Transportation System Proposal

Transport system proposal that addresses this country’s most serious problems: the Economy, the Energy crisis, the Environment, and Even the value of the dollar in your pocket.
Fifty-five years ago, when we began looking at future directions for advancing automotive design, the problem was obvious from conditions on freeways in major cities. Our national transportation system of millions of cars, driven independently over ever- proliferating multilane roads was ultimately going to clog traffic arteries and lead to the inevitable total traffic tie-up; nation-wide gridlock. This foresight was even more accurate than transportation designers conceived a half century ago, and combined with oil and economic crises, unforeseen by those designers, portends far greater urgency today, than could have been imagined back in those days when gasoline sold for fifteen to twenty cents a gallon!
Most mass transit system concepts do not include independently operated automobiles, and many openly predict the ultimate demise of cars as serious transportation. Most American citizens have deeply felt love affairs with their cars, and find such change hard, if not impossible, to support. We love driving far too much to accept the idea of independently operated cars being doomed to extinction. Thus motivated, we have pursued ideas to preserve the independence of American motorists. Every time proponents of mass transit propose conveyances for hundreds of people, car-enthusiasts bristle. Most mass transit concepts not only take people out of cars, but take away one of America’s most prized freedoms: to get in your car to go where you want to go, when you want to go!
The proposed system we have developed, conceived years ago, embodies serious and realistic solutions to our country’s most complex dilemmas. Implementing this system today would create thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands of jobs across the entire country, eliminate most highway truck traffic, greatly reduce shipping costs, thereby stimulating the economy by reducing retail cost of most consumer goods, while preventing a great number of serious highway accidents, significantly curtail vehicle pollution by ending the use of fossil fuels for cross country travel, and substantially lower the cost of long distance motoring and greatly increase the efficiency and time consumed in highway travel!
By converting the fast lane of every interstate to a “power channel” that becomes the ‘road’ for an aerodynamic, cocoon, or pod, into which containerized freight, or loaded tractor-trailer rig, or multiple cars, are parked, then pods are moved at high speeds (up to about 200 mph,) and docked at preprogrammed exit and entry terminals, without stopping or slowing the speed of other pods, all by a coordinated control network. The pods would be virtually maintenance free, rather than wheels, riding on electrically powered magnetic field support, propelled by an electric motor, components of which are within the channel road, with inter-acting components in the base of the pod, with the powering electrical energy generated by solar panels and wind generators erected along the highway route. Once the generating systems are installed, the energy is GREEN, and virtually free, as maintenance is covered by user tolls at rates lower than oil prices make independent driving / mileage costs.
While traversing the country, professional drivers and motorists would be free to perform work, play, eat or enjoy the scenery while sitting in their car, van, or lounge area within the pod, equipped with rest facilities, food services, etc… for a reasonable toll based upon miles traveled, as any toll road, collected at terminals. This is not theoretical. It is existing-state-of-the art technology, and a serious proposal, its description only slightly condensed for this exposure. This concept not only addresses the problems of our outmoded transportation system, but also makes a gargantuan contribution to our country’s much needed economic recovery, paving the way for future car enthusiasts to continue driving their cars.
ADVANTAGES: 1-Creates thousands of jobs across the entire country. 2-Reduces oil consumption sufficiently to free U.S. from imported oil. 3-Improves environment; greatly reducing pollution. 4-Reduces transport cost, thereby stimulating the economy, retail consumer goods prices could be significantly reduced. 5-Saves four hundred thirty nine billion dollars by highway accident prevention, (see attached study). 6-Provides trucking industry with much higher capacity for shipping more goods faster at the same, or lower rates. 7-Provides new green energy generating sources to be incorporated into the developing national energy grid. 8- Saves from 30,000 to 40,000 lives from fatal traffic accidents.