Alternative bybil-ideer

Massachusetts Institute of Technologys avdelign for Architecture + Ecology + Urban Design sysler med byplanlegging i ordets videste forstand.

Skjønt prosjektet som er gjennomført i samarbedi med General Motors og Frank Gehry er i høyeste grad relevant for fremtidens bymiljø.

Designet er kanskje ikke så oppsiktsvekkende ved første øyekast, ikke helt ulike Daimler-Chryslers Smart-biler (som forøvrig ser ut til å danne utgangspunkt for et nytt norsk el-bil-konsept). Faren for å forsveksle disse konseptmodellen med Smart er imidlertid liten.

En ting er at den ene modellen er laget for å kunne stables sammen, en annen skal kunne henges opp når de ikke brukes. Fremdriften sikres ved el-motorer plassert i navet på alle fire hjul, som førovrig kan dreies i alle retninger og dermed sikre optimal fremkommelighet i trange bymiljø.

At prosjektet også har et åpenbart miljøpotensiale understrekes av at GM antyder at de vil introdusere prosjektet i Kina. Der skal det fremdeles være mulig å påvirke folks holdning til å eie og bruke bil:

The automobile and the 20th-century city co-evolved, each adapting itself to the other. The outcome of this process has been unprecedented personal mobility, but its cost has been high—measured in terms of noise, pollution, traffic jams, excessive fossil fuel consumption, road injuries and deaths, urban sprawl, and land-use patterns that do not support social interaction. Reducing personal mobility has not turned out to be an acceptable way of cutting this cost, and incremental improvements in automobile efficiency and safety have not proven to be sufficient. A more promising strategy is to change the fundamental relationship of the car and the city—to provide the 21st-century city's inhabitants with better opportunities to practice good mobile citizenship.

Good mobile citizens continually make decisions that minimize risks of injury to themselves and others, minimize unnecessary consumption of resources, and minimize waste and pollution. They act not only in their own self-interest, but also for the common good, and their public presence contributes to a sense of vibrant community.

To encourage and assist such intelligently ethical behavior, mobile citizens might be provided with automobiles that are not just dumb transportation devices, but intelligent inhabitants of their cities—wheeled robots that perceive, learn, remember, reason, and provide sophisticated, context-aware assistance and advice. Such smart city cars could combine networked, embedded intelligence with drive-by-wire driver interfaces, new propulsion systems, intelligent outer skins, and new vehicle architectures.

• MIT Car
• Smart Cities
• Concept Car with GM and Frank O. Gehry - 32 siders presentasjon av prosjektet (PDF)