Elon Musk Believes We Need to Build More Tunnels to Alleviate Traffic Congestion

Elon Musk is quite a vocal figure in the technology world and known for making some rather intriguing predictions.  Recently, Musk answered a number of questions during the Hyperloop Design Competition awards ceremony across a wide range of topics including Hyperloop, SpaceX, Tesla and Mars. On the Mars project, Musk said:

“I think the most important thing is to maintain a self-sustaining city on Mars,”  

“I think that’s the most important thing for humanity. If we have a self-sustaining city on Mars … that could ultimately lead us to go beyond the solar system.”

He also went onto discuss the current traffic congestion problems around the world and suggested a suitable fix:

“Tunnels are great. It’s just a hole in the ground” 

“It’s not that hard, but if you have tunnels in cities, it would massively alleviate congestion. You could have tunnels at all different levels, you could have 30 layers of tunnels and completely relieve the congestion problem in high-density cities. So, I highly suggest tunnels.”

This is an interesting theory and it could help reduce traffic congestion by a significant margin. As the population increases, and major cities become extremely packed, it’s vital to find new ways to reduce the stress on public transport. Musk’s concept is practical but it could take a long time to even be considered. In huge cities like London, commuters usually have to deal with large crowds, and it can be challenging to find a comfortable form of transport. Vehicles also have the problem of moving at a very pedestrian pace, as traffic jams become a regular occurrence.

Something has to be done, because the population density in major cities is increasing. I can’t really think of an alternative to Musk’s idea, but then again, it’s going to take an absurd amount of time to even analyse the potential for underground tunnels on a mass scale.