Advanced Gadgets Available, We Just Don’t Want Them

The Inquirer has a big piece today on commuting, and how the commute has lengthened in the past 50 years or so. The morning train ride from Chestnut Hill to Center City used to take 28 minutes, now it’s 34. A flight from PHL to LAX used to be 5 hours, now it’s 6. Everybody sits in traffic everywhere. Et cetera.

Apparently, though, we could solve these problems if we consumers would just want to solve them, says grandson-of-the-former-mayor Richardson Dilworth, a Drexel assistant prof:

“A lot of the bottlenecks are social,” Dilworth said. “We could make cars fully automatic, where a driver just plugs in a destination, but auto manufacturers don’t think there is adequate demand, so they haven’t developed that technology. Electric cars are being bottlenecked by the refueling issue.”

Wait, we could do all of that? I want those items! And where the hell is my hoverboard?

Editor’s note: Please do not Google Image Search “jetsons” while safe search is off. Do it for your own eyes.

Farther, faster? Not anymore [Inquirer]