On Thu, 10 Mar 2005 09:54:14 -0800, "Bill Bonde ( ''The chamber was in confusion, all the voices shouting loud'' )"
Well, of COURSE they do ... it's part of their social-political philosophy - central control, micro-management from up on high. All that "liberty" talk, just a smokescreen. What you'll get AT BEST is the Peter Principle taken to its logical, horrible, extreme. At worst ... Insofar as your suggestion ... there ARE such things as "AutoTrains" where rail travelers bring their cars along. Alas, because of the time involved in loading and unloading the vehicles, this is only an efficient solution if you're talking about a fairly long haul to a very few specific destinations. I'd say that stops less than maybe 500 miles apart would consume too much time.
Still, maybe three lines ... Seattle-2-Miami, NYC-2-LA and something straight across like SanFran-2-DC ... could be a viable AutoTrain system. As all three would cross somewhere, you could even take the Seattle train to maybe KC, then switch over to the NYC line. Careful planning and better designed vehicle-carrier cars could reduce the vehicle loading times a bit. All in all very good IF you're destination-oriented. For we of the "It's the journey, not the destination" breed, they'd be lousy.
But about a million times less flexible when it comes to destinations and schedules. It's the usual story, no perfect solutions. You sacrifice 'A' and gain 'B'.
What was the old SNL skit ... "Lawn-a-Pult" ... where you simply and easily disposed of your yard clippings, garbage, even dead pets and relatives by flinging them far up and away into the sky where you'd never have to think about them again ..... :-)
Now, really, the FedEx place COULD have a giant air cannon that - with computerized micro-climate-aware precision - delivers your packages up and directly to your front lawn. A little study into the parachute system will be needed. For those REALLY important just-gotta-have-it-NOW kinds of packages ... well, there's all those old MIRV-capable rockets that are going to waste. Delivery fees may be just a tad on the high side, but if you're the impatient type then no expense need be spared.
