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The Coming Microcar Revolution
by Martin Nix
Back in 10,000 BC, the woolly mammoth had to deal with overpopulation and a smaller food source due to climate change. Faced with the situation, the animal became smaller. The entire species became downsized mini-mammoths.
Today, you can see the same kind of change happening with the SUV. Faced with high energy shortages, the automobile is downsizing. There is a coming revolution in cars: the microcar.
Microcars are different.They are about the same size as two motorcycles, not much bigger than four feet wide and five feet long. They only have one or two seats, yet are capable of 60 miles per hour, and are safe and strong. The engine itself is small and can run on alternative fuels like electricity, biodiesel, or natural gas. The microcar can get over 100 miles per gallon. It can be made of super-strong composite materials, making it very survivable in a crash.
But microcars will have more of an impact on parking. With their small size, you could see parking lots downsized. Four microcars could fit into a regular parking spot. That means the other half of the parking lot could be a solar greenhouse farm.
Microcars will have a major impact on highways. In fact, you could see special lanes for microcars. One regular lane could be made — presto — into two lanes. You could even see small diameter tunnels through mountains, just for microcars.
Microcars will create new forms of "dual-mode" transportation. Trains with double deck cars could haul microcars long distances. A truck trailer could, for example, haul 16 MicroCars across a bridge. In Seattle, you could see an entire ferry boat system dedicated to microcars on Puget Sound and Lake Washington. A small ferry boat would easily handle 100 to 200 microcars, providing for a new form of transportation.
Besides being cheaper to build, and using less land area, microcars are a lot like motorcycles, except they have four wheels. Plus, they are cheaper to purchase and safer. Best yet, they are more environmentally friendly than regular full size cars. The day may come when you will see entire cities filled with microcars, instead of the mammoth SUVs we see today.
See also article on the tiny four-seat "kei cars" which have been produced for many years in Japan. It's in our May/June 2007 issue, entitled "Are We Too Worried About Safety?". It starts on page 1 of the pdf at http://wafreepress.org/87/issue87.pdf.
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