railwaymen
I guess it's one of the solutions, but I don't think it should be the only one. What if there's a malfunction? Everything will just stop? Maybe they should create extra lanes for electric transportation. I don't know.
Vinni Vince
I love the idea. What I wonder is, is there not a better alternative than overhead cables? With overhead cables only large vehicles can benefit, and really large vehicles like special transports cannot pass at all. If it was on the side or even better on the ground, private vehicles could use it too and recharge their batteries on the fly.
Mark A
What an attractive solution.
Panayis Zambellis
because it is an intelligent pantograph and the vehicles will be hybrid they can overtake normally and the driver will be unaware of the diesel electric transition during overtaking manoeuvres
tmhart
I guess what's old is new again. Los Angeles used to be at the forefront of public transportation technology, hard to believe as that may be. In the 1920's there was a "trackless electric trolley" that ran up Laurel Canyon to Bungalow Land. Sort of a dreamy utopian world in LA in the 20's that I wish I could have seen... quite different from today's LA. You can see photos at the link below. The project failed because the roads weren't yet paved (!) and because the systems weren't efficient enough to make the system worthwhile. http://www.erha.org/laurelcyn.html
Alex Stelling
@Railwaymen, I suppose that the trucks retain their conventional powertrains and can use them if the electricity is down, but save on diesel costs 99.9% when it is working. They would have to retain diesel engines to deliver goods beyond the coverage of the electric infrastructure. I would like to see wireless electricity through the roads, but that technology is probably a long way off.
tmhart
correction, that trackless trolley in LA was 1910 - 1912. 100 years ago! Amazing.
Warhead
And as always, everyone knows that electric cars are NOT really zero-emission... they should be called "remote emission". Most often, the electricity is generated by a coal plant hundreds of miles away, which creates more pollution than modern gas-powered cars. If the electricity is generated by hydroelectric or nuclear power, then the atmospheric emissions are reduced, but you end up destroying habitats or making nuclear waste. Solar still isn't economical and has a huge carbon footprint just to create the solar cells. Wind or tidal power are probably as close as we can get, but there aren't enough of either type of generators to meet current demands.
frogola
i think i like the trolley better,i mean 10 cents for a cab. if they could just get it down to one whip antenna type conductor.
MRing
This has inspired me to a new idea. Rather than spending all that time and effort building a cable system like this one, why not use a tesla style system for wireless power transmission? Just over highways... You could retrofit streetlights to step up current to a high potential, broadcast it, and have that current picked up by vehicles..... Just thinkin