Your throughput seems to be flawed. The number of cars you have specified for the speed (120 mph) and time (1 hr) comes out to be 40 ft per car. Since the spacing between cars is 40 ft this calculation assumes that the cars that are going through a given point in an hour have no length….
Adam, You are correct, the throughput was determined by number of vehicles passing a point at 40 foot intervals. Bimodal vehicles can vary in size from approximately 10 to 17 feet. All dimensions are rough estimates until a complete systems engineering/analysis is performed relating cost, functionality, benefit, needs, etc. For estimating purposes, each vehicle operates within the 40 feet allocated. This spacing allows for continuous entrance, exit for multiple vehicles at the same ramp with splitting ramps after wards.
If Google x car senses a pending collision with a maned vehicle it may be too late to prevent it. Grade separations may be required. BiModal Glideways ?
You are a competitor to my system.Get off the web! LOL
Seriously, I love what you have done. My approach is a little different but we both see what really needs to be done. Check my TEV system out at http://www.TEVproject.com. I think you will like it too.
My approach is to make the development an open source project. In other words,I don’t need to make any money;I just want to to see the present crappy hodge-podge of road and rail systems improved.
I would like to link your site (and others) to mine. Is that OK with you? It will get you some traffic.
My best wishes to you
Will Jones
Google cars are perfectly compatible with this system. But note that the Google car concept is limited to slower speeds and city/suburban driving – the Smart City concept. But optical recognition doesn’t work in fog, for example, so there are limits to the Google car. . This system is designed for high speed, long distance travel so it is both different and compatible. Let’s have both!
Will,
Your approach looks great–clearly there are lots of similarities with the two systems–and we’d be happy to have share site links. The biggest challenge to all these dualmode solutions is generating public interest, so the more we work together toward that end, the better.
Best,
Chris
We’ll answer your questions as best we currently can. Our knowledge is limited by the fact that additional studies are required to arrive to definitive answers.
Price range estimates:
Glideway: most estimates put the cost at $10-15M per mile, excluding right-of-ways, which would mostly be on existing freeways. Entry/exit stations would run $20-100M depending upon the location and size.
Cars: we estimate the costs would be in the range of current hybrids, maybe a little higher at first. We suspect most people would opt for an all-electric version since the battery would be recharging the entire time the car is on the Glideway.
Buses: again, like the cost of a premium electric bus, though BMG busses would probably be smaller than current city busses.
The Glideway would have to paid for by the government, probably a mixture of Federal, State, and local entities. The government would also support the establishment of bus systems to make sure the infrastructure could be used by all, including those who never buy a car.
Cars would be individually purchased, as they are now. We also anticipate a large rental market, for people who just want to use a BMG car on certain occasions.
We think first routes would be established along the busiest commuter corridors running above current freeways. Later, we see routes extending between cities (for example, Boston to New York) to enable longer trips.
In our research, there are no significant technical hurdles, though much detailed engineering remains to be done. The challenge of getting a project like this developed is that it would require a visionary partnership of government and private enterprise. Nevertheless, we remain convinced that some sort of dual-mode solution will eventually be adopted, whether it’s BMG or dedicated lanes for linked self-driving cars. It’s only a matter of time.
Thank you so much! This helps a lot and this could potentially be a very strong future infrastructure, beneficial not only to the economy but the environment as well. Thank you for responding, I know I constantly pestered you for answers
We already are struggling to maintain our existing infrastructure, most of which is at-grade, and you’d like to have us invest in duplicating a lot of it, now on structure?
Self driving cars do not need the segregation your model advocates to acheive operating efficiencies that could get us out of “congestion”. Car sharing, further will significantly reduce vehicle populations.
As a professional transportation engineer of 22 years who has planned, designed, and built a lot of stuff, we should not go here. This is a lot of $$$s for marginal benefits to a few (’cause if everybody on the pictured highway adjacent was on it, it’s be just as systematically clogged – think absorption at off ramps, the bain of existing freeways).
Wishful thinking in a financially unconstrained world.
For a decade I’ve been writing and researching a mag lev transportation system. Four of the five problems/objections to the hyperloop have more to do with the pylons rather than actual feasibility. The feasibility is 100%. We have the technology and among other things the need to replace at least continental air travel.
We also have an immediate need to replace our global transportation system.
The mag lev system I envision for normal traffic, autos and freight, is mostly is underground with a 4.5m highspeed twin tube suspended in a larger single 8 to 10m sheltering tube depending on the geology, effecting the results of pylons. In cliff country pylons would be used but for the most part the system is silent and out of sight.
.
We certainly have the need to globally makeover the current transportation system, air pollution is 9 times more toxic than second hand cigarette smoke.
The mag lev system for individual cars works on the same principle as a hyperloop with current speeds of 300kph.
Exits every 20 blocks arriving within 10 blocks of destination reducing gridlock to 0, 0 gridlock increases personal productivity by 10%+, 0 pollution going green with none of the increased cost to consumers.
Even more importantly it will supply the world with what it needs the most, more jobs than workers and all of them green jobs.
There are trillions sitting in cash around the world looking for a secure long term viable investment through derivative financing.
A global university competition for the best design leaves the politics out of it.
I have estimated the cost of a feasibility study by the academia top in the fields required at $500,000.00
I am retired but I will take on the task of delivering a feasibility study to those who have the authority to make it happen, world leaders.
Send me a check, or take up donations because world leaders, the ultra rich or the crowds at the farmers market,,, we are all breathing the same poison.
Great project with a lot of potential!
Hoping Google’s driverless cars could take a look at this tech and try to include it in their future plans.
Your throughput seems to be flawed. The number of cars you have specified for the speed (120 mph) and time (1 hr) comes out to be 40 ft per car. Since the spacing between cars is 40 ft this calculation assumes that the cars that are going through a given point in an hour have no length….
Adam, You are correct, the throughput was determined by number of vehicles passing a point at 40 foot intervals. Bimodal vehicles can vary in size from approximately 10 to 17 feet. All dimensions are rough estimates until a complete systems engineering/analysis is performed relating cost, functionality, benefit, needs, etc. For estimating purposes, each vehicle operates within the 40 feet allocated. This spacing allows for continuous entrance, exit for multiple vehicles at the same ramp with splitting ramps after wards.
If Google x car senses a pending collision with a maned vehicle it may be too late to prevent it. Grade separations may be required. BiModal Glideways ?
Also, I think Google X cars are more along the lines for the future of transportation and they can interact with cars that are not autonomous as well.
You are a competitor to my system.Get off the web! LOL
Seriously, I love what you have done. My approach is a little different but we both see what really needs to be done. Check my TEV system out at http://www.TEVproject.com. I think you will like it too.
My approach is to make the development an open source project. In other words,I don’t need to make any money;I just want to to see the present crappy hodge-podge of road and rail systems improved.
I would like to link your site (and others) to mine. Is that OK with you? It will get you some traffic.
My best wishes to you
Will Jones
Google cars are perfectly compatible with this system. But note that the Google car concept is limited to slower speeds and city/suburban driving – the Smart City concept. But optical recognition doesn’t work in fog, for example, so there are limits to the Google car. . This system is designed for high speed, long distance travel so it is both different and compatible. Let’s have both!
Will,
Your approach looks great–clearly there are lots of similarities with the two systems–and we’d be happy to have share site links. The biggest challenge to all these dualmode solutions is generating public interest, so the more we work together toward that end, the better.
Best,
Chris
How much does your plan cost?
We’ll answer your questions as best we currently can. Our knowledge is limited by the fact that additional studies are required to arrive to definitive answers.
Price range estimates:
Glideway: most estimates put the cost at $10-15M per mile, excluding right-of-ways, which would mostly be on existing freeways. Entry/exit stations would run $20-100M depending upon the location and size.
Cars: we estimate the costs would be in the range of current hybrids, maybe a little higher at first. We suspect most people would opt for an all-electric version since the battery would be recharging the entire time the car is on the Glideway.
Buses: again, like the cost of a premium electric bus, though BMG busses would probably be smaller than current city busses.
The Glideway would have to paid for by the government, probably a mixture of Federal, State, and local entities. The government would also support the establishment of bus systems to make sure the infrastructure could be used by all, including those who never buy a car.
Cars would be individually purchased, as they are now. We also anticipate a large rental market, for people who just want to use a BMG car on certain occasions.
We think first routes would be established along the busiest commuter corridors running above current freeways. Later, we see routes extending between cities (for example, Boston to New York) to enable longer trips.
In our research, there are no significant technical hurdles, though much detailed engineering remains to be done. The challenge of getting a project like this developed is that it would require a visionary partnership of government and private enterprise. Nevertheless, we remain convinced that some sort of dual-mode solution will eventually be adopted, whether it’s BMG or dedicated lanes for linked self-driving cars. It’s only a matter of time.
Thank you so much! This helps a lot and this could potentially be a very strong future infrastructure, beneficial not only to the economy but the environment as well. Thank you for responding, I know I constantly pestered you for answers
This will be the path not taken.
We already are struggling to maintain our existing infrastructure, most of which is at-grade, and you’d like to have us invest in duplicating a lot of it, now on structure?
Self driving cars do not need the segregation your model advocates to acheive operating efficiencies that could get us out of “congestion”. Car sharing, further will significantly reduce vehicle populations.
As a professional transportation engineer of 22 years who has planned, designed, and built a lot of stuff, we should not go here. This is a lot of $$$s for marginal benefits to a few (’cause if everybody on the pictured highway adjacent was on it, it’s be just as systematically clogged – think absorption at off ramps, the bain of existing freeways).
Wishful thinking in a financially unconstrained world.
DanO
Spup to amag lev system.
For a decade I’ve been writing and researching a mag lev transportation system. Four of the five problems/objections to the hyperloop have more to do with the pylons rather than actual feasibility. The feasibility is 100%. We have the technology and among other things the need to replace at least continental air travel.
We also have an immediate need to replace our global transportation system.
The mag lev system I envision for normal traffic, autos and freight, is mostly is underground with a 4.5m highspeed twin tube suspended in a larger single 8 to 10m sheltering tube depending on the geology, effecting the results of pylons. In cliff country pylons would be used but for the most part the system is silent and out of sight.
.
We certainly have the need to globally makeover the current transportation system, air pollution is 9 times more toxic than second hand cigarette smoke.
The mag lev system for individual cars works on the same principle as a hyperloop with current speeds of 300kph.
Exits every 20 blocks arriving within 10 blocks of destination reducing gridlock to 0, 0 gridlock increases personal productivity by 10%+, 0 pollution going green with none of the increased cost to consumers.
Even more importantly it will supply the world with what it needs the most, more jobs than workers and all of them green jobs.
There are trillions sitting in cash around the world looking for a secure long term viable investment through derivative financing.
A global university competition for the best design leaves the politics out of it.
I have estimated the cost of a feasibility study by the academia top in the fields required at $500,000.00
I am retired but I will take on the task of delivering a feasibility study to those who have the authority to make it happen, world leaders.
Send me a check, or take up donations because world leaders, the ultra rich or the crowds at the farmers market,,, we are all breathing the same poison.
Robert Smith
Chilliwack BC
Canada
poppavox@hotmail.com