“We need a new signal called blue phase, meaning you should follow the vehicle in front of you,” says civil engineer and traffic control researcher Ali Hajbabaie.
Yeah, a bunch of cars that all follow each other, with signals set up so they don't have to stop! Imagine if you could get on a roadway in one place and go straight through to the next pla... Wait this is a train.
Why do these carbrains keep re-inventing trains, but shittier?
I keep being reminded of David Foster Wallace's commencement speech quip about the young fish who are like "what the hell is water?"
When you hold in your heart the belief that everyone deserves a climate-controlled steel cage to move about in, you simply overlook all of the efficient, effective, climate-friendly solutions that could exist.
As Upton Sinclair said, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!"
Don't turn to "traffic researchers" for the solutions to our transit and climate problems.
It's like asking Monsanto how to effectively grow food. What do you think they're going to say?
Be careful how you frame the question. The question is not "how do we move cars more efficiently?" it's "how do we move people more efficiently?"
@stevewfolds Granted!
The researcher I cited is talking about a signal that says "follow the car in front of you because there are AI-driven ones that are handling things," and I think once you are at a level of throughput where we need AI to negotiate flow, maybe there ought to be a light rail.
Doesn't SLC have a really nice light rail system? I never rode it when I was there but it seemed quite modern.
Aaron Bieber (no relation)
@stevewfolds