SkyTran - Enhanced Safety

SkyTran - Enhanced Safety
The same day, Len Stobar made a brilliant observation. No longer were acceleration and deceleration with this mini MagLev vehicle limited by the traction coefficient of friction between tires and asphalt. This had tremendous safety implications. How many people in cars have died over the past decades because no matter how hard they hit their brakes in an emergency they still ended up obeying the laws of friction physics and slid far too hard into other objects? Our subsequent research showed that properly belted in humans could easily take 6-g decelerations. In fact, for years, people at amusement parks were happy to pay to be subjected to 6 to 8-g's for their enjoyment! 6-g's became our advertised standard.

This meant that in an emergency our vehicle could decelerate from 100 mph to 0 mph in a mere 56 feet in just .76 second, whereas the typical car would take 668 feet and 9.1 seconds to stop from the same speed. Big trains were a joke because they limited deceleration levels to 1/8th g on purpose because they had passengers walking around in the aisles to consider. Apparently, people outside walking or in cars that inadvertently found themselves in the way of a train were not a design consideration. The typical train would take 2,670 feet and 36.4 seconds to stop from 100 mph. Our mini vehicles had no room for aisles - end of problem.

DECELERATION LEVEL IN g's	VEHICLE TYPE	CONDITION	DISTANCE TO A COMPLETE STOP FROM 100 MPH	TIME TO STOP FROM 100 MPH
.125 g (1/8th g)	TRAINS	People Standing in Aisles	2,670 feet (1/2 mile!)	36.4 seconds
0.4 g's	CARS	Normal Hard Braking	835 feet	11.4 seconds
0.7 g's	"	Skilled Hard Braking	477 feet	6.50 seconds
1.0 g's	"	Clean Dry Road, Best Tires	333 feet	4.55 seconds
6.0 g's *	SkyTran	Grips Track	55.6 feet	.759 seconds
15.0 g's	ZERO INJURY SAFETY THRESHOLDS**	Seatbelt Only	22.2 feet	.303 seconds
25.0 g's	"	Full Torso restraint	13.3 feet	.182 seconds
60.0 g's	"	Air Bag + Full Torso Restraint	5.5 feet	.075 seconds