Well, people still don't get it. They got used to it, but they don't get it. How much of life is wasted in a car, specifically in a commute? Well, in 2003 the average daily commute was almost 25 minutes. Let's assume then that the average person spends 50 minutes commuting each day to work and back. There are typically about 250 business days a year, multiplied by 50 minutes equals 12500 minutes a year, or just over 208 hours a year of commute time. That's like working an extra 5.2 weeks a year for free!
In addition, there are the costs of running a vehicle. An average car costs 33 cents a mile to operate, including all costs (probably more so now with the higher gas prices). If they average 30 MPH while driving for those 50 minutes then they drive 25 miles a day to work, costing themselves about $8.25 a day. Over the course of a year that comes to $2,062! And if you make $40,000 a year then your time is worth $20 an hour, so that 50 minutes a day becomes another $16.75 or so. Add that to the $8.25 and you get $25 a day or $525 a month or $6250 a year just to commute for the average american! Is there anything we can do?
First of all, some employers can begin moving some of their operations away from central offices and into people's own homes. One example of this is JetBlue Airlines. I believe most of their reservation agents and customer service people work out of their own homes, telecommuting. This is a big long-term cost savings to the company, and actually increases their worker's productivity in many cases. I also telecommute, although I don't work for JetBlue. I work as the operations manager for a financial management firm, and everyone in my company telecommutes. It is great! It saves us all a great deal of time, keeps our stress down, and allows us to be happier while we are more productive. I have never missed a full day of work at this job due to illness, it is great! While this isn't practical for many employers, for some it would be a good option, but they need to be open-minded enough to do it.
Secondly, more efficient and intelligent roads need to be constructed. More input devices near intersections need to be developed and deployed so that one car doesn't wait for 2 minutes with no cross-traffic only to then trip the light while 30 others quickly stop and then have to accelerate again. Also, barriers between oposing freeway lanes should be much taller, so tall that the other side of the freeway can't be seen. There are WAY too many delays and additional crashes just from people rubbernecking. And how about inexpensive large tarps or other coverings that can be set up immediately on an accident scene so that passing motorists can't see anything? If people know they can't see anything, they won't try to look and traffic will flow better while reducing secondary accidents. Lastly, on major non-freeway roads we could eliminate some stoplights by raising the roadbed for one direction and lowering it in the other, in essence creating mini freeway like interchanges. By dropping one roadbed 9 feet and raising the other 9 feet and allowing for 3 feet of support for the top deck, that leaves us 15 feet of clearance, which can be handled with a 10% grade going 50 feet in each direction of the intersection. This will reduce the number of businesses which may be affected.
Lastly, we need to come up with better forms of transportation. We've been doing the car thing in one form or another since the late 1700s, and it is time for us to stop thinking about just improving what we already have and to start thinking of making something altogether new. Enter the proverbial "flying car" idea. This has of course been a dream of many for a long time. However, I believe we are at a point in time where true VTOL cars are technologically possible and feasable for everyday americans. Take Moller International, a company in California developing such a vehicle. If such a vehicle could be refined and mass produced as a luxury vehicle, many thousands would surely sell each year to those who could afford it. They could practically fly themselves and whisk people around at 200 MPH very quickly and without stopping. No more building huge roads, which wastes so much land and space. Commutes could be cut down by a factor as high as 10. One of the big auto makers is going to eventually decide to take this idea and run, and the faster the better.
If we ever hope to get out of our gridlock and stop wasting our lives behind the wheel of a car, we're going to have to start thinking outside of the box.
