Bullet Trains, Light Metro, Mass Transit and America

This article from time.com about Obama's funding of high-speed rail tickles one of my secret ambitions: competitive mass transit in America.  Whoah, whoah, whoah, you're saying... You're thinking I'm a small government guy.  I've said I'm no republican but that I am definitely conservative economically.  The thing is, I've established that I have no problem paying the government in exchange for certain services, and infrastructure is one of those things.  I realize that in a laissez-faire capitalist economy roads and rails still get built by entities that need them at some point, and get maintained... somehow... At least in the interest of the market.  I just don't quite buy it... I actually believe there are some questions the free market fails to answer in a way.  As far as I'm concerned mass transit is one of those things.

If you try to frame a mass transit solution as a normal business problem you run into a sort of paradox.  It only works if you have enough riders to make it efficient and you only get enough riders when the service level reaches a point that entices people to become riders.  A capitalist would say that the market would select that solution if it made sense, but I'm convinced that any reasonable business man would look at the investment and tell you to take a hike.  The market economy didn't build the Interstate Highway System (Uncle Sam did), but I'm sure glad we have it now.  I feel the same way about mass transit, and personally very much favor rail. 

I spent a year of college living in Tokyo, Japan, and it made me a firm believer in the social benefits of efficient mass transit.  I'm guessing there are few or no cities with a more extensive rail network than Tokyo.  If you're interested, here is a rail map of Tokyo in English.  Then there's intercity train service in Japan, from the famed bullet trains (actually called Shinkansen) to commuter electric trains on shorter routes.  And if that's not interesting enough, the thing I found truly staggering was that smaller Japanese cities and towns also have rail service... Admittedly that's easier in a country as densely populated as Japan, if compared to the vast spaces Americans live in.  But maybe it sets a dreamer to dreamin' a little bit. 

As it happens, I remember the day that Obama announced he'd fund high speed rail investment.  Initially it elicited a sort of anti-socialist/anti-big government groan from me... But I read the article twice.  I stared intently at the maps they released.  I dug a little deeper into internet resources to research what they were thinking.  It set me to dreamin'.  Ever since I can't help but spend some small amount of time each day to imagining better rail service (intercity and local service) in America, and despite my capitalist proclivities I think government resources are the best route to getting it. 

Lunar Solar Powerplant

Courtesy of this gizmodo post I've learned of a Japanese firm, Shimizu, that would like to use robots to fabricate a solar power plant they call Luna Ring.  The Luna Ring would be built by robots using mostly material from the moon itself and cover the equator of the moon with solar panels to collect the power of sunlight without concerns about weather conditions or the atmosphere that reduces solar panel efficiency here on earth.  Luna Ring would then beam the power to earth via lasers or microwaves.

The idea is a little similar to one of my favorite pet energy concepts: space-based solar power, which I think offers one of the better chances for reasonably clean and renewable power on earth.  It may even be easier or cheaper to accomplish when you consider the fact that you won't have to lift materials into orbit.  In any case, it's merely concept now, and we'll have to keep working towards this and other forms of power (fuel cells or fusion power or something else) until one becomes practical enough that we can ween ourselves off of our fossil fuel addiction.