This underground tunnel for cars could cut an hour-long commute down to 15 minutes

Like many cities, London has a serious problem with gridlock. According to Eurostat's Urban Europe report, thecity has the worst congestion in Europe ' an average commuter there spends101 hoursin traffic every year.An obvious solution to this problem would be to upgrade or expand the existingtube, train, and bus networks to be more efficient and far-reaching, so that morelocals use mass transit. But PLP Architecture, a London-based firm, is proposing a more radical idea: moving vehicles underground.Called the CarTube, the firm's concept envisionsan underground tunnel of automated, conveyor belt-like tracks. Cars in the tubes would travel a steady speed of 50 mph, so there wouldn't be stop-and-go traffic,PLP's director of research,Lars Hesselgren,tells Business Insider. That would allowthe network tocut down commute times by up to 75%.PLP wouldn't disclose an estimate for the CarTube'scost, but said it could be built at a fraction of the price of Crossrail, a new high-capacity, 73-mile (117 km) railwaythat's under constructionin London and the southeasternUK. That project received14.8 billion ($15.7 billion) in funding.There are no immediate plans to build the CarTube, but Hesselgren says the firm istalking with a number of partners, including Google, aboutthe concept. Heestimates that if the tube were to be built, construction would takeless than a decade.Check out the design.SEE ALSO:3 infrastructure improvements the Trump administration should prioritize, according to Obama's Secretary of TransportationThe CarTube would be a 15.5-mile network of tunnels for automobiles, in which each car would be spaced spaced between .6 and 1.2 miles (1-2 km) apart. Hesselgren says the system would be located 33 to 98 feet (10- 30 meters) below ground level to reduce congestion.The CarTube tunnels would connect to the existing streets. Drivers would just drive onto the tracks, which would slope down to bring them into the tunnel.The system could accommodate 400 cars per hour, he says.Since the automated tracks would carry riders at a uniform speed, the CarTube could cut down an hour commute to nearly 15 minutes, Hesselgren says. In their proposal, the architects call it "the next best thing to teleportation."See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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