, I am not an eager adopter of this, I am just being realistic. I like driving, combustion engines, and I need a truck for my lifestyle (I am a wood salvager) and will likely be living rurally when this technology comes into vogue, but for a lot of Americans, the idea of not having to think about car maintenance or fuel costs, and the ability to look at their phones while some random car takes them to work or shopping trips would have an appeal.
The US is not developmentally homogenous so I think that this model would catch on, to some degree, in any and all of the US's 380 metropolitan areas. 81% of Americans live in medium-high density metropolitan areas.
I do agree that our car culture and lower density areas will retard the wide spread of this technology compared to more compact countries, but it will happen in America's urban areas just as fast as in Europe's and for the same reason, it will likely be cheaper and in many ways more convenient than owning a car.
Now people who live in rural areas and have a rural occupation and need cargo space will continue private ownership here in the US as well as their counterparts in Europe. It is the urban condition that will warrant it, not national culture.
I have to say, I am not an eager adopter of this, I am just being realistic. I like driving, combustion engines, and I need a truck for my lifestyle (I am a wood salvager) and will likely be living rurally when this technology comes into vogue, but for a lot of Americans, the idea of not having to think about car maintenance or fuel costs, and the ability to look at their phones while some random car takes them to work or shopping trips would have an appeal.
That's not really what I see here in the South. Every year I notice more and more subdivisions being built, further and further away from the cities. I doubt these people are going to be satisfied with fetching a ride from a ride share service.
The US is not developmentally homogenous so I think that this model would catch on, to some degree, in any and all of the US's 380 metropolitan areas. 81% of Americans live in medium-high density metropolitan areas.
Have you seen the geographic scope of some of these MSA's? I agree with you along the Bos-Wash Corridor, much of Chicagoland, Dallas Ft. Worth (probably, I haven't seen enough of it) are dense enough to handle it.
But even go to more medium size ones, like Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, Minneapolis...You get out into some really rural areas technically within the confines of the MSA's.
Gasoline can be a lot more expensive in some areas of the US than in Others. Probably more expensive in Hawaii and California, but the average US gallon in Fairbanks Alaska costs nearly $3.00. Then perhaps 18 miles from Fairbanks, in North Pole, it usually costs around 15 cents more than in Fairbanks. Perhaps 100 miles away in Delta Junction, it costs from $3.00 to $3.59 per gallon. In some of the remote villages in Alaska it could cost around $7.00 per gallon.
In the early 90's gas was going for about the same it is now. During trip I took a gas station near Death Valley and another one near Big Sur was selling it for about $4.50. They have captive market and of course it cost a lot to get it there.
That's not really what I see here in the South. Every year I notice more and more subdivisions being built, further and further away from the cities. I doubt these people are going to be satisfied with fetching a ride from a ride share service.
This!
I live in one of those cities. People want to live downtown if they're either extremely wealthy, extremely poor, or in college.
Immediately after graduation, they get married, move to a new planned community further out in the suburbs, buy a house and SUV and make yearly pilgrimages to Disney World.
I think the opposite will happen. Self driving car means I can live further from work and just watch Netflix all the way to work. When I get to work, I have no desire to send my car out driving strangers around (most of the market will already be at work by then) and even if I did, I'd add traffic problems doing so as my car would be making several trips to and from the suburbs and back, while adding mileage and depreciating exponentially faster than if it just drove me.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
2,254 posts, read 2,744,907 times
Reputation: 3203
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggy100
The horse to car analogy isn't a good comparison as a car is way easier to live with than a horse.
What you're suggesting doesn't make anybody's life any easier than it is now, unlike the transition from horses to cars.
Look at the price of California's bullet train for a glimpse of why nodody else here wants one.
It wasn't at the time. Horses took grain, water, and little else. They were also reliable and available everywhere. Cars of the time required fuel and oil, lots of maintenance, were very unreliable, and didn't have electric starters yet. That's why many of the early cars were actually electric.
Location: San Ramon, Seattle, Anchorage, Reykjavik
2,254 posts, read 2,744,907 times
Reputation: 3203
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggy100
Yep! and we'd have more people driving back and forth to Home Depot with sheets of plywood being held on the head of the guy riding on the back of a moped. Most technologically advanced country being turned into a 3rd world country. Good times.
You already pay that price for fuel in the US, although it is actually more like $14/gal due to subsidies and military support.
It wasn't at the time. Horses took grain, water, and little else. They were also reliable and available everywhere. Cars of the time required fuel and oil, lots of maintenance, were very unreliable, and didn't have electric starters yet. That's why many of the early cars were actually electric.
Lets say you live in New York City right now. Where do you plan to stash a horse and buggy?
For rural folk and wealthy city dwellers, a horse may have been practical, but for the guy walking to work in the local factory living in a townhouse, not so much.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
