An interesting question was raised here:
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/rtdiy/message/521
"The ecological need to reduce vehicle use implies reducing vehicle manufacturing volume: but most "green car" initiatives erroneously assume the maintenance of current economies of scale, and are thus based on mass-production and the type of legislative regime that both requires mass-production and assures the perpetuation of mass-production."
To that I would add... most 'green car' initiatives assume you're going to replace a car with a car and that the result still means we'll still have megahighways and massive traffic flows and huge traffic jams during rush hour. The cars will be more efficient and hence be less bad.
I think there are two ideas here: 1) Given that society has a zillion people who need to do their daily commute, what is the most green most energy efficient way to accomplish the commute (e.g. is mass transit better than cars), 2) Are megahighways green or not?
The suggested solution is to do away with the major car companies. Well, good luck with that. They seem to be imploding anyway but at the same time everybody is scared out of their mind as to what will happen if they do fail.
Maybe if the car companies were to collapse then there could be a return of small shops building small runs of vehicles. That's the form the car industry took 100+ years ago. And there is the model in China that's full of small factories each taking some mix of parts made by parts makers and building vehicles.
Hmm...
I haven't read the posting you refer to but a couple of observations:
1) Distributed manufacturing is not a new idea. I spoke with a professor about a year ago who was interested in setting up a co-op car building exercise. If one uses a space frame rather than a uni-body it becomes very feasible for small manufacturing shops to build cars for local use.
2) A lot of the three wheel green car initiatives and at least one four wheel green car (the Tango) are tackling the congestion problem. Any 2 wheel rider (of whatever propulsion means) is already addressing a large part of the problem.
3) Good luck with getting people to use mass transit. That's one of those areas where most folks use the argument "it's a great idea!" and then add "for someone else to use". The genie is out the bottle - we like our independence and mass transit is seen as a step back by a lot of folks. Given that position, it seems more worthwhile to concentrate on making more space efficient use of available infrastructure - see item (2).
It is a fascinating area of study. If one were "in charge" how would one realistically move us forward?
John H. Founder of Current Motor Company - opinions on this site belong to me; not to my employer
Remember: " 'lectric for local. diesel for distance" - JTH, Amp Bros || "No Gas.
John,
I was thinking about distributed manufacturing and co-ops a while back, too. Can you PM me contact info for the professor if you think he would welcome discussion on the subject?
Thanks