An alien watching planet earth would see much the same activity we humans see around an anthill. With 800 million cars on the road zooming on the roads at any time, we do give a view of a frenetic civilisation running around most of the time!
According to experts, the time is not far away when all this zooming will come to a screeching halt. And no, we are not talking of peak oil here. But of gridlock. And who best to imagine such a situation than one who has 'contributed' in many ways to this? Bill Ford, the great grand child of Henry Ford, has an impressive talk on TED where he suggests some solutions to avoid traffic jams.
The number of automobiles will touch 4 bn by 2050. Even today the average Beijing-ite spends 5 hrs for the daily commute! China, a developing nation that has the second largest growth in automobiles, recently saw a traffic jam that took 11 days to clear!
Even if all the 4 bn vehicles are 'clean' traffic jams will remain jams. Imagine the state of ambulances caught in this mess. More deaths on the road, for sure.
As Bill sees it, the soultion is not in building more roads but in smart vehicle networks where cars 'talk' to each other and help divert vehicles and reduce jams. Not only this, various smart moves will be required if people need to be on the move towards progress and development. Of course, public transport will play a big role too with various modes playing in symphony.
Any smart ideas?
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