what if travel worked like the internet?

it is worthwhile attempting to learn a bit more about how the internet actually works.

When it comes to sending information across the wilds of the internet, it is split up into packets by routers and goes from router to router by what is deemed the best available route. This is informed by the feedback on previous packets, so if what was previously deemed to be a best available route is running slow, another route could be upgraded.

This is not intuitive stuff, most people don't understand it at all, it is how engineers might work, but not how most people like to solve problems. We prefer to make the effort of making a decision and then stick to it, we don't want to constantly revisit all our decisions.

But modern technology can just constantly review decisions, there is not a lot of cost to doing this, while there are situations where a flexibility over decisions is beneficial.

What if the transport network operated like this. What if for major journeys by rail, air or road, we were treated as dumb packets of information, and routed from node to node, each node then directing on the best available route from then on. As with the internet the real benefit of this is that it creates a more robust and flexible network. If one element goes down, then alternatives can quickly be filled to capacity, then further altnernatives filled to capacity.

As with air traffic, you would tag and track each individual at each stage of the journey, for example by presenting or swiping some identification, or through RFID tags, or some sort of GPS or positioning device. In air travel each time you touch down would be a node, in train travel you might need to seek your own nodes, receiving mobile phone notification that you should disembark at a station and seek a specific connection, in road travel a combination of satnav and mobile phone technology could perform the function.

This does seem a bit alien treating people as dumb packets, not entitled to make any decisions, but their fate informing the routing of subsequent travellers. It also suggests a network that is more like the internet with a lot of smaller routes, rather than a few great big motorways, but as recent weather problems have shown there are benefits to robustness.