OKC/Tulsa Metroplex?

[bluedogok]

This is one of the problems with true HSR across the plains. With storms rolling across the plains your trip would greatly dependent on storms 500 miles away because you would be there in 90 minutes and no one want to go into a hail storm at 350 mph. If you drew a line from Chicago to Dallas how long would it be before a tornado crossed that line. Now picture trains doing 300 mph traveling along that line. Not pretty.

They would have to stop somewhere until the storm crossed like some freight trains have done, planes have to reroute all the time because of storms. If a 1:1,000,000 chance of a train intersecting a tornado at the exact same moment is what keeps people from taking HSR in this part of the country then they just need to stay in the storm shelters they inevitably have 24 hours a day. Tornadoes do exist in Japan, China and Europe where they do have high speed rail. I'm sure they have dealt with thunderstorms as well, they are not just restricted to the plains states.

[RadicalModerate]

It would take me longer to draw a line from Chicago to Dallas than you could begin to imagine so a tornado would probably cross it before I was done thus rendering the initial postulation moot. (Speaking of "moot": No cows allowed in the train tunnels. Not even as passengers.)

You can't stop a bullet train. It would probably take longer to raise and lower the storm sheilds than it would be to dig ten miles of the tunnel. OG&E really needs to start checking out the technological marvels related to shovels. Heck . . . They're only about .75 Century late . . .

[Snowman]

Are the "Zip cars" solar powered? Or do they rely on hydrogen fusion? Maybe solar-powered magnets?

Zipcar is a company; it rents cars, vans & trucks. The main benefit over other rental Hertz or Avis is you can be billed hourly so it is often cheaper.

[NoOkie]

I think it is too. And fun!
Imagine that. =)

Remember: No Time Machine existed before H.G. Wells (or was it gene roddenberry/timothy leary?) thought of it.
maybe it was kurt vonnegut or that "illuminati trilogy" guy).

I'm thinkin' that maybe OG&E could begin to investigate the Cost/Value/Service concept by actually beginning to bury electrical lines underground, thereby shielding them from the vagaries of nature (e.g. ICE-9 storms).

On "Dune" you would never put trains underground on account of the Spice Worms.
So that is a "neigh" from the Asimov camp.

Herbert, not Asimov.

[RadicalModerate]

oops.... thank you for setting the record straight. of course it was Frank Herbert . . . i guess i was thinking of The Foundation Trilogy (doh).

[BDP]

Oklahoma City and Tulsa are very different cities

From what perspective exactly? There are little differences, but you have to compare on a very micro scale to come to the conclusion that they are "very" different. I still have never visited two cities that are more similar to each other in culture, infrastructure, and economy. OKC has been scaling up in more areas than Tulsa has recently, and more large scale changes are on the way, but they're still more similar to each other than any other cities I can think of, certainly any that i have visited.