What would be the construction costs for this nation of subways? What would be the atmospheric impact of that construction. It really isn't a solution. Many areas in this country don't even have adequate bus services and busses do not need additional infrastructure. Give me electric busses that can get me around a city for 1 kWh per trip and I might be interested in a national program.

However this is good for New York City. But if there are 4.1 million trips daily, that means 2/3rds to 3/4ths of the city population are getting around by other means. All depending on how many trips a person makes on average per day.

This is very much an impressionistic idea.  The main point is to show, that if everybody was in a walkable-mass transit accessable area, it would be very easy to radically cut carbon emissions and oil use.  Just as a point of reference.

As far as all the other points, yes, and I will be following up with other helpful hints as I calculate them.  And certainly, buses at 1 kwh per trip would be great.  By the way, about 50% of mass transit in NYC is buses and 50% subways; 50% of the people in NYC don't even own cars.  So even if you multiplied mu estimates by 10, you will still get to less than 25% of current electrical use.

I think overall that 1 or 2 kWh per average trip is an attainable goal. (The reason I'm doubling it for both trains and trucks is that on the NY subway, people mostly switch cars, so you probably average 1.5 to 2 trips per one-way journey.  Similarly, I doubt the average car trip will ever drop to 8 miles.

In terms of multi-modal, I don't think we will ever phase out car use entirely (unless civilization falls, and we are back to dragging our asses through  a hothouse world hunting and gathering). But I suspect most people make plenty of journeys where if train were available they choose it in preference to car trip. So for ground passenger transport, the goal is a mixture of increased ground rail transport, advanced PHEVs, better facilities for walking and biking, and better buses where appropriate. (Ultimately for buses to compete with cars  they need their own streets or lanes. You also need arrangement like trains have where traffic stops to let them by, so they don't have to stop at stoplights AND bus stops. This is being done in some areas.)

The statistics for NYC way underestimate the number of trips taken per subway electrical use because a huge number of trips are done by walking.  For instance, when I lived in NYC, almost all of my food shopping was to the corner supermarket.  In the rest of America, that requires 5 to 10 to more miles each way by car-- and many other forms of trips are done by walking in NYC as well.  So, jabailo, the directed graphs work better in dense cities because the segments are much, much, shorter.  In an ideal situation in which everyone lived in a dense city, then it would be very easy for people to move to where they wanted to go, via walking or public transit -- easier than the current system.

Now, whether we will ever get to that system is a question of, as they say, "political will", not technical capacity.  As Laurence points out, there is much higher cost to cars than just the mileage -- the cost to the health care system from the deaths and injuries alone is staggering.  But at this point, the entire planet is definitely in an automobile frame of mind, so I was just pointing out that 1 kwhr might be a good goal to shoot for, if the drive-anywhere-anytime-whenever-I-want-to-dammit sentiment should ever change.

Light rail down the freeway median?  They are doing it in Minneapolis.

How long until the light rail is a high speed renewably (wind electric)powered train  in a tube?  Direct electric rail power due to the closed and protected tube, no rain, snow, deer, cars, people wandering onto the tracks.

This sort of light rail could go well over 100 mph on longer trips.  How much air travel and resulting GHGs would that save?  Billions of tons!!

Only 1 kwh per trip in NYC subways.  This system could be 1 kwh per trip for commutes from chicago to missneapolis, for instance, and beyond.

I think people would gladly leave their cars behind and shun planes as well for this kind of travel.   They could take their bikes with them or rent a plugin hybrid at the destination.  Early adoption of plugins lend itself to car rental better than private ownership.  Fleets of rental vehicles are a great way to introduce this technology.

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...but the train takes hours from Chicago now, it's a crying shame that there are not high-speed rail lines coming out of Chicago -- it used to be the rail hub for most of the country!  To Seattle now is 48 hours, same to SF or LA.  Liberate highway medians now!

...is about the ...er...most intellectually challenged argument I've heard since the arguments against anthropogenic global warming.  Walking is what people do.  Maybe breathing takes too much energy.  Maybe we'd use no energy if we were all dead, but I'd rather attempt something better than that.  There are a small subset of activities that humans should definietely do, among which are walking and exercise, eating, and making tools.  

Great slogan Jon.  I see a bumpersticker.

Renewable electric freeway median light rail in tubes for all.  A transportation revolution.  Bike racks in the trains of course.

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How about bullet and bomb proof tubes as amusement rides through poverty stricken high crime and war zones?

Wealthy citizens instead of going to Disney world could ride these tubes and see actual crimes in progress!  Much more thrilling than tabloid teeveee.

The frustrated criminals could not get at the people in the tubes.  Hehehey.  Rupert?  This is an idea Murdoch is probably already working on.

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