Reinventing the Automobile to Be More Traffic Friendly

Traffic!!!  Sooner or later, everyone gets stuck in traffic.  It’s nice to think that we can just keep building more and more roads, and traffic will never be a problem, but that is naïve.  The fact is that, sooner or later, everyone ends up sitting in traffic.  One possible solution that I have mentioned is to greatly increase the amount of buses and public transit, but even if we do that it will probably still not be enough to solve the problem.  The fact is that because people often travel at the same times each day, the roads get backed up.

Remember that V8 or V6 vehicle you bought, and are now cringing at how much it guzzles gas?  Here is another piece of the pie to being more conservative with our gas usage.  This idea is not only environmentally friendly, it is also people friendly too!

The idea is to have cars power down when they are in traffic.  There are so many situations where for mile after mile, traffic is traveling at 25mph or less.  It is almost certain that you don’t need the full power of your vehicle when the traffic is piled up.  Thus, I am suggesting that cars could have either a 2^nd engine, or that part of their engine powers down.  For example, a 4 cylinder engine might be designed such that it can be powered down in traffic, such that only 2 cylinders fire.  The fact is, usually when we are in heavy traffic, we don’t need all of our vehicle’s power, and it is pointless when you are only capable of traveling at a creeping pace because there are so many other vehicles on the road to have max power.  Frankly, most of our vehicles today are built to have maximum hurry up and wait power, and that is absurd!

Okay, there are drawbacks.  You might have to abide by a certain weight limit so you don’t break a smaller engine.  You probably won’t be able to drive up a steep hill or mountain with a smaller engine, even at a slow speed.  However, just because you won’t have the power to go up a steep grade does not mean much.  Most of the time when people are in traffic, they aren’t on a steep incline.  Obviously, in the same way that cars have different gears for traveling at various speeds with your less powerful engine, you would have to be careful not to overwork it.

Nobody tries to drive 60mph in 1^st gear.  We know better than that.  I suggest that we can also learn how to get used to driving a smaller or powered down engine that is precisely for those situations when traffic is practically at a standstill, and that would be money in the bank for us!