Is There a Personal Trolley in Your Future?
by Len Schwee
Since we have come to the end of cheap oil, it is
time to plan for the future. |
A problem with heat engines is that they are only about
30% efficient. This is not because the oil companies are in cahoots
with the car companies, but because of thermodynamics, a branch of
physics. Even if we can make ethanol cheaper than it is, we will waste
about 70% of it. And it takes more energy to make ethanol than one
can get out of it. So it doesn't look very promising. On the other
hand, electric motors can be about 98% efficient, and electric motors
can become generators when a vehicle is braking. |
We should consider switching to personal trolleys that
we can drive right into our garages. To generate the needed electricity,
we can use nuclear power, solar power, wind power, or hydroelectric
power. Trolleys can be made much safer than autos. A trolley can be
automatically switched onto tracks leading to a destination. It can
be sent to a distant parking garage without a driver. It can use a
laser beam to keep itself at a safe distance from a preceding trolley.
No one has to steer it. |
The personal trolleys that I have in mind will not
look like the old streetcars. The wheels will be as far apart as
the wheels on our autos. And they can look much like our autos.
Perhaps a hot conductor buried between the tracks would be the safest.
The destination desired can be typed into the trolley's computer
when the driver is ready to go.
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For long distance travel, we should consider a large
trolley that resembles a small cruise ship and would carry personal
trolleys. Our present interstate highways could be converted to
tracks about 25 feet apart. At a station, the personal trolleys
would drive off one side of the carrier trolley just before the
arriving trolleys drive onto the other side. One could dine, watch
a movie, frequent a lounge, or sleep in one's own car aboard the
carrier.
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Nuclear power has had a rather safe history in this
country, and France has used it very successfully for most of its
power generation for a long time now. The cost of our nuclear power
plants has been high because all of our plants are different. By
now we ought to be able to decide on a safe plant design that can
be duplicated as often as needed. This will hold down design costs,
and when an improvement is made to one plant, it can be made to
all. Maybe some day we will begin to use the South Pole to store
the nuclear waste.
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Global warming will become a much larger problem the
more we burn fossil fuels. All the forms of power suggested at the
beginning of this article can be used without adding to the greenhouse
effect. The longer we stick with oil from the Middle East, the richer
our radical enemies will become, and the poorer we become. We are
funding our own demise, and ruining our planet. This is a very costly
and dangerous course to follow. There is nothing to lose and much
to gain by changing directions, and vehicles, now.
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Freethinkers of Colorado Springs
P.O. Box 62946
Colorado Springs, CO 80962-2946
Phone: 719-594-4506
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