AARoads Forum

National Boards => General Highway Talk => Topic started by: TheArkansasRoadgeek on October 08, 2017, 02:12:58 AM

Title: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: TheArkansasRoadgeek on October 08, 2017, 02:12:58 AM
Eventually we'll need to build roads to bypass more roads, Due to traffic. So, why not say "Fuck you roads" and start some flying cars and tractor beams?

Thoughts?
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: NE2 on October 08, 2017, 02:16:44 AM
No
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: GaryV on October 08, 2017, 07:04:27 AM
In the Jetsons, the flying cars all followed "traffic lanes" that got clogged up like today's freeways at rush hour?

Why?  If you had a flying car, wouldn't you go on a straight-line route from start to finish?  Even if there was some kind of law restricting flight paths, the MFFY drivers would head off on their own.

And then imagine the crashes that would ensue!

Maybe if self-driving cars become a mass-consumption reality, there wouldn't be the need for new roads.  The existing roads could handle more traffic, because the system would know where every car was going and would program accordingly.  (This would require that roads be designated for self-driving cars only, something that might be done just as some lanes are designated for carpools only.)  That is, until someone hacked the system and everything went to heck in a hand basket.
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: cjk374 on October 08, 2017, 07:13:51 AM
Hell to the naw! Then the FAA would get involved since flying is their field of expertise.
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: epzik8 on October 08, 2017, 08:45:27 AM
We should have had the technology years ago.
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: wanderer2575 on October 08, 2017, 09:21:36 AM
Quote from: epzik8 on October 08, 2017, 08:45:27 AM
We should have had the technology years ago.

We did.  It's just not feasible.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3188/why-were-midcentury-futurist-predictions-like-flying-cars-so-wrong

And even if it were, the results could be scary:

Quote
Look at your fellow commuters:  The woman in the next car is reading her Kindle.  The guy on the other side is shaving.  The kid ahead of you is sexting his boyfriend.  These are the people you want driving around the sky at 125 miles an hour?
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: TheArkansasRoadgeek on October 08, 2017, 03:05:03 PM
Quote from: epzik8 on October 08, 2017, 08:45:27 AM
We should have had the technology years ago.

Back To The Future= 2015
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: TheArkansasRoadgeek on October 08, 2017, 03:08:06 PM
Quote from: wanderer2575 on October 08, 2017, 09:21:36 AM
Quote from: epzik8 on October 08, 2017, 08:45:27 AM
We should have had the technology years ago.

We did.  It's just not feasible.

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/3188/why-were-midcentury-futurist-predictions-like-flying-cars-so-wrong

And even if it were, the results could be scary:

Quote
Look at your fellow commuters:  The woman in the next car is reading her Kindle.  The guy on the other side is shaving.  The kid ahead of you is sexting his boyfriend.  These are the people you want driving around the sky at 125 miles an hour?
Like in Family Guy's "Food Kills"! There were flying cars in the documentary that drove on the ground because everyone was too fat to allow the car to fly!  :-D
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: theroadwayone on October 08, 2017, 04:27:38 PM
The technology for flying cars is here; it's just a matter of making it work properly, and that can take years. But it'll come, one way or another.
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: Aerobird on October 08, 2017, 08:14:13 PM
Quote from: theroadwayone on October 08, 2017, 04:27:38 PM
The technology for flying cars is here; it's just a matter of making it work properly, and that can take years. But it'll come, one way or another.

They said that in 1946 as well.
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: MNHighwayMan on October 08, 2017, 08:25:31 PM
I'm pretty sure I said this in another thread, but: we do have flying cars. They're called helicopters. The reason they're not ubiquitous is because they're huge, loud, and expensive. Furthermore, as it turns out, managing three axes of motion is much more difficult than two. Who knew.
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: Takumi on October 10, 2017, 11:09:55 AM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on October 08, 2017, 08:25:31 PM
I'm pretty sure I said this in another thread, but: we do have flying cars. They're called helicopters. The reason they're not ubiquitous is because they're huge, loud, and expensive. Furthermore, as it turns out, managing three axes of motion is much more difficult than two. Who knew.
(https://i.giphy.com/media/EldfH1VJdbrwY/giphy.gif)
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: TheArkansasRoadgeek on October 10, 2017, 11:48:10 AM
Well, our state DOT's will have a field day setting up tractor beams. I guess you'd need a piolts license of some sort. :hmmm:
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: formulanone on October 10, 2017, 11:54:29 AM
Quote from: MNHighwayMan on October 08, 2017, 08:25:31 PM
I'm pretty sure I said this in another thread, but: we do have flying cars. They're called helicopters. The reason they're not ubiquitous is because they're huge, loud, and expensive. Furthermore, as it turns out, managing three axes of motion is much more difficult than two. Who knew.

A seasoned commercial airline pilot once told me that he found flying a helicopter much more difficult than anticipated.
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: DJStephens on October 10, 2017, 12:53:29 PM
yeah, that guy "Gentry" would second that.   
Title: Re: The Problem With Roads...
Post by: Roadgeekteen on October 16, 2017, 09:02:20 PM
just no