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Cartrain

 Monday, 16 July 2001 About Nut May 2001 June 2001
July 2001
Object-id Knot
Cartrain
Compiler Push August 2001 September 2001
The morning rush hour is sheer madness.
  • In trains commuters pile up.
  • The roads offer no alternative. They are full.
Have pity on those who have to travel in rush hour. And every single day at that, just to make matters worse. What a small disaster, at the start and end of every workday.

Example

from Hillegersberg to Schiphol airport
  1. Join the 1st jam on the Molenweg, just to leave the village.
  2. Enter the jam towards the Kleinpolderplein,
  3. Pass the city of Delft queuing up,
  4. Join the next queue after the Prins Claus Plein.
  5. Enjoy the ride till Leiden.
  6. Sigh again when all lanes merge into just two.
  7. Park at Schiphol P30/P40, the parking lots for employees.
  8. And wait for the employee bus that comes round every 5 minutes.
However, don't get too depressed, every means of transportation has some advantages:
Advantages train Advantages car
  • Predictable travel time, in or outside the rush hour.
  • Sit back and relax, enjoy a cup of coffee, read or write a bit.
  • Arrive in shape, disembark and off you go.
  • Depart whenever you want.
  • Fast outside rush hour, direct route, straight towards the destination.
Sigh, if only it was possible to combine the best of both worlds. Depart whenever you want, straight to the destination, sit back and relax, travel swiftly without jams, and no parking problems.

The solution

Link cars. The Guppy can serve as a nice first cut design.
  1. Two cars on the same highway merge into a small train. The one that needs to leave the highway first is at the back. The one that stays on the highway for a long time takes the lead.

    Highways will not have single cars any more. That saves petrol. Only the front car

    • faces the full air resistance
    • needs to keep an eye on the road.
  2. Other cars can join the cartrain:
    • Up front, if they have to travel at least as far as the first one.
    • At the back, if they travel as far or less than the last one.
    This will quickly result in trains of 4 or 5 cars. Traffic jams will completely vanish with these wonderfully efficient guppy schools!

    Most car drivers can sit back and relax. Only the one in the front will steer for a while at the start of the journey, until somebody else takes the lead.

  3. The rear end detaches just before the right exit.

Intercities

On long, busy stretches with lots of traffic heading for the same destination, cartrains will grow longer and longer. In a natural way these long trains for long distances will form, for example on the stretch Rotterdam - Schiphol.

Local trains

The local trains for short distances will remain short. They do not have the time to grow.

Public transport

Hmm, there is just one problem left: parking. But that can be solved as well, although with a minor blow to the Volvo driver: Abolish individual car ownership.
  • Enter a rental car for every journey.
  • At destination that car can be used by another driver.
In a way this a kind of public transport, although different. Less cars will drive more, and require less parking spaces.

Till next week,
Nut

June 2001 · Object-id · Knot · Cartrain · Compiler · Push · August 2001
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