Pete,
1) Build Gas Cooled Fast Breeder Reactors in cities and industrial areas
Sounds like a good idea. My hme, BTW, is already heated by waste heat from a power plant. Unfortunately, it is an oil or gas burning power plant.
2) Cut highway construction by half and use the money to rebuild railroads with double or greater track mainlines and other mass transit systems.
The multi-mode cargo is already a reality, where it makes sense, but nobody is going to build more rail-lines.
Also reduce highway speeds and provide for long distance car hauling at reasonable prices ($0.10 a mile or so) via rail like in Europe.
This is strictly a fantasy, not unlike what you hear from some so called environmentalist. Something as intrusive, as unflexible, and as inconvenient is never going to happen. Besides, it takes away the freedom the automobile gives you, and I think Americans would give up their guns before giving up freedom to go anywhere, anytime their heart desires.
That does not even address the capital expenses necessary to create such a network, and multibillion dollar operating losses to operate such a system.
3) Create medium and high density housing and create public green spaces around the city, village and town centers. The higher density reduces the distance one normally travels and thus has great high volume points for the mass transit systems used on a daily basis
I do that in my SimCity games. In reality, people can't be forced into high density housing. People would have to be attracted there by making cities safe primarily, livable, with functioning schools, with spending and taxes under control. When a city turns into a third world country, like New Orleans (pre or post Katrina), governed by third world mentality and citizenry, nobody in their right mind is going to go their, no matter how good the intentions of the city planners are.
If cities can take care of that, people will come, and the "high density" housing will not have to be built with subsidies, developers will come, and people will come. Basically, if going to a city is not like going to Baghdad, people will move back to cities. But very few cities have been run competently enough to make it happen.
Joe |
