Every week on my radio show (heard Monday through Friday from 10 p.m. to midnight on WSB) I have a segment called “Would You Rather?”
It is a funny segment, usually on Tuesdays, where we are asked questions like “would you rather be able to run 100 miles per hour or fly 10 miles per hour?” Last Tuesday we were asked a traffic related question that really made me think.
The question: would you rather never have to pay for gas again, or never have to stop at a stoplight again? Before you answer, think about the question for a minute.
Even with gas prices lower than they have been in years, I bet a majority of you answered that you’d rather never have to pay for gas again. Seems like a logical answer especially in an area like Atlanta where a majority of us spend hours in our cars every week wasting precious fuel.
My first answer was, I’d rather never have to stop at red lights. My reasoning was three-fold. First, my commute, thankfully, is very short, so I usually don’t have to spend that much on gas per week. Second, my short ride to work is usually at four in the morning. There is nothing more frustrating than having to stop at a red light at four in the morning when there is nobody on the roads. Lastly, I realize that someday in the not so distant future, we will all be driving cars that don’t require gasoline.
I understand that my last reason seems a bit far-fetched, but I don’t think there is much doubt that we will all be driving electric cars fairly soon.
In 2014, plug-in electric car sales topped 100,000 vehicles for the first time ever, a 27-percent increase over the previous year. I see that trend continuing to the point that electric cars will become a majority on the roads, eventually leading to the end of gas-fueled vehicles.
But, the more I thought about the question, the more I realized that technology will also someday make traffic signals irrelevant. The development of so-called “self-driving cars” could make traffic lights a thing of the past.
If self-driving cars continue to progress the way I and other experts believe, traffic signals will become obsolete as cars begin to talk to each other and manage traffic flow to the point where, hopefully, there will no longer be a need for traffic lights.
The question then is which happens first, all electric cars or all self-driving cars? I don’t have an answer to that question yet.
I can, however, answer the other question. I’d rather be able to fly 10 miles per hour than run 100 miles per hour.
About the Author
