We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes

Re:We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes by seanmcdirmid on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @09:17AM (#21334286)

We could redesign the cars to be smaller and to drive more densely if they were fully autonomous and electric. Their footprint would then more closely resemble bikes.

Or maybe someone will invent self driving bicycles/scooters for delivery tasks.

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Re:We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes by bluGill on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @10:11AM (#21334792)

We could, but I don't think we will. There are a lot of fixed costs in a car, so if you need a big car for just a few % of the uses it is very hard to justify having both a small car and a big car when the big car can do both.

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Re:We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes by seanmcdirmid on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @12:20PM (#21336151)

A lot of car overhead goes into safety: they have to be big and heavy to counteract other cars that are big and heavy. But if the they are given their own routes and are controlled by the same software, a lot of that girth could easily go away.

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Re:We Need to Dream Bigger Than Bike Lanes by bluGill on Thursday October 24, 2019 @05:12PM (#21349232)

You need a big car to haul plywood, or all of your equipment for a weekend of camping. (backpackers get by on much less, but if the car is next to the tent you tend to pack a lot of luxuries)

Safety is a factors, but that is more weight than size, 4 full grown adults take up a lot of space.

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