Post by Gondola Project
A quick look at some of the things that will make future urban mobility work (or not):
Reinventing the Automobile – Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century:
The Ultra Small Vehicle
First self-propelled vehicle: 1769, Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot
First gasoline-fuelled vehicle: 1885, Karl Benz
Number of vehicles in US today: 850 million
Number of times vehicles would circle planet if parked side to side: 100
Number of US jobs tied directly and indirectly automobiles: 14 million
Reason for lack of uptake of electric car: “Range Anxiety”
Range of first steam engines invented: 30 miles
Conventional automobile: 300 miles
Electric vehicles: 100-400 miles
Percentage of commuters travelling less than 50 miles a day: 80%
Percentage of travel under congested conditions in 2005: 32%
Percentage of traffic congestion caused by bottlenecks: 40%
Percentage of day a vehicle is parked: 80-90%
Average urban driving speeds: 15-25 miles per hour
Solution: Ultra Small Vehicle (USV)
Length: <100 inches
Number of cars a typical Manhattan block can accommodate: 80
Number of Ultra Small Vehicles: 250
Size of parking lot holding 100 Ultra Small Vehicles compared to 100 conventional vehicles: 4x smaller
Weight of USV: < 1000 pounds
Weight of conventional automobile: 20x more than driver
Cost of driving mid-size sedan in US in 2008: 55 cents per mile
Cost of rechargeable battery-electric vehicles: 2 cents per mile
Average weekday capacity for Toronto’s Yonge Subway: 26,000 pphpd
Potential Ultra Small Vehicle capacity: 45,000 pphpd
*Note: Unlinked stats referenced from book: Reinventing the Automobile
Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.
Want more? Purchase Cable Car Confidential: The Essential Guide to Cable Cars, Urban Gondolas & Cable Propelled Transit and start learning about the world's fastest growing transportation technologies.
