Traffic Jams, Pollution, Road Crashes: Can Technology End The Woes Of Urban Transport?

When we talk about transportation in India, issues like traffic jams, packed buses, accidents, and pollution automatically come in the mind. Efforts of the Government totally focused on widening highways and constructing flyovers, these steps are workable but for the short period of time. Even as, mass transit networks of our country haven’t kept pace with growing population.

But there is still a hope for us, thanks to the modern technology. Many big companies are currently working on the revolutionary modern transportation systems. Here is vision, how technology ends the woes of urban transport:-

Hyper Loop:

It is one of the most revolutionary transportation systems. It will make possible to travel between London to Edinburg within 30 minutes. Now you are thinking – how it is possible? Actually one of the biggest problems with any transportation medium is fraction from the surface & air. But this hyper loop will have air bearing for pods which are floating on air, in place of wheels. This Hyper loop will be built in tunnels with lower air pressure. So, similar to high-altitude flying, there's less friction against the pod moving through the tunnel, meaning it can be much more energy efficient, which is advantageous for any transportation medium.

Maglev Trains:

Maglev Trains are not only part of the Sci-Fi movies, they are already operational in Shanghai and Japan. The concept behind maglev trains is magnetic force elevates and pushes the train consuming a little amount of energy in-comparison of diesel & electric trains. The trains carry passengers with the maximum speed of 310 miles per hour. Obviously, the train requires a high cost of development.

Autonomous Vehicles:

A robot can think faster than the human being and at the time of emergency can take the efficient decision, then how a robotic driver will work on the road. This thinking gives birth to the idea of autonomous driving, where you take your hands off the steering and let sedan do the driving for you. Ford & Google are working on this project independently, but as expected

Google is leading.

In the end, for the country like India these all projects are like a dream. I am not saying that these are unachievable for us, but this will take time. Meanwhile, we have to find some practical solution and that is promoting small vehicles like the motorcycle on the Indian Roads. Many studies have shown that a slight shift in traffic composition from four wheelers to motorcycles considerably cuts traffic congestion and emissions. But for the safety point of view, you have to wear full face helmets in place of seat belts and set your stuff in the bike side box.

It is very clear that a small shift towards two wheelers makes your city more habitable & pollution free as well as the inhabitants of the city will waste less time in traveling.

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