How Light-Beam Traffic reduces Transportation Needs

Many people quit looking for work when they find a job.

ne does not always think about it, but there are a lot of indirect consequences with using an automatic beamcarried transportation system in an urban area. Not only does it carry out its transportation task more efficiently than all alternatives, but it also makes a lot of transportation work unnecessary! We will take a short look at that on this page. As in so many other cases, the cheapest alternative to making a transport job, all things considered, is if the transport does not have to be made in the first place. Mileage clearly requires investments in vehicles as well as operation and maintenance of both vehicles and roads/railways. Considering only road traffic for the moment, after a while the roads will be full of vehicles which are having difficulties making headway at acceptable speeds. This leads to more investments in roads.

	One cannot expect either oil suppliers, automakers or roadbuilding entrepreneurs to want to save on transportation needs; they all thrive on the increasing traffic on our roads. And since they provide both employment and huge tax incomes for governments and government agencies, they have the politicians in their pockets. On the contrary, they all do everything in their power to increase road traffic. True, the governments in most countries levy taxes on gasoline and vehicles, ostensibly to limit consumption. But those taxes are mainly regarded as additional sources of income.	Those politicians who really want a change in this regard have so far not been able to come up with a real alternative; a transport system which could make the same amount of transport work at a lower price when considering resources of various kinds and social and environmental consequences. Because of the easy availability of transportation after WorldWar II, cities in the Western World have expanded their area much faster than their population growth would seem to warrant.

The 3 main reasons for this enormous expansion are: As transportation becomes better, there is no longer the same need to crowd buildings together in a small area, to reduce travel time. Long ways to travel between workplace and home is no longer the obstacle it used to be. As more people have cars, more space for roads and parking areas are required (In Tokyo, you can´t buy a car unless you can prove that you have a parking space for it!). Industrialization has progressed, with large industrial areas taking their share of available real estate.

An example of this development from Sweden; if the population in the Gothenburg metropolitan area and the spread of this area in the year 1945 are both put to 100, then the the corresponding figures for 1990 are 154 for population and 629 for area. This means that while the population has increased with 54 %, the area where they live has increased by 529 %, i.e. the area has grown almost 10 times faster than the population. Corresponding figures from other countries, notably the USA, are also compelling. 70 million Americans lived in urban areas in 1950, on an area of 13,000 square miles. By 1990, this had grown to about 150 million Americans living on roughly 60,000 square miles. Thus, the urban American in 1990 needed more than twice the space of the 1950 urban American. This process is self-generating; as cities grow, more and more of their inhabitants find that they must have a car, which leads to more expansion of the cities since the need for space-consuming roads will increase. Automated beamcarried traffic systems is the only sensible way to reverse this trend. As a beam network is built, there will be a gradual reduction of conventional traffic. This change would be slow, initially. It takes a far-reaching and rather fine-meshed beam network to really replace today's streets. But as the positive effects of this changes are noted, there will in all likelyhood be growing public pressure to extend the beam network. This is because it has so many other positive effects, besides reducing conventional traffic.

Co-localisation of places for work, service and residence would not be hindered by the fact that noisy and noxious transport vehicles have to have access at all hours. New suburbs, suited to the new technology of beamcarried transports, could integrate these functions, thus considerably reducing transport needs to many people. Areas that are presently reserved for cars, such as some streets, roundabouts and parking areas close to workplaces or residences could be made available for additions, providing more floorspace. Buildings could come closer together while simultaneously availability of parks will increase. Availability at closer distances of various services will eliminate a lot of long distance travels. The beam traffic can handle transportation of goods from the stores in a more efficient and co-ordinated manner than today's shopping, which is mostly done using the private car. Direct traffic between starting point and end point are used, instead of radial mass transportation using subways and trains and change of transport in the downtown area.	Straighter traffic routes are possible because the beams, as opposed to the roads, don't have to make detours around parks and other objects. Nor do the beams require broad passageways because of noise and exhaust fumes. The need for random travels by car to look for a certain address is reduced because the beamcars would have access to "electronic maps" where the quickest/shortest routes to all possible locations would be listed. The need to look for a place to park one´s vehicle is eliminated. High trafficability is achieved everywhere for pedestrians and bikers, wich means that many short trips formerly done by car is now made by walking or biking. The improved environment (no exhaust fumes and traffic noise) also encourages this. The possibility to bring along a bicycle will encourage people to use the combination beamcar / bike to make longer trips, instead of using the motorcar. The possibility to cover streets and shopping areas with glass roofs will increase as exhaust fumes are eliminated from the streets. This makes it possible to do one's shopping in comfort, also when weather or climate is disagreeable. This creation of artificial climates would also encourage people to leave their motorcars at home when shopping.

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