Avocatus diaboli:
Quote: "it will be less fuel efficient because, as should be obvious, water has more resistance to movement than tarmac and pneumatic tyres"
I think your a bit confused on your basic physics here. I assume when your say resistance to movement your refering to friction and water has a lot less friction than tarmac or tires which in combination produce lots of friction ( which is why a spinning tire on a big heavy truck will propell the truck forwards. Maybe you wanted to compare the air resistance vs water resistance? Anyway the amount of power (and fuel) required to move something by truck is dependent on the weight (more weight more friction, more fuel). Moving something by water the amount of friction is dependant on the surface area of the hull which is in contact with the water (ie the size of the boat not the weight). Moving heavy goods will always be more efficient (although slower) by boat than by road.
It was mention that the present canal system is designed for boats of upto 30 tonnes displacemet, actually is the victorian system which is so limited (and only certain sections because there were no agreed standards on building canals which were privately funded enterprises). The Manchester Ship Canal enables ships of up to 18000 tonnes displacement to reach Manchester from Eastham on the Mersey estuary. I believe the origional proposal called for a modern canal system along these lines.
It would be a very good idea to get some people together who know their shit to talk about the Feasability of such an idea, hang on a sec....maybe thats already happened? It has for the trasportation of goods at least:
http://www.defra.gov.uk/Environment/water/iw/freight/http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/press-centre/pre...ontent.asp?prID=581If we could move freight of the roads onto the canals this would be a nice start, maybe then we can think about distributing power and water through the canals? Trouble is we seem to have lost the ability for long term strategic planning, something we had in spades in the victorian era. Pity!
