What if roads and cars were introduced today…
Geoff: Hey. I’ve got a great idea
Sue: Yeah. Whats that.
Geoff: Cars and roads.
Sue: Ok. I’m listening.
Geoff: Well we create these metal containers on wheels that can move.
Sue: Ok. Are they safe.
Geoff: Er sure. They can travel at 70MPH/120KMH
Sue: Wow that’s fast. So. Err What are they transporting.
Geoff: People.
Sue: People…. ? Human beings.
Geoff: Yes.
Sue: What. Dead ones? Or soon to be dead ones?
Geoff: No. No. Hear me out. We’ll make these massive flat paths. We’ll call them roads that you can travel on.
Sue: Oh ok. One way.
Geoff: Err. No. Two way.
Sue: What… ok. With a divider down the middle to keep the cars from hitting each other and extended visibility both forwards and backwards along this … road.
Geoff: Err sure. Yes. Eventually. Initially we’ll just put a white line down the middle.
Sue: A white line……
Geoff: Or we’ll just make it a rule that people know just to keep to one side. No matter what country you are in. Also we’ll use the old horse and cart lanes.
Sue: The old horse and cart lanes.huh. So these cars are thinner than a horse and cart. And the cart lanes are so windy that you can barely see 100 meters ahead in most places without seeing a hedge. So at these would be one way. Right?
Geoff: Err. No. Some are a little wider. And these would be two way as well and we’ll set these at just 10MPH/16KMH lower than the maximum speed limit.
Sue: What!!! Are you joking. No way.
Geoff: Ok, ok. We’ll keep them to the built up areas with more space then. Same again for the roads with the white lines but the roads will be wide enough for two cars and two way.
Sue: Fine. Ok. So how do we keep the pedestrians away from the cars and danger.
Geoff: Ahh. Yes I’ve got this. With a 150mm/6inch drop. Which I will call a kerb.
Sue: Are you insane!!! There will be deaths. Also how are these people going to even get across this death trap of a road.
Geoff: With a button or a series of black and white stripes. This button will stop all the cars moving so that they can get across by signalling a light of some kind. The black and white stripes are for the car to stop at but only if a person if waiting to cross otherwise just drive straight over.
Sue: ….You want to stop all the high momentum fast travelling things to let the slow travelling things across…. But only sometimes. That sounds very inefficient Geoff. And frankly very dangerous. I Don’t think it’s going to take off.
Ha. Well. It could be worse I guess. At least you are not having humans operating them somehow. What with our tendency to distractions, ease of boredom, sleepiness and poor reaction times relative to fast speeds…….
Geoff: ……
Sue: Oh FFS.
