I think cars in general are too wide. At least as an option, there should be cars with inline seats — one behind the other. & I think the advantages of that format could be pervasive enough to make that the standard.
Have a little think about these ideas:
A slimmer car could go faster for the same power — because there is less area of air to push aside, there is less air resistance. Or use less power at the same speed. Meaning you could have a smaller motors compared to wider cars. Less power usage means longer range, or smaller batteries. Or less time spent charging.
A slimmer vehicle could have smaller lanes on the road. That means, like bikes, more cars could fit in for the same road width. Then each road could have higher capacity. Or we wouldn’t need to build — and more importantly maintain — as much road-area.
Junctions? I don’t know about you, but I loathe sitting at red lights. Especially when the lights change, the que moves up, but I don’t get thru. Imagine you could fit 1 extra line of cars waiting right at the lights — that’s more vehicles that could cross the junction when it’s green. Fewer delays, lighter traffic jams.
Now compare the proportions of the standard car with other vehicles.
Try a bus — 4 seats wide, around 12 long... Scale it down but with the same proportions: a vehicle that was 1 seat wide would be 3 seats long. But the smallest cars go 2 wide with 1 row of seats. That’s weird, really.
A train? Could be several carriages long, but even the widest ones only seem to get to 6 seats wide.
A plane, a ship… all of these end up with proportions much slimmer than most cars. Even the big cruise ships that seem wide, are are much longer walk from front to back than side to side.
…& those design choices all go back to drag and the width of paths the vehicles travel along. Longer is better.
Fuel isn’t free. Batteries don’t cost nothing. Paving roads uses materials and repaving causes disruptions. The less the better, right?
I think a few models should be available. I’d be a great option for a lot of people. Do you know anyone that could use one? Perhaps there are other benefits I can’t even think of right now…?
Anyway, that’s all for today. It’s spring here. Did you enjoy the flowers?
