Brad IdeasCrazy ideas, inventions, essays and links from Brad Templeton |
|
|
|
NavigationUser loginIf you like this blog, do me a favour and start your Amazon shopping (especially a kindle) from this link, and I'll get a cut. Recent comments
Top EssaysRecent blog posts
BlogrollFellow EFF Folks
Cory Doctorow Larry Lessig Ed Felten Dave Farber John Perry Barlow EFF Deep Links Dave Sifry |
I think it mostly solves it
Clearly many people will rent out their vehicles if they have a station near their home or work. For a large chunk of the population, it would mean the difference between owning your own vehicle at a price you can easily afford, and always renting.
However, for those that don't, you need parking, but you don't need it really close to the station. (Though the closer it is the more quickly you can summon it on short notice.) You can park somewhere that the parking is cheap, and you can park the vehicles very densly compared to cars, with a slight extra delay. Probably 3-4 times the density of cars if they are smaller and can also be stacked vertically in spots 6' high, and like valet parking.
For the commuter who knows they need their car around 5pm, the system can prep the car in advance and have it waiting at the station. However, for the typical office worker, you would issue a computer/cell command when preparing to leave, and in the typical 5 or more minutes getting in the elevator and walking a short distance to the station, the car should be very close to being there, if not there already.
Office buildings might also build large "parking stations" in their buildings, using some of the space that was allocated to cars. As noted, I expect at least a 3x density improvement, and this gives a station in-building with instant access to your vehicle.
There's also another kind of "rent" possible with vehicles, namely within the family. Car takes parent #1 to work, returns to home station (though not to home garage quite yet) for use of parent #2 or kids or whatever. And kids of course can mean even young children if they don't leave the automatic track area. Those kids can probably bike to the station, for example.