Seattle is having problems with their recent snow storms ...
Hey, Seattle is not my city so who am I to judge? Instead, I've got an idea .. lasers.
Orbital lasers, firing down from directly overhead could warm the streets, melt the snow. Without any sand or salt. So it's really a Green solution.
Also? The city would buy time on the system - no need to buy a lot of equipment that is only used seasonally.
There are probably a whole lotta technical problems with the idea. One non-technical reason why this will never, ever work? Never-ever underestimate the power of ... Lawyers. Legal issues alone would keep the lasers powered down - a city of several million souls will have a lot of citizens with money who won't like the idea of death-beams from the heavens lancing down from overhead.
I wonder - there are a lot of places that should be snow-free that don't have people living around them. Roads in wilderness areas, train tracks in the middle of nowhere. Still a non-starter, I bet.
I gotta admit - the idea of snow just melting away from the roads is a mighty attractive one.
The icy streets are the result of Seattle's refusal to use salt, an effective ice-buster used by the state Department of Transportation and cities accustomed to dealing with heavy winter snows.
"If we were using salt, you'd see patches of bare road because salt is very effective," Wiggins said. "We decided not to utilize salt because it's not a healthy addition to Puget Sound."
Hey, Seattle is not my city so who am I to judge? Instead, I've got an idea .. lasers.
Orbital lasers, firing down from directly overhead could warm the streets, melt the snow. Without any sand or salt. So it's really a Green solution.
Also? The city would buy time on the system - no need to buy a lot of equipment that is only used seasonally.
There are probably a whole lotta technical problems with the idea. One non-technical reason why this will never, ever work? Never-ever underestimate the power of ... Lawyers. Legal issues alone would keep the lasers powered down - a city of several million souls will have a lot of citizens with money who won't like the idea of death-beams from the heavens lancing down from overhead.
I wonder - there are a lot of places that should be snow-free that don't have people living around them. Roads in wilderness areas, train tracks in the middle of nowhere. Still a non-starter, I bet.
I gotta admit - the idea of snow just melting away from the roads is a mighty attractive one.
