Call for your thoughts and drawings for various parts of
this idea and how to get it going.
See details below. First the specs:
* 8 minutes between any two points in the city.
* 20 minutes at most between any two locations of a
metropolis.
* 300 km in 1.5 hours including a 15 minute
forced stop
at a developing city on the way.
* Quiet, safe, comfortable, efficient and useful.
* Drive your own or rented ultralightway electric car or
enter one of the public ultralightway automated taxis,
from door to door. Get your batteries charged on the
way. And send your car to a different station without you
(no cargo allowed)
* Or ride your bicycle into the ultralightway bike-pod for
a fast boost getting you close to where you need.
* Uses existing atmospheric roller coaster technology
along
with simple electric drive (DC so no danger).
* Automatic maintenance, low traffic density, and high
safety standards allow for less life loss and injuries
(some roller coasters have over 100 years with no-one
killed or injured on them).
* Oh and its eco friendly: No running over wildlife, no
ecological barriers, no noise, no smoke, rubber tire, or
light pollution.
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A "dual mode" PRT system, where any approved
ultralight and small car, with an authenticated driver,
and authorized baggage, is rapidly loaded onto the
railway, driven on a loop to the station and taken off at
the correct exit. The loop is actually a "self healing"
network, with safety devices for rapidly correcting any
type of problem, including track unloading and
emergency escape paths.
PRT is a known concept. There are pros and cons. The
point is that although it should be a low cost project,
still, making a first viable and running system is a
formidable investment, and the bottom line is that until
a real large grid is built it isn't worth the effort.
The problem that PRT is supposed to solve is this: You
want to get SAFELY and quickly from any point to any
point. Quickly does not only mean going fast. It also
means not waiting long, and getting close to your target
without having to change vehicles or walk. The movie
'Minority Report' and others show the vehicles reaching
all the way into the living room of an apartment in a tall
building. So the question is:
How can we get there, without a total revolution of the
road system.
Answer: Ultralightway - The point about this system is
that MOST of the cost of cars and their personalization
will come from private investment. The shorter the
range off the rail, the smaller the investment is needed.
When you want you can upgrade to an authorized and
authenticated stronger motor, batteries along with a
better external road-safety package.
So we aren't fighting the roadway. We are only reducing
the heavy and large car traffic between cities,
eliminating the 15-20 minute rides, and reducing the
number of drivers on 1 or 2 hour rides by offering them
a 20 minute long distance ride.
You won't be locked to a single manufacturer, but the
manufacturers will need to abide certain standards
pertaining to the safety, security, speed, size shape and
weight of their cars.
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The technology for each part is available.
Ask away for details, and I'll add them here.
The following are some of the systems I can elaborate
about:
a. Loading and unloading
b. Inner city speeds and accelerations
c. Autonomous (self-healing) network system
d. Suspension
e. Propulsion
f. Railway, forces and looks
g. Safety
h. Security
i. The rapid (roller coaster tech) long distance system
j. The bicycle pod
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Financing: I hope very soon to wrap up a specific
configuration based on this idea, due to recent changes
we may have the funding and political push to make this
come true...