Collective
Vehicles
Current
"mass" transportation system designers assume
that moving large numbers of people anywhere and
everywhere around a city efficiently REQUIRES moving large
groups of commuters together in large vehicles
such
as trains or light rail trolleys and then shuttling them
to other large collective vehicles (i.e. buses).
This is
what these designers call an "Intermodal Mass
Transportation System". It involves time
wasting transfers; it is a slow way to travel; and its
costs are excessive.
In
light of automation and control technologies now
available, it becomes quite apparent that current train,
light rail and bus Intermodal Mass Transportation System
technologies have become obsolete. The
only reason in the past for using large group mass
transit vehicles was to amortize the wages of drivers
over many fare-paying passengers. The modern, ever
more powerful computer has come down in costs so much
that fast, safe, personalized travel is now
possible.
Personal
Vehicles
Automobiles
are a far more desirable model for moving people than
any Intermodal Mass Transportation System.
"Mass" transportation systems need to emulate
or improve upon the efficient, fast, private,
point-to-point transportation (without transfers) made
possible by automobiles. Can this goal be
achieved? Can we eliminate congestion? Can
it be accomplished for reasonable or low costs?
SkyTran says YES!
The modern high powered, low cost computer allows us to
now afford a personal automated driver for each and
every every individual. No longer does the cost of
a human driver have to be amortized by many riders in a
large group sized vehicle.
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