{"id":2763,"date":"2010-01-19T08:09:56","date_gmt":"2010-01-19T16:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simonburrow.com\/\/?p=2763"},"modified":"2010-01-19T08:09:56","modified_gmt":"2010-01-19T16:09:56","slug":"smoother-roads","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/?p=2763","title":{"rendered":"Smoother Roads"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 1920’s the slogan of the Automobile Club of Southern California was “Good Roads”<\/p>\n

\"P1160004\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The logo from a 1923 auto club map<\/em><\/p>\n

It is time to refocus on “Good Roads.” But this time lets call it “Smooth Roads.”\u00a0 Smooth Roads will improve the environment, reduce fossil fuel consumption, lower everyone’s carbon footprint and improve the general state of happiness.<\/p>\n

Will smoother roads accomplish the startling claims above?\u00a0 To find out try this mind experiment.\u00a0 Imagine two roads from your house to the State Capital.\u00a0 One is potholed, badly marked, ill maintained and hilly.\u00a0 The other is smooth and generally flat with gentle turns and excellent signage.\u00a0 Which one would you take?\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because the nicer ride would be easier on your car, easier on your nerves and it would consume less gas. You already do.\u00a0 You take the interstate.\u00a0 Imagine the interstate everywhere but better.\u00a0 Now you have seen smooth roads<\/p>\n

But you say: “Simon even if what you say is true, there isn’t any money to build these beautiful smooth environmental roads.”\u00a0 But there is money to tax carbon, subsidize windmills and solar panels and to build expensive mass transit systems that nobody wants to ride.\u00a0 If that money were allocated instead to “Smooth Roads” more energy would be saved and the general welfare would increase dramatically.<\/p>\n

The good news is that after it is shown that smooth roads can reduce fuel consumption significantly there will be a huge constituency for getting it done.\u00a0 Construction unions, construction companies, the states departments of transportation and the engineering profession are a few of the interest groups that would support the “Smoother Roads” initiative.\u00a0 But the biggest constituency would be the driving public and they vote.<\/p>\n

This is a win win idea.\u00a0 I imagine a future when the roads are so smooth that all cars have the aerodynamic road-hugging look of Formula 1 cars and get 60 mpg.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 Please email this idea to Al Gore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 1920’s the slogan of the Automobile Club of Southern California was “Good Roads” The logo from a 1923 auto club map It is time to refocus on “Good Roads.” But this time lets call it “Smooth Roads.”\u00a0 Smooth Roads will improve the environment, reduce fossil fuel consumption, lower everyone’s carbon footprint and improve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-success"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99jGb-Iz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2763"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2771,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2763\/revisions\/2771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simonburrow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}