🚀 go-pugleaf

John McCarthy (jmc@Steam.Stanford.EDU) wrote:
: leguerrl@ERE.UMontreal.CA (Le Guerrier Louis-Luc) writes:
: 
: > I live in a suburban area, I work downtown a large city, and I don't use
: > a car. I prefer the train. Now we must work on railing some highways, and
: > building more walking, cycling, and small local railways, to help us
: > getting to the "main" railways that go downtown.  
: > 
: > We should focus on bicycle trailers, tricycles and other human vehicles
: > to transport normal personal goods,, and
: > use horses to carry heavy loads to/from the railways (to replace trucks).
: 
: Le Guerrier's proposal expresses a moderately widespread sentiment.  I 
: would like to see it done experimentally at Government capital expense 
: but without subsidy of running expenses.  Would a city of 100,000 suffice,
: or does the idea require 500,000?
: 
: There could either be a new city built from scratch or an existing
: city could be taken over for the experiment.  If the latter, the
: inhabitants commuters from the suburbs who didn't like the new way of
: life would have to be bought out.  I am one who wouldn't live or work
: in such a city, but for a suitable price I would go away.
: 
: Horses take a lot of space, eat a lot of feed, and require a lot of
: people to take care of them.  In the 1890s New York had 100,000
: horses, but unless you drastically reduced the amount of goods used, a
: larger number of horses per thousand people would be required.  
:...
I suggest horses as a truck replacement, not as a car. Not everyone owns
a truck, so not everyone would own a horse, since they can easily bike
or walk to the railway for their everyday moves.
 
So there would still be less horses than there were in the 1800s.



Louis-Luc