In The Future

The future ‘aint what it used to be.

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Segregated vehicle lanes

December 28th, 2008 · 306 Comments

GM’s failure is a product of our demand.

The problem is not that the general public didn’t want efficient vehicles, but that the general public rarely gets on bicycles. True, bicycles may be useful in some cases for short commutes. But the larger picture is that when people ride bicycles around town, the first thing they notice is how friggen dangerous the whole process is. Trucks and cars stream by with inches to spare. Of course there is the sidewalk route, which is possibly even more dangerous, and only really useful for children.

But when that cyclist starts talking to other cyclists, the immediate demand is raised … “We need our own lanes, separated from the cars by concrete barriers.”

Hmm, dedicated lanes. Remove one lane per major roadway and suddenly you can split it into two bicycle lanes with room to spare. Add a bit of the shoulder, and suddenly you can split it into two bicycle lanes and two ultralight vehicle lanes … like electric cars, 100 mpg featherweight cars, etc..

But the public has never demanded these segregated lanes from our policy makers because we don’t want to see increased gridlock due to losing lanes. Sure, pitch the idea to your average Buick driver for 100 mpg cars, and he is all ears. But explain that 100 mpg isn’t possible without ultralight vehicles which will need dedicated lanes for safety from bread trucks and Hummers, and you’ve lost your audience.

Perhaps our elected officials should have foreseen the impending juggernaut of vehicular change and segregated those lanes whether we asked for them or not? Some did, but special lanes are still pretty rare. Policy makers just play another version of the game that GM and Ford play, they cater to demand. And the public wanted other things from its policy makers, rather than a conduit for high-efficiency vehicles.

In the end, this problem seems to boil down to sloth. It was easier to not ride a bike, which made it possible for us to ignore the problem until it got to be unignorable.

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