Are commuter cars feasible?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I drive to work everyday, and what really jumps out at me as wasteful is not so much that a quarter or a third of cars on the road are SUVs, but that about 99% of cars include a single person driving to work in a vehicle with 3 empty seats and a trunk.

Complete waste of space.

WAY more car than you need for doing about 95% of your driving.

It seems like a lot of people’s solutions don’t really address what I see as the biggest waste. A lot of solutions (like hybrids) are just about making the same car with a different power plant.

Other solutions (like the SmartCar) seem to be designed for a city like Paris. . .where you leave your house in the nearby suburbs and do city driving for the whole commute. They’re not something you’d want to travel at 65 mph on the highway with.

But, here in America. . .we’ve spread. A lot of commutes involve travelling on local streets to get to the expressways/interstates and finally finishing on city streets. A motorcycle has distinct disadvantages (safety, weather, etc.).

So, anyway, this company has come up with essentially a single passenger car. . .

It speaks to a lot of what concerns me.

I just have one small gripe with it: I don’t know why you still can’t make it gas powered. I think that if we drove vehicles that were 4 times bigger than we need every day, we wouldn’t have to worry nearly as much about our emissions, and use of fossil fuels.

Anyway, any interest in a car like that? Really, about the only time I have additional people in my car is when I drive to lunch with the work buddies. The non-use of most of my car on a daily basis really nags at me. Right now, the only practical solution is a motorcycle.

2

. . .weren’t. . .

3

At $108k, you’d have to be a wealthy celebrity to own one. Also, while the car may be electric, you’re just displacing the pollution from the car itself to the plant where power is generated. Regarding the general concept, it’s been done several times before and with little public interest outside niche markets. Technically feasible, but difficult to market.

Plus, I couldn’t drive one without thinking of Jonathan Pryce driving down the highway in Brazil with massive trucks roaring to each side of him.

Stranger

4

It’s not the cars that are the problem for commuters, it’s the roads. Growth and development of major highways and interstates seems to have leveled off, yet more and more people drive on them.

Around my area at least, we simply don’t have the infrastructure to support the high demand for use of the roads.

A new reduced speed highway (90 kmph) is being built now in my home town, but it’s a new road, not an expansion of the overloaded route, and it has taken about 30 years to build (after much public debate & political wrangling and financial setbacks).

There will be no relief from congestion until there is development in roads and development in alternate methods of transportation for commercial use (ie: making rail a more readily available and economically attractive option for shipping of goods).

5

I think one of the solutions is to encourage ride-sharing. Here in the DC area some of the major thoroughfares are all-HOV only during rush hour, which has led to the development of slug lines, which is an elegant and efficient system for reducing auto traffic. This kind of thing will only work in metropolitan areas, of course.

6

The problem with commuter cars (in my opinion) is mostly one of marketing–and human nature. I drive a Saturn. I am almost always the only person in it–and on those occassions when I’m not, an alternative which did not include me driving is almost always accessible. On those occasions when I need more car than seating for a driver and space for my laptop computer bag and two bags of groceries, I don’t want to deal with the hassle of driving a car I’m not familiar with in addition to my other stressors.

And so it is with my mother, who has a mini-van. 90% of the time a car like my Saturn could get her and her belongings where the need to go. But because of that remaining 10%, she will drive a mini-van at least until this one gives up the ghost.

7

I’m talking about the EARTH, not your commute.

Fossil fuels, global warming, Al Gore, that kind of shit.

The amount of waste in every single commute is astounding. We’re certainly not ready for a complete shift yet, but one of these years, one of these decades. . .it’s just too much folly.

The only thing anyone has tried so far to address the waste of space is car-pooling, but if you know any commuters, you know that’s just not going to take off on a large scale. People have errands on both sides of work. It adds time to your day to be picking up/dropping off. It’s a hassle dealing with others.

Stranger – the low end one is only $18,000, not $108,000. And, if they were ever able to mass produce them, they should be considerably cheaper than cars. I’m not talking about a new high end toy for everyone.

If you lived/worked in this area, you’d see it. Every day. . .Baltimore and DC beltways, 95, 270, 29, 66, 50. . .every major road completely filled with cars with ONE person in them, and I don’t think that the more popular solutions are ever going to address it.

8

I just don’t think that’s ever going to catch on on a large enough scale to significantly impact traffic or our dependence on fossil fuels.

Personally, my commute is all about efficiency. . .even just an extra 10 minutes per day waiting to be picked up adds up to more than 40 hours “lost” per year. . .a week’s vacation.

I couldnt’ imagine trying to work out pick ups/drop offs/meetings with other people every day. I could imagine driving a car that didn’t have 3 empty seats and a truck in it.

9

I think you hit it right on the head. My son and I discussed this and came up with the idea of a modular vehicle. The front is a two-seater but it hooks up to a rear-end which has more seats and cargo space. The rear window of the front-end would roll down so you can talk with people in the back. The back would have two wheels and the front either 3 or 4. The back could have extra batteries and there would be a motor on each drive wheel.

10

If your car has ROOM for a truck in it, maybe you should try driving a smaller car?

11

Well, I’ve pondered that too.

See, right now, we have two cars. . .my sedan, and a subaru outback.

My sedan commutes, but whenever WE have something to do. . .take the dog somewhere, pick something up, etc. we take the wagon.

It would be very easy for me to just have a commuter car, and use the wagon when we needed it.

Maybe I’m extrapolating too much from the poeple I know, but a lot of them are like that. . .drive a civic or an accord to work, and then have a Forerunner for the weekend. The forerunner is what the at-home spouse drives, but only puts maybe 5,000 a year on it.

Everyone I work with will tell you that 95% of their driving is their commute. There are people here who put 30,0000 miles a year on their cars. And, there are millions of people like that. I don’t know if people underestimate just how much of our use of fossil fuels is the daily commute. . .into LA, Chicago, DC, New York. . .30-60 miles each way for millions of people.

I think people overstate the problem of the housewife driving the SUV to the grocery store, and underestimate what it is I’m saying here.

12

A large part of the problem is that many people are willing to pay extra to avoid inconvenience, either real or perceived. In the case of Eureka’s mother, for example, it may well be that it would be cheaper for her to own a Saturn and simply rent a mini-van when its needed. But thats a pain in the ass. What we need is a more efficient system for sharing such things locally. Several of my neighbors were thinking about buying snow-blowers this year, but instead we sat down and talked about it and realized that we would be much better off simply buying ONE and sharing it between us.

13

Note, however*Expected retail price (for the Tango T100] $18,700. This car has not been designed yet as it will require a team of engineers, tens of millions of dollars, and at least 18 months to meet all of the safety requirements.*My interpretation of that is that all of their claimed performance, stability, and price estimates are blue sky figure.

I see it here in L.A., too (though not nearly as bad as some make it out to be, and certainly not like the most congested bits on the East Coast). I’m not sure how this resolves the problem, though. Modern cars (those built within the last ten years) have reduced emissions to the point that they’re only dumping out a few percent of that in older automobiles. It’s not clear that there’s a major advantage in pollution reduction between a standard compact car versus this one person transport. (Note that the T600 is more than 3000 lbs…about the same mass as a standard compact car, although no doubt a significant portion of this is batteries.)

Claimed efficiency and pollution abatement of electric cars has to be tempered by the losses and pollution from existing electrical power generation and distribution. And while it’s true that many commuters travel alone, I suspect that most enjoy the flexibility of having a vehicle that can accomodate a small party of people and a trunk full of groceries, and in any case, most people would need to have a second vehicle capable of carrying more cargo. If you can get the cost down around the price of an inexpensive motorcycle (~$8k) then perhaps it might be viable, but I think it would otherwise remain a niche product for affluant urbanites.

Understand, I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, nor that it’s technically unworkable; on the contrary, I think the benefit in reducing parking space needs alone might make such a vehicle popular in cities like Boston or San Francisco, and with further develoment of fuel cells, viable for commuter ranges. (The 60-180 mile max with NiMH batteries is pretty limiting; I would be at or beyond the range for my commute every day.) I don’t think, however, that such a vehicle would receive wide acceptance in the US, at least without a major shift in the way Americans view transportation and automobiles.

Stranger

14

The problem I’ve always had with the “commuter car” concept is range.

While I do commute 70 miles round trip to work every day, I often make journeys much longer than that. In NH, the trip to hunting camp is 180 miles each way, camping during the summer often involves 120 mile trips, or longer. Business trips in my past have often been 200+ mile trips.

I am not willing to wait 10 minutes for a 50 mile recharge, which would need to be done several times during a trip.

I’d still need a larger vehicle for the trip to the hardware store, or for a large bi-weekly shopping excursion. The commuter car wouldn’t have room for the gear I travel with all during hunting season (I hunt before and after work, in addition to weekends), nor for a deer, if I get lucky.

In the USA, with the distances we drive regularly, they just don’t work for the average consumer.

Add to that the size (small) of the car, and the difficulty I have even in a Subaru Baja seeing around vans, SUVs, and large commercial trucks (tractor-trailers, dump trucks, etc…), you’ll never see me in anything smaller than I drive today.

As for trains/busses, there aren’t any from my home area to anywhere close to work. It’d still require 15+ minutes of driving to get to the closest station, which won’t take me where I want to go in a reasonable time frame, if at all.

Try getting from Ipswich MA to Lowell MA (a route I used to drive to/from college) by train, and it’s a 3-4 hour trip minimum, EACH WAY, and that’s only going to get me to from town center to city center, you still have to get to your ending destination. I can drive it in 45 minutes on about 2 gallons of gas round trip. It’d be $10 or so on the train.

15

I think the OP is suggesting ultra-compact gasoline-powered cars as commuter cars. They can have as much range as any conventional car, if not more.

I think a 1-seater car is just too limiting, but maybe a highly efficient 2-seater would be practical. I think Loremo is on the right track. It won’t be able to split lanes, but I think that’s too dangerous to put in practice anyway. Drivers are too used to having 1 lane to himself/herself.

16

I could see them catching on if there was an “incentive” to drive them compared to a normal car. Especially in heavily congested areas where your commute is a crawl to and fro work.
Much like the “ride share lanes” some cities have that allow cars with more than one passenger to bypass everyone else, they could easily make these lanes “commuter car” lanes.
Is there any bigger incentive for someone who drives his Ford Explorer who’s stuck in rush hour trafffic to see little commuter cars zipping by two lanes over knowing they’re going to be home in 10 minutes while it’s going to take him 45 minutes?
Not to mention, adding another lane for these vehcicles (6 feet wide) would be less intrusive than the “ride share” lanes (standard 12 feet).

17

I hear you on the “range”. That’s one reason I said earlier that I think you could even make a gasoline powered version of it.

I’m really thinking of not much more than an enclosed motorcycle. I’ve even found some pics of motorcycles with roll cages and seat belts in my searches.

I think people get too “high concept” about this problem. Elaborate sharing schemes, electric cars, car pooling rewards, congestion taxes, HOV lanes. . .you’re talking about really getting people to change behavior.

I can’t believe there isn’t a way to design an enclosed motorcycle that could be sold for under 10K, get a few hundred miles to a tank, and get 45+ mpg. You wouldn’t need to take it every day. . .when it’s snowing, when you need to get groceries. As time goes by I just get disgusted at the amount of waste that is just built into the system.

18

People do that all the time in Toronto, commuting at 120km/h plus in their Smart cars, on highways that might as well be called Evil Death Highways of Doom. It’s not as much of a problem as it seems.

(Granted, ‘remappings’ of the car’s controller seem to be popular, that give more horsepower at a cost in fuel economy; I think that North American freeway driving is at the top end of the design capability of the car.)

My best friends plan to get one now that they’ve finished paying for their Jimmy and can get rid of the damn thing. (The engine blew its gaskets; there’s apparently a class-action lawsuit out about that engine…)

19

I would like such a vehicle. There have been enough concepts around; let’s actually make some available at a reasonable and modest price.

20

Howdy, I’m a sort-of stay at home mom with one household car. (Thanks hubby!)

I sit here most days because the hassle involved in waking up the baby, disturbing her sleep schedule, needing to be finished in time to pick up hubby, is generally a pain in the ass.

Most places I would like to go are within 2 miles of my house, certainly within 5. I can’t put my baby on a motorcycle, to say this area is unfriendly to bicycles and pedestrians is an understatement, etc. In all honesty, a golf cart would be perfect. I could put the car seat in it. They come with covers, they move at a reasonable speed for short distances, they give you the ability to carry a few items (including a stroller). They would fit on most sidewalks, but be big enough for people to be able to see them. They are reasonably affordable.

But I can’t use one. Pretty much, I have to buy a car. So I’m looking at spending about $1500 to get a complex vehicle that must be tagged, use gas, etc.

We don’t really need another car, per se, but the world we live in is going to require it. I’d much rather find something else that was a reasonable alternative.

I’ve thought of modular cars before, to me it’s a good idea, I have no idea how to implement it at all. Wouldn’t it be nice to buy a car and be able to add-on to it as your needs changed? Or rent the space you needed? (truck back, more seating for vacations, additional storage space) instead of having to junk the whole car? We can build an international space station with different countries making the parts, but we can’t make a car that isn’t stupid?