This is going to be the same tragedy of the commons that played out for road transport, repeated in the sky.
Everyone wants the use of a flying car.
Everyone in a flying car wants an airport at every street corner, just as long as they don’t have to pay for the land it occupies.
But…
Nobody wants to live next to an airport, or underneath a flight path. In the world where everyone has a flying car, everyone will live next to a next to an airport, below a flight path, or both.
In road transportation, rather than trying to link the private benefits of cars with their public costs, we “solved“ the inherent and fundamental conflict by putting the freeways in neighbourhoods that had the least political power.
If we had the ability to learn from past mistakes, we might try to internalize some of the externalities of flying cars, and get better results. One can dream.
I think a lot of people think they want a flying car. I posit that flying cars are a pretty terrible idea.
Single engine airplanes weigh less than a small car. They are not designed to protect the occupants from side impacts, to brake the vehicle to a stop 20 times in an hour, etc.
Today, if you fly 750 miles away and get into a fender bender in your rental car, you turn it in, fill out some paperwork, and fly home in an undamaged airplane. What are you going to do when your flying car gets into a fender bender in car mode 750 miles from home?
A flying car is bound to be a terrible (and likely unsafe) car and certain to be a terrible airplane.
Everyone wants the use of a flying car.
Everyone in a flying car wants an airport at every street corner, just as long as they don’t have to pay for the land it occupies.
But…
Nobody wants to live next to an airport, or underneath a flight path. In the world where everyone has a flying car, everyone will live next to a next to an airport, below a flight path, or both.
In road transportation, rather than trying to link the private benefits of cars with their public costs, we “solved“ the inherent and fundamental conflict by putting the freeways in neighbourhoods that had the least political power.
If we had the ability to learn from past mistakes, we might try to internalize some of the externalities of flying cars, and get better results. One can dream.