Gone but, not completely forgotten

Here's one of the forgotten stories about CA's fantasy train. Here's the most recent LA Times article about the project not having enough money to be completed.

The political ideologue pushing her personal financial gain at the terribly heavy cost of taxpayers is no longer living. This invalid project no longer has the political strength to survive. The $25billion will be gone by the time the infrastructure is laid between Madera and Shafter. Not even enough money for the pointless stretch from Bakersfield to Merced.

leaning towards the future

 Hi again. Since it's the middle of December 2022, looks like time for another post. Lots has happened over the past year and excitement is in the air. 

This took a year and a half to get up and going: cattcc.org  This a membership organization, a part of the Ameliorate Group. It's a think tank to discover and develop sustainable transportation. 

Here's another site that is brand-new: gravitycentral.space . This is a different. It's just a sort of share site which draws attention to a new realm of science.

Both sites are relevant to sustainable transportation and the future of transportation. 

time flies

Finally getting back here to the blog.  It's been a couple years since a post.  Many things have transpired over the past couple years.  The biggest news is there is a new book, soon to be published: "Rising From Unsustainable, Replacing Automobiles and Rockets"

As soon as it is available on Amazon, there will be a link here.  It will be available first as an ebook and then the print copies. 

The first four chapters cover sustainable urban growth.  The last three chapters present an avenue to pursue for a new mode in transportation.  This new mode for transportation involves exploration into the study of theoretical physics.  Gravity is the most abundant force in the universe, it demands consideration as a source of motion for transportation. 

With the book is a new website which has a comments section from the: Ameliorate Group

Update Clarification

A new article today March 3, 2019 from the LA Times hosts an excellent explanation to the CA governor and his halting work to the CA high speed rail project.  This post is short because the linked article is worth the read.

Update to CA's HSR

The CA HSR hit the news again.  Mr. Brown is no longer governor and the new guy isn't a fan of Jerry's misaligned train.  In the State of the State, the newly elected governor announced the fantasy train isn't realistic.  A couple days later the new governor back pedaled his announcement: Sacramento Bee, February 18, 2019 .  He now says high speed rail is still viable, just different.

For all the people who read this hidden blog, here is an industry insider's observation: there are two technologies working to get the new governor's acceptance.  The mystery is why these two refuse to work together for a win-win-win project that benefits everyone.  An optimist says they can.  

unrelated

There was something mentioned somewhere recently that is very profound.  It has to do with Superman.  The level of intelligence and perception by journalists is exemplified by the reporters of The Daily Planet.  For all the years that Superman was employed by The Daily Planet; his disguise was his glasses.  His companions were the sharpest reporters for one of the most prestigious newspapers in the business. 

Misled Persuit

Last week China rolled off a second generation low-speed maglev vehicle set.  This is a replacement to traditional light-rail transit system technology that no other country in the world is willing to invest in. 

Other countries focus spending on political security and social programs like welfare increase.  Government supported science and technological advance are secondary to the importance of political interests.  NASA's space program in the US has been overtaken by the private sector whose recent satellite launches have reduced expense by 60%.  This serves as an example to the wasted efforts of bloated bureaucracy. 

The automobile culture, as the foundation of Western society; does not lend intent to exploration of replacement investment.  Google and other cash rich organizations explore a dream of driverless cars to flood freeways and create a proliferation of gadget commodities that can generate future profit.  The importance of government support to maglev transportation efficiency has been ignored by the will of political power.

And China is building its fifth maglev transit system.

The Persistent Deception

According to The LA Times, the consistency of CA' s high speed rail follows its steady path of what is known in the advertising industry as a "bait and switch".  At the beginning of his governorship Jerry Brown declared lower HSR costs just because he said so.  He launched a shovel in the dirt to initiate the charade of implementing a barrage of increased CA tax dollars; Jerry Brown is a prevaricator.  While everyone with any knowledge of CA's proposed HSR is aware that its expected costs will exceed $210billion, supporting politicians know that figure might frighten taxable citizens.  So, honesty is rejected but, deception and ignorance are used in marketing techniques to continue CA's effort to maneuver the fantasy juggernaut into forced existence.

Nonetheless, there are people in the private sector seeking opportunity.  It is the nature of mankind to seek advance.  The effort in politicians seeks self advancement through authoritative control.  The greater good to cultural advancement is found in sharing intellectual and technological achievement.  Advances in transportation are vital to environmental, economic, social and intellectual growth.  How then, does building an antiquated 150 year old transportation technology profit gain to modern society?  Only those associated to engaged political policy are profited in CA's corrupt procedure.

Industry innovators supply technological advance in transportation.  Regardless of political prevarications, nature eliminates that which is unusable.  Political factions divide a body into a weak voice that disappears.  Innovators find enthusiasm and excitement with purpose to advance.   

Invention

Transportation in the 1800s made dramatic changes through the power of innovative competition.  Today's competition has been narrowed by corporate might.  A half dozen global corporations dominate automobile manufacturing and Siemens dominates everything else in transportation.  Throw in a handful of government contractors via politically owned transportation and engineering consultant companies and control to maintain government status-quo has robbed everyone else's quest to advance.

It is a declared right of every American to pursue happiness, which is described as having prosperity and well being.  Throughout the 1900s we were promised flying cars, moon colonies and space travel.  This requires the ability to travel beyond the limitation of automobiles.  Either society was lied to or mankind's advance was stolen.

Our intellect has produced the capability of efficient maglev technology.  Where are these maglev systems being implemented?  Communist China is now building its fifth maglev transit system.

And where is America in its land of technological advances with Silicon Valley?  Freeway traffic jams and rebuilding a 100 yr old antique

In a word: "disgraceful".  "Embarrassing" or "idiotic" would be appropriate.  Antique trolley cars and buses as a statement of how lost the US is in its transportation advances is a horrible thing to say.

Innovation is a necessity for cultural progress.

To the enlightened innovators, progress is fun and exciting.  Innovation creates energy with an environment that seeks answers.  Government regulates mundane routine but, opposes the exercise of creative strength.

Here is a link to an organization who understands: Davos 2018

The US has to develop innovative implementation in transportation and create new infrastructure.  Transportation is urban growth and economic stability.

Innovations

In the industry of modern transportation a void has occured that eliminated progress.  Effectively, China and Elon Musk are the new leaders.

The stale stinch of thoughtless corpse activity instructs the minds for government training as the political machine serves to avarice its elite.  The decay from corruption disolves America's infrastructure.  As with insight from a speechless statue, a statement of philosophical perspective changes nothing.

Meanwhile, the few with an ability to see and enact change, perceive progression to mankind's growth.  Where are human's going?  Everyday, Earth spins another rotation and a new day appears. To this; Urban Growth is a phenomenally important topic.  Using a completely unsustainable component as its foundation to automobile centric land-use design, Western Society commits socitial suidide.

To see into the future one must have vision.  All planners need vision.  Everyone involved in growth need vision.  Politics and government lack vision.

Rule Number One in public transportation: it looses money.

Enter the innovators.  Today's post: Virgin Hyperloop One

Boring News

In an important news piece: Los Angeles Daily News, November 21, 2017, the article describes work being done by The Boring Company in LA.  This is such a huge undertaking and is completely ignored by everyone.

What is going on?  The article highlights activity from Elon Musk's tunnel company.  Two miles have been dug since August.  The article is vague in describing what is at play.  This means speculation is necessary.

In related activity, this action from The Boring Company should be compared to the actions of the government with the giant money waste in Central California.  The friends of political powers are receiving $hundreds of millions while Musk has invested his own money in equipment, manpower, and permits.  The more significant comparison is that the government project spends huge sums of money and brings no transportation solutions.

Musk's tunneling provides the only modern day solution to transportation infrastructure.  Whether the results of The Boring Company's work are acquired by HyperLoop or another new technology transit system, this infrastructure is instrumental in the birth to implement the future of transportation.  

Dirty Air

When things sometimes don't seem to make a lot of sense, one looks for solutions.  Scanning the headlines this morning shows a plague of disaster.  Wild fires exploding with tretcherous violence.  Meanwhile, in the State Capital; legislators declare finacial disaster onto it's citizens.  Amazing how the bad air generated from natural disasters is used as a claim that the darkened skys are a product of mankind's efforts.  Another marketing lie in the process of corrupt political practice.

Public Transit

The US has become a technological embarrassment in the world of transit.  As science teaches that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, financially; man's greed in the political realm lines the pockets of the politically connected at the cost of stealing from its citizens.  

Twenty years ago China was a relatively poor country.  Corporate profiteering enabled the Chinese economy to increase.  This post a commentary to transportation, not an epithet to business.  The intent of the post is to make the accusation towards US politicians of stealing progress and success from citizens they represent.  

The latest in world news places China far beyond other countries, especially the USA; in modern public transportation.  In the 1960s, two physicists were awarded grants for magnetically levitated (maglev) transit vehicles.  Although the technology has grown to its fourth generation, only Japan is utilizing this technology, adapting the 2nd generation into building the world's fastest train.  

While California had the opportunity to utilize the 300mph German maglev train technology, the engaged political figures opted for the 200mph European heavy steel wheel train due to their personally lucrative financial benefits.  Meanwhile, China opted to grant the German maglev technology opportunity and allowed the first high speed maglev train its public operation; opening the 19 mile line in 2004.  

Since China's move to advances in public transit, it now hosts its own maglev technology, and this technology is growing:  chinadaily.com.2017-03/01

The status-quo of corrupt politicians is detrimental to its citizenry. 

It's 2017, the future is already here

It's already close to the end of the second month of 2017.  Where are the flying cars and cities in space?  In the 1950's, the future was promised to be futuristic.  Somebody lied.  

Instead of a prosperous world of robot assisted convenient advances, we find ourselves caught in a trap we weren't even aware of.  The automobile caused its car culture to be completely dependent upon it.  There is an inherent problem to a civilization who's foundation is wholly unsustainable.  The design of all urban growth has been captured and suppressed by the automobile.  Dependence to the automobile in every aspect of its culture has halted transportation expansion.  Magnetically levitated personal transportation devices are no more closer to development than they were 70 years ago.  Phones, television, computerization and other technologies have made significant advances over the past few decades but, the automobile is only safer to drive.  Age and increased use wears a heavy toll to the deterioration of roadways.  

It's time to expand transportation into the future and go beyond the unsustainable limitations of the automobile.     

New US Transportation Secretary

'Let's go with promoting the status-quo' would seem to be the new administration's slogan for the upcoming Secretary of Transportation (Elaine Chao is transportation pick).  There is a tremendous lack of vision in establishment politics but, lots of room for the tradition of useless politically motivated pork barrel projects.  What tragedy will be burdened on the American public with more vision-less politicians adhering to political enrichment?  It is a sad and tragic step for the head of US Transportation to be one embraced in political corruption instead of holding a vision to know the economic value of efficient transportation.

One has to follow and participate in the advanced transit industry to understand the industry.  Maglev technology is a necessary part of successful US transportation.  Automobile centric land-use design is un-sustainable, repairing America's road infrastructure is as useless as a band-aid to repair a broken neck.

On a positive note: a seed has to die for it to transition into a living plant.  The US transportation infrastructure is on its death bed.  Perhaps this political appointment will result in the final death blow to the US transportation infrastructure and the result will be a new life to efficient growth with modern transportation technology.

High Speed Rail Curious

To the proclaimed cost of $68billion as the price tag for California's escapade into the past with the proposed 200 year old transportation technology, its promoters are still clueless on how to attain the money for it.  With the change of political regimes, who will now support CA's proposed HSR?  If there was a lack of $40billion and a vision to have the government pay the first $18billion, what is to happen now that the $18billion is soon going to disappear?   Dan Walters has an enlightened view with his article in The Sacramento Bee .

The Toll of Sprawl

A recent article posted at cnu.org/publicsquare raises questions about mankind's evolving intelligence in regards to transportation.

The leading cause of death in the US (according to the CDC)  is heart disease, followed by cancer, then chronic lower respiratory disease, with the fourth leading cause of death as unintentional injuries.  Of the 136,000 accident deaths in 2015, 38,000 were by the automobile (Newsweek) .

This raises a question.  As mankind population expands, has it always been normal for mankind to die as a result of the mode of transportation?  When the only form of travel was walking, was it normal to trip and fall, killing the traveler?  Then, as animals were used as a common mode of transportation, was it common for people to fall off the animals to their death?  

The question expands: is it common and acceptable for transportation to cause death?  Has transportation always been a common source of death?  Why then are train deaths and airplane deaths as a percentage of miles traveled so much less than the automobile?  

The conclusion of the unanswered questions is that the presumption shows more examples of the automobile being unsustainable.  In a related study, financial aspects to automobile wrecks were found by the NHTSA in 2014 to show an annual economic loss of $836 billion.  

A society based on an unsustainable foundation will collapse.    Philosophically, in a realistic way; the nature of growth is to expand.  The course of automobile politics has stifled advances in transportation innovation.  The automobile centric land-use design is unsustainable environmentally, economically and socially.  This political procedure has to end for mankind to grow.  It is the nature of man to grow and explore.  Confinement harbors restriction and control which is the nature of slavery.  

It Is Time For Innovation

In a recent transportation newsletter this statement was made: “The Hudson Valley is a centrally located region with abundant fresh water that could absorb millions of new urban residents. By 20th century thinking, this would mean more highways and parking lots to accommodate auto-dependent living. Nobody wants major urban growth. People prefer green valleys and hills with low-density development. So Cuomo’s staff aren’t even thinking about this, let alone devoting planning resources to an APM-centered future.”  Since; “Nobody wants major urban growth. People prefer green valleys and hills with low-density development” how can this type of urban growth continue?  The statement that followed “Nobody wants major urban growth” proves a very problematic conclusion that government planning staffs are doing the opposite.  How is this legitimized?  In the world of government, politic's campaign contributors are considered the players and receive favors for their contributions.  These favors are free deeded properties, grants and zero interest loans. 

California legislators have drawn attention to their environmentally strict policies while the status-quo of deteriorating infrastructure is a malignant cancer.   Rather than purifying the quality of the State’s well-being, it has caused a malicious growth of financial favoritism which diminishes its citizen health.  Under Governor Reagan the CA EPA was established to provide protection to the environment.  All public jobs are now required to adhere to a EIS (Environmental Impact Study) with a maximum 300-page report (EIR, Environmental Impact Report).  The politicians have twisted the significance of this report to make the inclusion that if the project is unable to comply with environmental requirements, due to a myriad of reasons, then it doesn’t have to comply, upon the approval of the project’s governing body.

As an example; CA HSR project spent over $800-million to produce a useless and incomplete 12,000 page EIR.  The project was ruled by Jerry Brown to be exempt from CA environmental rules and regulations.  His friend and husband of CA’s Senator is the largest single shareholder of the firm that held the EIS contract.

The travesty is damage done to the decaying infrastructure.  Automobiles are fundamental to urban growth in the automobile centric design.  Within the government planning agencies there is a self- gratifying term used called: “Smart Growth”.  Lipstick on a pig.  When planners use this term they consider themselves smart.

    

Outside the spheres of the government’s malignant tumors is a tool called innovation.  It is time for a revolution in thought, creativity and fairness.  First task: modern transportation.

Time To Grow Out of the Car

As a society, we are at the point to grow beyond reliance upon the automobile as our single source of transportation.

To see what is ahead, there is a need to find where we are.  In the study of discovering where we are; comes an identification to the term: Car Culture.  Specific to that: the automobile is wholly unsustainable.  To build a society upon an unsustainable foundation predicts its outcome.

 

This picture illustrates that our automobile centric design provides for automobiles but, lacks the human component:

http://debily.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/dallas-highway-interchange.jpgpicture

A road intense urban land-use design removes the social component for human interaction.  How much time does it take to walk across intersections like this?  Freeways are built for cars, not people.

       

LA set a bad precedent; the automobile centric land-use design isn’t designed for people. How many homes have been destroyed to build freeways?  How many neighborhoods have been shredded to build freeways throughout the country?

The automobile requires a land-use design mechanism of maintenance intensive roadways.  Land-use required for the automobile transportation system demands large quantities of vehicle area use which eliminates huge sections of land for any other use.  This transportation system is terribly designed due to its unsustainable land-use consumption, heavy economic burden, and negative social impacts.

When a person walks, the energy consumed is calories burned from food eaten.  For an automobile to carry a 200-pound load, this transportation system requires massive structures of roads and a 3,000-pound vehicle.  From a practical application of physics this is inefficient.

Of the argument that automobiles are used by people, the automobile centric land-use design in urban growth is a design strictly to accommodate the automobile.  The automobile that a licensed driver operates is not a single source transportation device.  It follows a specific design provided by the automobile centric urban land-use design.  This form of development is completely arbitrary with a Hodge-podge dysfunction whose sole purpose is set by individual land developers who seek profit in real estate.  More than conjecture, this is a statement of the way things are.

   

To the point again; we of this society have reached the point in our development to grow into the next step of transportation.

There are many new transportation alternatives, predominantly transportation systems in the category of PRT (personal rapid transit) show the most promise to meet society’s demands. 

All urban transportation plans require planning.  It is imperative for the government planning agencies to turn from their focus on the closed sighted demands of politicians and welcome alternative transportation sources beyond the automobile transportation system. 

Land Use

On the subject of land-use, this author in his search for relevance on the topic is dumbfounded by lack of interest from people.  Even the know-it-alls have no interest in a discussion about land-use of urban growth.  How is such a serious subject reduced to such a terrible state of ignorance?  The general look on a person's face is "Why are you talking about this or, this is beyond my perspective." There are those who listen with intense ears, never having heard such conversation; others slide into a mire of slumber.

Of the philosophical stance. observation is truth; majority stand not always maintaining factual reality.  Strength also not always allowing the reality of facts to stand as truth.

How does this relate to land-use?  The fact that automobiles are not sustainable and our car-culture is based on this unsustainable foundation.  This fact is problematic.