Retrospective views road transport and Electricity

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Wed 16 Apr 2008 08:41
Retrospective views road transport and Electricity - oilrag
Does a retrospective view give you appreciation of some of histories motoring possibilities?

for example,

The overhead electric system on which trams ran so efficiently decades ago. If society had taken a different path and developed it for all transport, with nuclear power instead of the coal of 60 years ago.

If an electric based transport system had been the focus from the time motorways were built what could have been achieved by now?

Even if the inner two lanes of Motorways were electrified for HGV`s with full nuclear capacity electricity generation. Hybrid trucks, mains electric /diesel?

If hybrid cars could charge at home, then somehow pick up mains power on the motorways, later on other main roads.
Sounds improbable of course, but if 60 years ago (Instead of ripping it out of cities) electricity had been embraced, surely solutions would have been found.

The current focus of adding bio fuels to regular fuel just seems so short sighted given the number of vehicles that need fueling.
Once down the petroleum path, difficult to go back... But any comments or any other examples of where motoring and the road transport system could have been different to now?
(It seems unlikely.. but you look at the Black Horse advert on TV and wonder, yes, we `could` have built an infrastructure like that if we had `wanted` to. Just like Art Deco entered architecture and gas bags sat on the roof of Second World War cars)

Perhaps Western Society needs a `jolt` to start some lateral thinking?

Regards ;)

Edited by oilrag on 16/04/2008 at 08:45

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Wed 16 Apr 2008 10:09
Retrospective views road transport and Electricity - b308
I could never understand why they got rid of trolleybuses - all the advantages of trams (electric power) but without the massive cost of the track and they could go round things like road works/badly parked cars, unlike trams (as I found out in Prague last year!). Stop building trams and bring back trolleybuses, with a diesel generator for out of town running like OR says!
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