Hills? Who needs hills when you have momentum? The "slow" start will be equaled by the "slow" braking, unless, the brakes apply at all the wheels in the train (to increase braking surface area). The little shoes on a couple of bike tires wouldn't be much for that.
Chinese people have known for a long time that bikes are good for shipping freight. Not in "train-style" like this, but on "pickup trikes" which look like you'd imagine and are all over Beijing.
They'll be all over New York in a hundred years, I betcha.
Okay, it's possible that there'll be a massive die-off in New York when the oil runs out, but we have to assume that at least a few of them are tough, sensible people, and they'll survive.
That is not going to happen. There is a LOT of petroleum down there. We have yet to scratch the surface (quite literally) of what is down there. We have pumped less than half of what is easy and simple to extract and there is much more of the hard to get at stuff that will be more expensive to tap.
Petroleum fuels are more plentiful than your government school teachers have told you and when they begin to become non cost-effective to collect then bio-fuel conversion technology will blossom.
Bio fuels can be made from just about any bio-waste product from chicken feathers to corn husks. Even plastic waste and much of the 'garbage' we now bury in landfills can be used. The landfills of today may become the lucrative mines of tomorrow. One great source of bio-mass once that is depleted (and digging up and reclaiming all the landfills would be a good thing!) is hemp. Hemp could be grown and produced into biofuel. The best thing about growing hemp for bio-fuel is that it is a C02 FIXER. That is even with burning the fuel in autos the net loss of C02 would be returning the so-called 'greenhouse gas' back into the soil instead of the current situation where the fossil fuels we have been consuming are greatly adding to it (and have been for the last 500 years.)
Again, oil is NOT going to run out... The market will provide. But if you want to pedal a bike, knock yourself out. I'll be the guy in car zipping by. I have stuff to do -please ride single file and stay to the right (or left for you crazy Brits) and out of my way.
Not sure whether to put this with the whale or the hauling company. When I was a kid planning to run away from my horrible family, I'd always end up packing some clothes, getting some food ready, and fantasizing about towing my bed behind me on my bike. If I'd been more of a doer than a thinker, my bed would have been outfitted with casters and I'd be riding around Canada today.
My sister used to laugh at me, since when she planned to run away I think all she packed was her diary and a coat. Personally, I saw the advantages of having a weeks worth of socks and underwear.
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no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 02:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 03:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 03:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 09:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 02:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 03:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 03:28 am (UTC)They'll be all over New York in a hundred years, I betcha.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 06:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 10:54 am (UTC)That is not going to happen. There is a LOT of petroleum down there. We have yet to scratch the surface (quite literally) of what is down there. We have pumped less than half of what is easy and simple to extract and there is much more of the hard to get at stuff that will be more expensive to tap.
Petroleum fuels are more plentiful than your government school teachers have told you and when they begin to become non cost-effective to collect then bio-fuel conversion technology will blossom.
Bio fuels can be made from just about any bio-waste product from chicken feathers to corn husks. Even plastic waste and much of the 'garbage' we now bury in landfills can be used. The landfills of today may become the lucrative mines of tomorrow. One great source of bio-mass once that is depleted (and digging up and reclaiming all the landfills would be a good thing!) is hemp. Hemp could be grown and produced into biofuel. The best thing about growing hemp for bio-fuel is that it is a C02 FIXER. That is even with burning the fuel in autos the net loss of C02 would be returning the so-called 'greenhouse gas' back into the soil instead of the current situation where the fossil fuels we have been consuming are greatly adding to it (and have been for the last 500 years.)
Again, oil is NOT going to run out... The market will provide. But if you want to pedal a bike, knock yourself out. I'll be the guy in car zipping by. I have stuff to do -please ride single file and stay to the right (or left for you crazy Brits) and out of my way.
no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 04:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-12 12:41 pm (UTC)My sister used to laugh at me, since when she planned to run away I think all she packed was her diary and a coat. Personally, I saw the advantages of having a weeks worth of socks and underwear.