Read on Twitter
1/ felt like riffing on the concept (and potential rollout - pun intended?) of traffic wind turbines that's been going around: we should recognize them as an alternative toll and maybe see where that leads... #trafficturbine #uselessfuel #ihatetolls
2/...because foremost it is not free energy, as sometimes advertised, as it represents a slight additional resistance to a passing vehicle, but it would be a tiny effect.
3/ while difficult/impossible to measure for an individual driver, the turbines by themselves would increase national fuel consumption..or would they? What if they replaced some tolls?
4/ It's a micro-transaction, potentially a nano-transaction; the turbine generates a small amount of energy that could be used/sold, and the driver has a microscopic/negligible dip in MPG while passing the turbine
5/ It's at least plausible as an alternative toll since the effect is proportional to the size (esp cross-section) of the vehicle (again, still tiny effect).
6/ example: a half-mile-long corridor densely packed with roadside/overhead turbines might (?) replace a conventional toll. Granted it probably won't generate as much money.
7/ upshot on MPG: the MPG loss due to traffic turbines would be drastically offset by the MPG benefit from eliminating 10 mph roll-through ezpass lanes...
8/ ...so if some tolls were replaced by turbine-corridors national fuel use could net decrease, potentially by a lot.
9/ so that net MPG savings could be a net win for any driver, but esp. for large fleets, who might be incentivized to use more aerodynamic fleets as well.
10/ maintenance could be serious; turbines always have this weakness relative to solar;
11/ turbines could be sited to get some small amount of natural wind; not their primary role and likely a small effect, but might help tip the scale to being viable. But...
12/ ...yeah probably destined to fail and wouldn't make nearly as much $$ as a conventional toll and $$ always seem to win. thx for making it this far...
