One of the oldest "open" tyres that I have seen is in a lovely old photo of an archetypal "nutty inventor" type, with glasses and bald dome surrounded with fly-away hair. He is sitting sitting in or on a huge motor Unicyle whose tyre is open-cell in design so he can see through it while driving along the road.
Tyres use a lot of materials, labour, water and energy to produce, and modern quieter engines mean that tyre noise is now the worst part of the din of heavy traffic, and they have a fair bit of rolling resistance which reduces MPG. They are woefully antiquated ..... BUT... as far as I know no "high tech" solution has yet been able to improve on the wide range of behaviour and use characteristics that tyres actually do rather well.
Make traffic lighter, use smaller, well made and lighter vehicles. We are still in the 'green room' where the next biggest 4 by 4 is the best thing to be seen driving round town in. Spherical objects!
OK if that is what it takes to make things green in town remove the roadway area required for insert of tram systems not using wheels at all. This leaves space for light weight cars not tanks. No need for smut bot buses. Tax the crap out of anything big. Sort out delivery of goods properly via a few arterial routes and time zones. Link the new system to the sensible generating sources we have access and the technology for but have neglected to actually invest in correctly and build in our special position of not actually needing to import energy at all! We then have minimal independent traffic and a green city or two. This is a green policy in the way that several 13 amp plugs on the M1 and M6 to Richards house in Bob's G Whiz isn't. Tyres are so last century.
It then remains to come up with efficient solutions for rural transport, a much more difficult question but greatly answered by shifting all the commuters out of it to the 'rail' heads. They will not be around to complain about agriculture, a few dead rabbits and open caste coal mining. For real efficiency all able bodied non workers will be placed in large wheels generating electricity for commuters who pay their state benefits in tax. Here they will be chased by banned dog breeds rather than these being killed off, offsetting the affor mentioned dead rabbits for the bunny huggers. The reduction in road deaths will offset the losses to lazyness or death by natural causes in the wheels cleared up by the said dogs and thus minimal feed overheads or funerals as coffins will be pooper scooper bags down the crem for a knock down drop that plop, £25 to the Co Op. Tyres will still be exhibited at the Zoo where they will be the property of great apes. Some of these will have hydraulic jacks and tools but will not have noticed the difference!
AC = Alternative Correctness. Badges, shirts, flags and political key fobs available from my agent at the ICR.
