Here in the sandbox, everyone is invited to share their big idea or concept to help us envision a Smart(er) Oakland. To take those ideas that reflect the kind of "bold and innovative" thinking that the US Dept. of Transportation is encouraging with the Smart City Challenge to the next level, we promote them from "Comments" to "Posts". After developing as Posts, the most promising ideas become "Pages". For chucks and giggles, we call this process building "sandcastles in the sand" (fans of How I Met Your Mother know why we're laughing). In all seriousness, however, we recognize that this simple scheme made possible by the basic features of the common blog-- Comment > Post > Page -- constitutes a powerful ladder of open-source idea development.
This sandcastle is dedicated to building up one of the first comments that was made in the Smart Oakland Project:
This contribution from Anonymous makes us think of the Smart City as a kind of "nerve center" or "brain". What do you think?
Problem Statement:
ReplyDeleteThere is not enough real estate available at a price that taxpayers are willing to pay, in order to accommodate the 107-million single-occupant commuters of the 140-million workers, in full-sized cars without gradually approaching gridlock.
The title "Beyond Traffic" is the key
We have determined that the root of the problem of mobility in cities is the mistaken need to use vehicles that are 4 times larger than necessary for doing the jobs that need to be done for 90% of all trips. This is clearly demonstrated by the following graph that represents graphically, data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
http://commutercars.com/traffic.html
As roughly 90% of all cars in commuter traffic jams are occupied by a single occupant, we can safely say that they are using the wrong tool for the job. The fact that carpooling has little effect on getting commuters to increase occupancy, but they are willing to pay extra to get a car that qualifies for them to use the HOV lane as a single-occupant makes a strong statement:
Commuters need to go where they want to go and on their own schedule. They have voted with their pocket books and time. They put up with massive amounts of wasted time in traffic congestion just so that they can have the benefit of freedom.
The solution to this problem is supplying commuters with a transportation system that is equally convenient to using their cars, and gives point to point transportation on their own schedule or whim 24-7.
The problem is clear now. The solution is described at
http://www.commutercars.com