Crazy idea

[LTLFTcomposite]

Is this thread limited to just your crazy idea or can I pile on with my own?

How about high speed rail auto trains so I can go from Miami to Orlando in one hour and have my EV fully charged when I get there? (it would charge on the train)

 

[LTLFTcomposite]

Instead of an inductive grid in roadways to transfer power, how about making the roadway a linear induction motor? Or is that what you meant?

Sorry Ingineer I missed your post you just suggested a HSR solution.

 

[Ingineer]

China is the only place a serious MagLev (Linear Induction) installation is. I rode on it, and it's super-impressive. The track is dead-accurate, it has to be +/- less than a centimeter in height tolerance or something silly like that. The cost was astronomical!

Again, (sadly) I don't ever see the $ for something like that here.

-Phil

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Swappable batteries makes waaaay more sense

 

[smkettner]

China is the only place a serious MagLev (Linear Induction) installation is. I rode on it, and it's super-impressive. The track is dead-accurate, it has to be +/- less than a centimeter in height tolerance or something silly like that. The cost was astronomical!

Again, (sadly) I don't ever see the $ for something like that here.

-Phil

I thought there was a big to do about a Chinese contractor getting selected to build the LA to SF train. The Chinese seem to be the experts in this area but we will hire an American at triple the cost so it is never finished or operate properly. :roll:

 

[evnow]

Again, (sadly) I don't ever see the $ for something like that here.

Again, (sadly) if we could divert money from wars, we can do things like this (though not this one - there are much better ideas).

Forget this - how about a fast charger every 15 miles in the continental US (i.e. one every 125 sq miles). That is a one time cost which is less than the subsidy given to ethonol every year.

 

[daniel]

Technical challenges aside, this will *never* happen in this country. We can barely maintain our roads and bridges anymore, let alone pay for a massive infrastructure upgrade. Can you imagine the cost? Probably about $10k per foot minimum to add catenary or side wiring to all roads.

We will have the money if we stop funding useless wars ... but that will never happen, either

We're not even going to be able to pay for schools, sewage systems, or garbage collection pretty soon if we keep spending all our money on wars!

 

[daniel]

Hey, here's an even better idea:

Make freeways into moving conveyor belts. Once you get onto the freeway you stop your car and let the road carry you along to your exit. This would eliminate freeway accidents and increase range to pretty much unlimited, as long as there is a freeway where you are going from and to.

 

[planet4ever]

Make freeways into moving conveyor belts. Once you get onto the freeway you stop your car and let the road carry you along to your exit.

Bad idea. It would work just as well for ICE as EV, so provides no incentive to migrate.

Am I biased, or what?

 

[daniel]

Make freeways into moving conveyor belts. Once you get onto the freeway you stop your car and let the road carry you along to your exit.

Bad idea. It would work just as well for ICE as EV, so provides no incentive to migrate.

On the contrary. With conveyor-belt freeways, range would no longer be an issue and people would not need gas cars anymore. Just the savings in maintenance costs and clutch & transmission repairs would make EVs more appealing.

 

[UkrainianKozak]

Well, Imagine merging into a conveyor belt full of of STATIONARY cars moving at 60mph...
Right now traffic slows around busy exits. with conveyor, you'll have to slow the whole highway...
I'm even afraid to think the implications of belt breakage... You'll need to move all the cars off the highway to repair it... I think personal jetpacks are safer and would be more cost effective!

Nah, I think contact wire on the highway (on the ground) makes more sense...

 

[daniel]

Well, Imagine merging into a conveyor belt full of of STATIONARY cars moving at 60mph...
Right now traffic slows around busy exits. with conveyor, you'll have to slow the whole highway...

Not at all. People would just have to learn a new merging technique. Of course, the cars would not have to be stationary on the belt. They could move around to let others on and off. You'd zip onto an empty right-hand lane, like stepping onto one of those moving walkways at the airport, and then you'd come to a stop, and then slowly pull over to the left to allow cars onto the highway at the next on-ramp.

Or maybe you'd come to a stop just before entering the freeway, and a slingshot like they use on aircraft carriers would fling you onto the freeway at a vacant spot; and then a grab-hook would get you off at your exit.

Hey, it makes more sense than burning gasoline for fuel!

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

If u have been to Disneyland u would realize the merge is the easy part.

They have several rides that load on the move

 

[daniel]

Thanks, Dave. Then it's settled. If I'm elected President, I'll push Congress to make all freeways into conveyor belts. (Note please that I'm not a candidate, but if the Republicans decide they don't like any of their candidates, and they ask me to accept their nomination, I will accept. --Note also that I would not accept the Democratic nomination. Unless someone pays me enough, of course; every man has his price. I think $100 million would be enough to buy me off.) Anyway, moving freeways! That's the ticket.

 

[UkrainianKozak]

I've been to Disneyland, and those rides are getting stuck fairly often, in our last visit I had 3 occasions when they got stuck. once I spent 40 minutes sitting in the tunnel waiting for them to fix it... Like I said, if it breaks everybody gets affected... Even with high reliability the implications of malfunction is huge.
Another thing is those rides are built to fixed capacity of vehicles, you can't stretch it, so on the highway you either need to build huge over-capacity or deal with huge wait times during get on-get off procedure.
Another thing is, again, if off-ramp has a traffic, you won't be able to get out, so you'll either miss your exit, either whole highway will have to be stopped...
So, no, not buying it! Too problematic...

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Ok. We need to remind ourselves of the title of this post.

 

[planet4ever]

Doesn't anybody remember? Heinlein solved this problem 70 years ago. Look up his short story, 'The Roads Must Roll'. The fastest part of his roads went 100 mph.

Ray

 

[UkrainianKozak]

Quote from Heinlein:

"Larry Gaines, Chief Engineer of the Diego-Reno roadtown, is dining in a moving restaurant on the road when one of the moving sidewalk strips unexpectedly stops, causing injuries to the thousands of commuters on it"

"He doesn't order the Road stopped, since that would leave millions of commuters stranded, but instead has the military evacuate the riders, a time-consuming procedure"

You call it a solution???

 

[daniel]

Disneyland and science fiction are hardly sound arguments against an idea that would save us from the tyranny of foreign oil.

Right now the freeways of major cities turn into parking lots at rush hour. When traffic is stopped now, you can hardly use the possibility of an occasional stoppage as an argument against moving roads. Yes, there will be times when you have to wait to get off the freeway. That happens now!!! I've been stuck in LONG waits in the exit lane when I've had the misfortune to be in a big city. The moving roads will have provisions for cars to wait their turn to get off.

As for accidents, right now, the private automobile is THE MOST UNSAFE method of transportation we have. Anything will be an improvement. Against the possibility of accidents if the roadway malfunctions, will be the elimination of the tens of thousands of deaths from high-speed car crashes that we see now. Our perception is distorted because the TV news covers incidents in which hundreds are killed (e.g. airline crashes) but does not, cannot, cover the tens of thousands of deaths in two-car accidents.