A Solution to Traffic?

Elon Musk recently revealed his plans for the "Boring Company."  Continuing his work on the future of travel, he released a concept including underground tunnels that could help to alleviate heavy traffic in cities like Los Angeles where traffic is a major issue.  The basic idea is to use an elevator system to lower cars underground where they will be moved at high speeds (around 124 miles per hour) to their destinations.  Although this is a very interesting idea from a very creative man, the system has many flaws that engineers will need to find their ways around in order to try to make these tunnels a reality and get rid of traffic forever.

The first problem halting the creation of this tunnel system is the cost.  Musk revealed that a mile of tunnel could cost around $1 billion.  There are a few possible solutions that he has already come up with to reduce the cost.  Keeping the diameter of the tunnel to a minimum (12 feet wide) would help to reduce the cost.  He would also like to improve the efficiency of his machines will be doing the digging so that they could dig and reinforce the walls at the same time.  Musk may also look to his Hyperloop to see if the technology could be used here.

Another problem facing the idea is how the car enters and exits the system.  Cars would need to wait on the streets to enter the tunnels, and it would take time to stabilize, lower, and launch the cars on the skates.  When the cars is lowered, a big hole is left in the street, and this would need to be accounted for to prevent accidents from happening.  Exiting would also cause these same problems, taking time, space, risk, and money.

Musk's utopian society depicted in the video above may be a long way off unfortunately.  There are simply too many problems concerning money, time, safety, and regulations that must be followed in order to get the tunnel system going.  Musk and engineers will need to do some further brainstorming to eliminate the several problems facing the tunnel system and make dreaded traffic a thing of the past.

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