Re:The Boring Company FAQ
by mikepurvis on Wednesday May 17, 2017 @09:43AM
(#14358310)
> you just ask them to drive into a tunnel
Presumably whether this system is privately or publicly operated, there would be a major toll associated with its use. So the ask isn't just "drive into a tunnel", it's "drive into a tunnel and pay $$$", compared with a new subway line integrated with the existing mass transit system (trains and buses) and under the same fare.
A few reasons off the top of my head:
- flexibility; car infrastructure is much more flexible than train infrastructure
- incremental construction - cars already exist, you're only solving the problem of moving them around (building train infrastructure means building more trains with additional train-supporting infrastructure and more railroads outside of tunnels)
- meshes well with electrification of car transportation
- allows to reduce fossil fuel polution with minimum impact on people's habits - instead of asking someone to start using trains, you just ask them to drive into a tunnel, and for the duration of tunnel transit, the pollution (and fuel costs) magically disappear
- related, it's easier do incremental changes than all-out revolutions
- R&D in efficient boring could be of vital importance to future Mars colony
- last but not least, electric PRT system (aka. "packed-switched" public transport) could be, and probably will, incrementally implemented with self-driving electric cars; this again meshes nicely with that future (benefits of PRT over other forms of public transit are a longer topic)