New
technology transit is the solution to building sustainable urban growth
Regarding
new technology transit; in the process of disruptive innovation, there is a
tremendous lack of understanding and much prejudges. Many of the people involved in academic and
other bureaucratic agencies wordsmith ‘new’ from status-quo. The fact remains: there is no sustainability
regarding the automobile. It is foolish
to regard automated automobiles or automated bus ticketing as advanced transit
in the sense of referring such technology to sustainable urban growth.
The
innovation of new technology transit; also referred to as advanced transit is
system technology; rather than merely a single type of vehicle. There are two industry categories identifying
vehicle size: PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) and GRT (Group Rapid Transit). New technology transit systems fit into to
the model for environmentally sustainable urban growth by using clean energy
with advanced automated technology. Some
systems deliver the convenience of on-demand and direct to destination transit
capability. If the system technology
isn’t automated it isn’t new or advanced.
Heavy rail train technology stems from the 1800’s, consumes massive
amounts of energy and is not on the advanced transit list. Energy efficient designs require the
versatility of light-weight vehicle size.
System
designs of advanced transit include solar electric generation for power, computerized operation: for increased vehicle frequencies and destination targeting, passenger stress relief of
navigation, with low noise levels. For
public accessibility, existing public Rights-Of-Ways (ROW) can be used to
implement this system technology and maximize a community’s overall economic
productivity by reducing traffic wait times.
To afford increases of heavier ridership new technology transit is
automated to comply with an increase in frequency of vehicle’s headway
(distance between vehicles).
In urban
planning, demand for transportation is proportionate to the population. As populations grow, transportation loads
expand at a proportionally greater rate; there is an enlarged appetite for land
consumption and a density increase of mobility.
By investing in an on-demand transit system, traffic congestion is eased
through the use and application of this advanced technology. By the implementation of new technology transit
in regional urban planning, the increased traffic loads are mitigated.
As the
automobile is wholly unsustainable, even the compositions of its oil base
surface streets are hazardous to ground water.
The massive proliferation of roads, automobiles and parking lots are
ecologically tragic and too costly to continue as a viable resource for
mobility.
Magnetic
levitation (maglev) advanced transit systems provide mobility solutions for
true environmental sustainability. In
part, for efficiency in non-train maglev transit systems are the two
fundamentals: weight and resistance.
In comparing
maglev; automobile technology requires a 3,000 pound vehicle to carry a single
200 pound load. The advanced maglev
technology transit system can carry a 500 pound load propelled by a ¼ horse
electric motor (Lev-X). The efficiency
to advanced transit maglev technology is in its design of lightweight vehicle
systems. Without contact to the ground a
maglev vehicle creates a virtually weightless or maintenance free
efficiency. Resistance caused by the
friction of moving parts in an automobile causes horrendous
inefficiencies. There are no moving
parts on a passive magnetic guideway: the load carrying vehicles are levitated
by the magnetic force of the passive guideway; and therefore not attached as
moving parts.
Maglev
transit technology is sustainable transportation. Sustainable urban growth requires maglev
technology to proliferate. The most
efficient form of transportation is found with passive magnetic guideways. Passive magnetic guideways are a different
technological approach than the methodology used to electrify guideways with
electromagnetism found in train technology systems. Electrified guideway technology seen in the
commercialized Transrapid train system in Shanghai and other train systems
being developed are much more complicated, archaic in system design, culturally
inefficient (time wasted to be taken to inconvenient destinations) and very
costly. The cost of building
non-electrified guideway infrastructure for smaller lightweight vehicles is
substantially more economic. Smaller
vehicle sized, non-train and direct to destination technology is efficient and
sustainable.
New
technology maglev transit technology systems, projects completed or in
development:
*HSST
(Japan)
Rotem
(Korea)
Maglevision
(Philippines)
*Transrapid
(Germany; Shanghai, China)
Autoshuttle
(German)
*Central
Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) (Japan)
*Yamanashi
Maglev Test facility (Japan)
*Maglev
2000; aka: American Maglev Star - AMS (Florida), Magneticglide (Virginia, Danby
and Powell)
American
Maglev (Georgia)
Magnemotion
(M3)(Massachuetts)
*Magplane
Tecnology (Massachusetts)
Fastransit
(NY)
Applied
Levitation (CA)
Urban Maglev
(General Atomics) (San Diego)
Modern
Transport Systems (MTSC) (CA)
Knolle
Magnetrans (CA)
Unimodal,
(CA)
Lev-X (WA)
ET3,
(Colorado)
Zhonghua 6
(China)
Beijing
Enterprises Holding Maglev Technology Development Co. Ltd (China)
*Train technology, non-advanced system
Maglev
systems can be designed to encompass global travel. With no resistance and encapsulated in a
reduced air tube for further reduction of air resistance; one maglev system in
development has computer simulated its travel speed at Mach 6 with an
efficiency rate incomparable to any other form of transportation system (ET3).
High
efficiency in new technology transit systems is found in the agility of vehicle
size, smaller vehicles which weigh less; requiring less intensive
infrastructure. Another ingredient of
non-train new technology transit technology is interactive computerization of
vehicle and track (guideway) switching; which lowers system maintenance, increases safety and efficiency with bypassing unwarranted station stops.
It is
impractical to believe all passengers on a train in our modern society would
have the same destination. As a train
passenger of the 2000s, why should any rider be inconvenienced to constantly
waste their time for every other passenger to board and exit along the route,
then be forced to be taken somewhere other than the door of their destination
and obligated to obtain other means of transportation to and from a passenger
loading station? Trains provided a
marvelous service for society’s transportation needs when train systems began
delivering passengers in the 1800s. In
the early 1900s buses provided lower initial infrastructure costs and yet are
not able to offer convenience of independent travel needs.
A trip
through Wikipedia would lead one to believe that all maglev transit systems are
about trains. Google searches pull up
hundreds of articles written by onlookers who know little about disruptive
transit technology. “Trains of the
future” or “transportation of the future” are the popular misconceived
phrases. Train technology began in the
1830s and the calendar says that was 180 years ago. Train technology reached its peak of
technological triumph in the early 1900s with steam engines. Modern day train technology has progressed
along with the hybrid automobile and yet, trains are a part of the past; not
future.
Western
society has grown and there have been technological advances since 1830. The trains that established Western society
were replaced by the independence that the automobile brought in the early
1900s. Society today has diverse destinations and everyone has their own
schedule. Trains are incapable of
providing this heavy schedule diversification of origination and destination
location that our culture requires.
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