[ExI] Greener Urban Environment

[SR Ballard]

> There's already permeable blacktop, but I'm not sure there's much to be
> gained by that except possibly replenishing the water table.

If we're talking about permeable blacktop as a current technology,
well, then you can't use it anywhere that freezes more than about once
per year. A very important reason for dealing with all the
non-permeable surfaces in Urban areas is very evident in places where
I live. It rains an hour and one must wait a few hours to go to some
parts of town. It rains for a few days and whole neighborhoods will
wash away.


> I'd rather see ground-level transport go away in favor of subways and/or
> elevated rail. If streets could be replaced with real greenspace for, e.g.,
> vegetable gardening that would be a big win.

Personally, I'd prefer that as well. I'm not sure if it's culturally
acceptable in certain places. Culture changes though. Subways have the
benefit of not killing wildlife and lost pets, etc.


> We dont' even have roofs covered with solar yet.

I was under the impression that these coming out in the next three
months or so would qualify: https://www.tesla.com/solarroof


>> As
>> self-driving cars become more common, it could communicate to the car
>> through the tires.
>
> Surely wireless is better for that.

I was implying more here that the signal wouldn't need to be very
strong, because the grass would be very close to the wheels. But point
taken.

> Sorry, solar grass I can buy, but solar grass that can withstand vehicle
> traffic and move vehicles out of the way is asking a bit much.

Don't we often talk about uploading our minds to computers? But I
suppose we could have additional structures that look like the solar
ones, but are not.

I think that a non-solar grass could be capable of moving objects
using the same type of motion that a centipede uses. Or to put it
another way: crowd surfing.


>> Similarly, light posts could be re-imagined as local varieties of
>> trees, the leaves gathering sunlight during the day, and emitting
>> light from the underside of each leaf after dark, transmitting excess
>> energy produced down through it's trunk, into the lines created by the
>> grass.
>
> Or perhaps have real trees that purify air and use motion-activated LED
> lights?

Real trees don't stand up very well to constantly having cars wrapped
around them  (on the highway). But in a suburban environment, that's a
much better solution.