>>>Prius on the highway that wasn't doing 70 or better, with one person in the car.<<<
Several thoughts:
1) Economic efficiency will more or less be served. Nobody wants to car pool. There is a great deal of time and flexibility wasted coordinating with others. It really makes sense to drive with one person in a car. However those cars effectively should be motorcycles with an environmental chamber to keep you dry, warm, and your business suit from becoming crumpled. Nothing more.
2) SUVs have no place, especially if everyone else is driving the motorcycle bubbles. Businesses should be able to reorganize to adjust for the occasional snow day - the one day in 1,000 where an SUV might possibly be justified. The federal government is pushing telecommuting big time in the Washington, DC area.
3) The day will come when the government will ban the movement of tractor trailers during commuting hours. It won't be a hardship. We will rely more on the rails regardless. There will be more cargo trailer depots and short hauls. The drivers will probably like it better. I can easily see containers inside tractor trailers (if they don't have them already) in the manner of FedEx in airplane cargo holds, etc. Train into Baltimore - container A to Newark, DE, container B to New Castle, DE, container C to West Chester, PA.
Hubbert's Peak will force all these things, and they won't all be bad. As a matter of practicality, in the Washington DC area, the capability to go over 40 mph is a wasted asset. I would wager that the average commuting speed is 25 mph at best, and you rarely get over 30. It would be a pleasure not to be on the road with the tractors, and for your less patient commuters with whom you have the misfortune to share the roadway, to not have the capability to accelerate hard to weave in and out.
Just my $0.02. |
