| General Transit Hallitube Initiative, Pat. pending San Diego, CA. Contact Principal to schedule interviews only: Contact V.Staff for issues not clarified by the Questions link on the website: Press Release June , 2005 San Diego Attorney proposes Hallitubes a novel user-skill-based mass transit system at 15% of lightrail cost along with other measures to reduce traffic congestion. Synopsis: 1) System to reduce highway traffic by 30%, sufficient to remove gridlock 2)Via elevated tracks fitting below highway overpasses without disturbing traffic, a feature lacking in lightrail or other PRT systems 3)Patented by Greg Maizlish, public interest attorney 4) Other provisions of referendum: Funding for new technology to a) cut short police chases, b) yielding lights for cars c) accident shielding mandatory d) car top camera incentives e) new types of passenger overpasses, f) microflyovers for sedans only to prevent mall congestion, g) Mall parking lot occupancy "spot-a-lot" LED panels to prevent needless cruising in lots. h) development of portable devices to ease handicapped entry into standard vehicles, e) Contact: Media relations for images, FAQs, stories, cartoons. See phone number on your fax. Hallitubes, a new private, high-speed-transit system have highway underpass compatibility, therefore not requiring expensive tall structures taking decades to build.. Riders control their own carts which run inside a tube ending not in stations but in commercial "endpoints", which are apartment, mall or corporate suites. Exit congestion is prevented via a patented carpet/rail conveyor interfaces dispersing carts. The small diameter of the tube is achieved through recumbent riding. Carts are stored by the rider on arrival by lifting them on their side and affixing them to walls, or handing them to a rider departing in the opposite direction. The minimalist design insures rapid construction. Riders must pass an examination and make a deposit. Financing of the system is part venture capital and part government grants. Access to the existing street/highway system is by governmental concession and general referendum for elevated tubes on private streets. Speeds are up to 120 MPH on highways. Up to 4 tubes can fit through modern highway over passes, one tube fits under the narrow older ones. The system was invented and patented by San Diego Attorney Greg Maizlish, and the supporting web site and engineering development is based on a grass-roots volunteer effort. Most frequent questions: 1) Won't you have a big congestion at switches/ exits ? No, you don't get heavy congestion at the El Toro (S.California) immigration checkpoint on 5 either, although all cars come to a stop. A brief stop does not cause a breaking wave to travel backwards in a queue for more than a few hundred yards. At endpoints, where the system transfers from rail to carpet, a conveyor belt rapidly moves carts sideways and spreads them out, preventing congestion and maintaining high arrival rate. A given tube has fewer exits than the corresponding highway, but multiple tubes run along the highway. You chose your tube in advance based on the exit you are planning to take. Typically, a 17 mile tube will only have 3-4 exits, and a morning rider population of about 350 carts at one time, providing huge separation between the carts, and only very brief waits at intersections. Four tubes run in one direction. 2) Public transit has never worked in the US, why should it work here ? Reluctance to use US public transit is due to fear of being locked in with homeless, mentally unstable, odor-emitting, or criminal characters in a dirty environment involving unpredictable waiting. Riders in this private system are middle class individuals which have passed a course, club members, no wait for vehicles. You'd go there for dating. 3) Why would the government support this private club, and make a concession available ? Removing only 30% of cars from a congested highway brings the speed back up to the limit, favoring all riders. Space at side of highway is made available to concessionaires just like a government-owned mountain is leased to a resort operator who installs lifts, equally outside of ADA requirements. 4) With carts rushing in tubes, what if a rider drops an object, or an engine part. Now it rests on the rails or the bottom of the tube and will collide with the cart, won't it ? No, a laser beam is passed through the tube bottom. If an object disrupts it, an alarm for that section sounds, and the approaching rider needs to stop, pick the object up or pass the section slowly. Most dropped objects would not impair cart movement, due to tube depth. Rider compliance and cooperation is built-in. 5) Why would people recline in these carts ? People will pay much more for an airplane ticket where they can recline than for one where they have to sit up. Trips are brief. 35 -40 minute commutes take only 9-12 minutes. 6) Could a collision of a truck with a pylon crack open the tube so that a massive accident happens and carts derail and collide ? No, because the pylons are surrounded by a heavy concrete base. In addition, the pylons are C-shaped and bend back from the highways so as to be out of reach of the upper parts of a colliding truck, at least until its speed is broken by the base. 7) What happens if a cart derails ? The cart rides with a low center of gravity, the wheels are higher on the cart than shown in the visualizations and grab the rails, almost like roller coaster carts. Each cart has 6-8 wheels, and turns are gentle. It will be demonstrated that rider weight shifting, even if accentuating centrifugal force cannot cause derailing. Cart contact is intended and will not cause derailing either. In emergencies, riders can open the tube and escape. 8) Isn't this all illegal because the handicapped cannot operate it ? The handicapped benefit from the system because their vans face less delays in traffic. The ADA is very specific on what type of systems must provide handicapped access, this is not one. A motorcycle, ski lift or hanglider manufacturer cannot make their vehicles handicapped compatible either. High agility by the user is required and the system is thus inherently handicap incompatible. The courts have recently frowned on lawsuits where unreasonable demands are made on businesses. 9 ) Hard to believe that this will be built. Can other technologies not fix congestion. ? Congestion cuts economic productivity, separates parents from children and discourages foreign scientist from mirating here, threatening our leadership position in the world. There is no consumer-affordable air car on the horizon, subways cost trillions and require decades to build. New light track costs 43 million (sic) dollars per mile in S.California, and competing schemes, such as the gondola system recently profiled in the L.A. Times magazine are not overpass compatible, requiring a continuous four-to-five-story structure along highways, not viable for a large scale system, with massive pylons required and endless construction time due to high-altitude operations, and high-risk to riders in emergencies. To increase leisure spending, more TIME needs to be available to the consumer, who is now spending 25 days a year in traffic. Only a severe recession, or a dual-gender, large scale military draft would obviate the need for hallitubes . Informal polls we conduct with commuters indicate that even middle-aged women would be delighted to ride in tubes. Finally, oil prices will continue to climb, making an electric system such as this one inevitable. 10) Why is this news, there are lots of ideas floating around ? For the first time in the nation's history, alterations of the transit system will be made based on a voter initiative. The government has failed. Universities have failed,. Expensive while elephant projects abound. We hve no time. We need a supplemental, light electric system both to relief highways while oil is cheap, and as a replacement for commuting transport under very high oil prices. |