Alternative land transportation

 

Other solutions

A Must See http://www.lexus.com/minorityreport

 

OK. Now that we saw the Lexus flash movie we can continue.

 

1. Aeroduct™  http://www.aeromobile.com

Use air-cushion hovercraft technology in railed transportation

Inventor: Dr. William Bertelsen (Inventor of hovercraft and Gimbal fan)

Status: Partial prototype assembled.

  Last updated on March 2001. Were busy on other project.

 

2. Oiled Rails             no site available

Inventor: Moshe Flam                    

Remarks:       Idea removed by author from http://www.halfbakery.com
                        after receiving bad rating.

Status: Idea only

 

            3. Zapato Inteli-Tube  http://zapatopi.net/pneumatic.html  

Personal Pneumatic Tube Pod

            Inventor: Lyle Zapato

Simlar: FTS Florida http://www.orielsystems.u-net.com/fts

Another one: http://www.et3.com they even have a patent

Remarks: NY to Beijing in 2 hours.

            Status: Idea only.

 

4. Biketrans  http://www.biketrans.com

Closed bike path uses air-flow to assist cyclers.

Inventor:  Milnor H. Senior III

Remarks:       No air resistance to overcome, bicycle escalators where needed.

No weather problems and high speed can be achieved with backwind.

Critic site: http://www.bikexprt.com/bikepol/facil/biketrans.htm

Status: Idea only

 

5. Micro/MegaRail a http://www.megarail.com

Unique electric system powered from rails

Inventor: Kirsten Henderson (CEO Megarail)

Remarks: Elevated driveway.

Electric system claimed as breakthrough in Maglev technology, creating low cost
all weather solution.  http://www.megarail.com/pr/library/2002/mar/20maglev

Claim $5M/mile for dual guideway (both ways)

Seem to claim that medium weight not an issue in their cost assessments.

Worth a good check on their numbers.

Status: Proven concept. Models and partial implementation are available.

 

 

 

6. Whoosh   http://www.whoosh.care4free.net

“Atmospheric Motor”  cheap, efficient and quiet.

Inventor: David Glover     Open to public (non profit, green organization)

Remarks:       Excellent intro http://www.whoosh.care4free.net/intro.htm

19’th century silent trains ran on pneumatic propulsion in Devon, England
            reaching 70 mph (120 Km/h). Whoosh proposes to renew this idea.

Motor sucks air in front of car moving it forward.
(See Aeromoval in working solutions)

Status: Call for renewal of old working idea.

 

7. RUF Dual Mode Transport System

Private small electric cars fit monorail railway

Inventor: Palle R. Jensen (pronounced Yensen)

Investors: Siemens, Danish Government, EFP European research fund.

Remarks:       System for 50mph 50 mile area electric cars, filling stations and all.

                        Recharge on rails. Includes public busses and private cars.

Status: Limited software developed. 3 year funded research and development started.

 

 

8. MAIT Moving Rooms   http://www.maitint.org 

From bedroom to work without leaving room

Status: Research (papers) oriented fantasy

 

 

 

9. Flash  http://ourworld.cs.com/PRTdesign/

Small in wheel electric brushless-motor PRT  (from Oklahoma?)

Inventor: unknown as well as contact information or anything besides the idea.

Remarks:        12 pound brushless motor in each wheel.

Standard concrete (low cost) T beams.

Assumes equivalent of 1.2 mpg cars. Special tires.

                        Less than $800,000/mile guideway.

                        Very detailed analisys of costs and history.

                        Owner requests contact at [email protected] (compuserve)

Status: unknown 

 

 

10. Thuma

Modular Railed Transportation – Fantastic futuristic view

Inventor: Hans Jurgen (pronounced Yurgen with two dots on the u) Thuma, Germany                                          

Remarks:       Fantastic vision of future where different size cargo negotiates
                        for different size and load capable rails.

Main point is: flexibility.

Slow and fast lanes + ability to suspend large cargo beneath,
using 3d, and sharing rails for extra heavy or large cargo.

Status:  Idea only. Industrial artist movies showing how it looks.
             Wishes assistance, and wants to implement.
              In contact with Moshe Flam

 

Auto shuttles:

 

Autoshuttle http://www.autoshuttle.de/index_en.html
 Inventor: Dr. Andreas Steingrover, Dr. Rasmus Krevet , German

 

PERTS http://www.perts.vt.edu

Inventor: Krishna Ramu, Virginia Polytechnic Institute

Remarks: claims $20M instead of $60M for road       

 

 

Autocar

Inventor: unknown. Only says: AVT-Train

And yet another one: HILO http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/hilo1.htm

City car shuttle to Train + standalone shuttle/train

Remarks:

            Has name of illustrator and of model builders
            + videos of running model.

Status: model running at “Grifith Park”

Wilder Ideas

Beehive http://www.urbanlab.net/pages/PD-2-bee.html

Electric or hybrid cars add energy to system for long rides (pay by energy)

Inventor: Paul Jamtgaard, Califronia

It seems the site was hosted or graphics done at the World Trade Center (?)

 

City Mobility http://www.advancedpassengervehicles.com/citymobility.html  Holland
Say they are a completely new concept and go on to simple automatic driverless minibuses.

 

City Shuttle: http://www.saunders-systems.com

4 legs and special guideways make way for this bus, higher than the cars
Fantastic idea, worth a look.

Remarks: Now why didn’t I think of that?

Inventor: Stanly Saunders, Atlanta Georgea

Status: Idea

 

FlexyTrain: http://camdek.com  New Zealand

Slow electric cars get together as train for fast ride on long trips. Status: Concept.

InTranSys http://personalpages.tds.net/~cimarron/

1970’s concept: using electric Linear Synchronous Motors (LSM) automatically paced,
will promise a safe, fast, close and dense traffic of higher volume.
Also energy reclaimed when stopping. $1.5M/Km claimed in 1990.

Critical report against the InTranSys concept: http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/joerg.htm

Status:  Old idea. Existing 3d videos of suspended car/truck carriers.

 

 

Other PRT’s

 

PRT2000 http://faculty.washington.edu/%7Ejbs/itrans/PRT/PRT2000_Concept.html
From Ratheon Inc., the Patriot missile company.

Spent $45M research + $21M from Chicago Transit Authority.

3 Years of research including prototype, 3 cars + test track, control software.
Passed tests including weather and emergency stops. Large car for wheelchair and comfort.
Prices exceeded from estimate of $20M/Km to $30M/Km. Test tracks still intact (2002)

Status: Changed: from: “couldn’t sell because of price” to
            Sold to YorkPRT including control software. See workingSolutions page.

 

System 21   http://www.futrexinc.com/

2 Cars on 1 Beam suspended transit

Futrex Inc. Charleston SC and large consortium including
large research companies and Swiss company.

Status: $6.2M US Government grant + negotiations to install within 6 months in untold site.  Price approximately $40M/mile or a bit less.  

 

CabinTaxi  http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/cabin.htm

First PRT in the world (only tested never deployed)

Inventor: Messerschmitt-Bulkow-Blohm and Demag

Status: Renewed efforts in Massachusetts with the PRT2000 (above)

 

 

Flyway http://www.swedetrack.com

The Swedish “Beamway” Elevated (suspended) transit.

Remarks:       Read the site in a Swedish accent
so you forgive them for the English misstakes.

The site has many interesting concepts. In particular the lowering of  cars at stops. (This is similar to Moshe Flam’s proposal), and detailed descriptions of control algorithms and physical challenges.

Status: Idea

 

More of the Same Old PRTs

 

 

JPODS http://www.intelligenttransportation.com ,

They wont tell where they are from, or any other info.

Another of the same: electric PRT. Nice videos etc.

Status: concept only.

 

OTG http://www.otg-inc.com/MainFrame.html, Birmingham Alabama

Engineers who know how to make an elevated minibus.

Status: none

 

CULOR http://www.lycoming.edu/dept/art/bogle/culor.html  
Inventor: John Bogle, Williamsport, PA

Nothing new here. Electric suspended car.

Status: Concept only.

 

 

 

Powerskip

Boots that help you jump.

            Fantastic movies (click the gallery section)

http://www.powerskip.com 

 

For more about Hopping machines and shoes see http://www.kangoojumps.com and

Bojo pogo stick: http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20010528bowgohealth2.asp

Motor boots:   http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/20010528bowgosidehealth9.asp

Yobotics RoboWalker:  http://www.yobotics.com      (Idea proposed publicly on web by Moshe Flam in 1996)

And for a list of clunky machines: http://www.geocities.com/rcgilmore3/WalkingMachines.htm

  Airobike says: get above it all… http://www.geocities.com/alliedaerobiker/index.html

 

           

 

 

 

Last but not least:

 

RoboSaurus http://www.robosaurus.com Inventor unknown. (please see www.skytran.net for theories).
Fast way to advance in congested traffic. (Also solves the problem of too many cars on road).