BiModal Glideway White Paper Download
Thank you for your interest in our BiModal Glideway project!
Below you will find our White Paper on our Dual Mode Transportation System that we believe will solve traffic jams, pollution, and minimize oil dependency. Additional papers and filings will be included below in the near future!
Interesting system. Would be useful to commercial vehicles which cannot enter / pass through cities due to traffic restrictions, especially during the day time.
Normally bypasses are provided but over time due to ribbon development they turn in to another arterial road and a new bypass is required.
This system eliminates the need of a bypass to a bypass.
Thanks, Varadaraj. Yes, we think commercial users will be heavy users of this system.
As I recall, there was some discussion some time ago about the durability and reliability of the small extended wheels that would have to be rotated at very high revolutions for extended periods of time. I wonder if you have any comments about this possible problem?
There are at least two ways to get some action going with the Feds.
One is to get some legislation passed by Congress that directs either the FHWA or the FTA to evaluate your technology and perhaps even build and test some of its components. This can be done with the aid of a friednly congressman by inserting a paragraph or two in a bill.
I can send you an example of this approach if you are interested.
The second way is to get a private company with some clout in Washington, D.C. to lobby the transportation committee of the House to conduct an examination and possible demonstration of your concept. They would, of course, have to get a piece of the pie, should anything be accomplished. And, they would have to do an evaluation of their own before making an effort to try this approach.
Or, they could do it on their own.
A third approach would be to get the Chinese or Koreans or Indians to move the concept forward. There are people who know how to do this. They would probably steal your IP but might just go ahead and develop and demonstrate it – if they could see a vast market for it that is better than thier current focus on high speed rail systems.
I wish this font was a bit darker – it’s very hard to see for those of us with dim eyesight.
We have been researching high velocity wheels used by roller coaster designers. We believe their technology would work well with our system.
Thanks for the suggestions on approaching the Feds. We will persevere in our efforts.
I think what we need is a “division”, “bureau”, or “administration” within the Transportation Department (USDOT) specifically to fund research into innovative transportation systems, of whatever scale, such as Bimodal, Hyperloop, or my own LeviCar (http://www.LeviCar.com) proposals.
I checked with the DOT’s Small-Business Innovative Research Research program (http://www.volpe.dot.gov/sbir/). On the most resent list of research topics (http://www.volpe.dot.gov/sbir/sol13_2/topics.html), there is no mention of any such truly innovative transportation systems. This has to change.
Another suggestion is to fund a program at a real-world-oriented technology university, such as Rensselaer Polytechnic (Troy, NY, my alma mater) or Drexel (Philadelphia, PA) to have students evaluate such innovative ideas, under supervision of faculty, as senior’s or master’s projects.
Sorry but, isn’t is easier to extend/improve something less known in the US called ‘train’? Localizing the locomotive usage is a better way of saving fuel than having different locomotives going to the same destination. I rather felt surprised reading that the white paper that the bullet train cannot be a reality. It is obviously because the train hasn’t be seriously thought about as an option in the US.
I don’t have anything against the concept proposed but my concern is how would you mitigate growing traffic on these special tracks/lines? What you are proposing is an equally failing alternative that might not be a solution to the traffic problem.
Thanks for your question. If a glideway is crowded, no one can enter that glideway until it begins to off load leaving space for more entering vehicles. Glideway traffic does not slow down as traffic on streets does. Vehicles travel at one speed unless all departing traffic is backed up and there are no alternative exits.
Obviously if all exits for hundreds of miles are jammed the system will fail. If a local exit is totally blocked, then that specific exit will not allow any vehicles to leave but will shuttle such traffic to the next available exit. Being dual mode, the diverted traffic can continue to its destination from successive open exits.
The only way an entire glideway can be blocked is if there is a major disaster to the glideway. Even then, if the glideway is blocked with traffic stopped at maximum deceleration but still on the tracks, the rest of the vehicles can still do an emergency evacuation slowly moving back to the nearest ramp still in operation. They can then exit and proceed as a conventional vehicles. It will be very rare when a glideway can be totally blocked, since all traffic can be off loaded rapidly and converted back to a conventional vehicle. BMG has great flexibility. If an entrance is jammed, drive to another entrance — at 15,000 vehicles per hour moving 120 mph, traffic should not take long to clear.
Great idea but the investment in the infrastructure and getting automotive manufacturers / consumers on board to add the re-engineering cost would be enormous hurdles. It will also add thousands of dollars to the cost of the vehicles and federal taxes to build the railway. No trying to ba Debbie Downer…it looks very impressive. Also would need a way to remove broken down vehicles.