SkyTran - A List of Benefits
From SkyTran Implications Wiki
Below is a list of 26 ADVANTAGES & BENEFITS that the proposed SkyTran PRT (personal rapid transit) system can provide, as compared to cars, buses and trains....
The SkyTran system will be....
1. ATTRACTIVELY DESIGNED --- The SkyTran guideway and support poles, compared to any other elevated rail train systems, will be very narrow and far less visually noticeable, with each widely-spaced support pole using not more than 1' - 2' of ground space. The small, semi-elevated and partially-enclosed SkyTran portals (stations) will all be attractively and environmentally designed, and the aerodynamic SkyTran pod vehicles will also be attractively designed and feature the most advanced exterior and interior design and styling.
2. INTELLIGENTLY DESIGNED --- The SkyTran guideway, support poles and pods will be carefully designed for the convenience and enjoyment of all SkyTran commuters. Every SkyTran portal will have large, all-around windows and provide sun and weather protection, and every SkyTran pod will feature the latest electronics, advanced automatic functions and built-in conveniences. Limiting the pod to two passengers keeps the pod design light and small, allowing the guideways to also be light, and the support poles narrower and more widely-spaced, and thus less visible at street-level.
3. WHEELCHAIR ACCESS READY --- Every SkyTran portal will feature a short handrail stairway and an electric wheelchair elevator. A few special wheelchair pods (with no front seat, and a rear fold-down attendant seat) inside every portal will always be available for anyone in a standard wheelchair to use.
4. AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE --- Unlike the very limited locations of passenger train stations in cities, hundreds of SkyTran portals will be located throughout the city, gradually replacing bus stops and train stations over time, through attrition.
5. ALWAYS AVAILABLE --- Unlike having to wait for a bus or train to arrive according to a schedule, several SkyTran pods will always be ready and available for riders anytime at every SkyTran Portal, saving the commuter valuable personal time.
6. DRIVERLESS and AUTOMATIC --- Unlike cars, buses and trains, the two-person SkyTran pods are computer driven and directed to your selected Destination Portal, with the only persons aboard being you and your companion. No more need of having to drive and navigate a vehicle to work, ever.
7. CONVENIENT and STRESS-FREE --- No more stress of having to drive and navigate through dangerous traffic, wet weather and hazardous road conditions, while carefully avoiding collision with vehicles or pedestrians. The SkyTran pod is computer-driven, while the commuter comfortably relaxes and enjoys the ride.
8. A TRAFFIC-CONGESTION REDUCER --- Even if everyone switched to driving electric cars, the traffic congestion in most cities would only continue to worsen. But the attractive, economical and fun-to-ride SkyTran system will encourage thousands of daily commuters to leave their expensive-to-use personal vehicles at home, greatly reducing the traffic-slowing congestion of roads and freeways for other road vehicles, especially for police, emergency, construction and service vehicles, and thousands of commercial delivery trucks.
9. A LIFE-SAVER of THOUSANDS --- Every year hundreds of drivers and pedestrians are tragically killed and injured by road vehicles because of driver intoxication or loss of vehicle control. But because the computer-controlled SkyTran pods are collision-proof, hundreds of tragic vehicle-related fatalities and injuries will be prevented every year, greatly reducing vehicle insurance costs and expenses for everyone.
10. HIGH-SPEED COMMUTING --- Unlike the few low-speed PRT systems of past and present, The SkyTran pods will safely and comfortably transport commuters at speeds up to 100 mph within the city, and up to 150 mph between cities, saving valuable personal time for SkyTran commuters.
11. NON-STOP COMMUTING --- Unlike cars, which require multiple time-delaying and frustrating stops at stoplights and stop signs, and buses and trains, which require multiple time-delaying stops to take on and let off other passengers, the SkyTran pod automatically proceeds NON-STOP to your selected Destination Portal without ever stopping along your route, saving the SkyTran commuter more valuable personal time.
12. A NO-CASH SYSTEM --- SkyTran commuters will never need to carry cash to pay for a ride. Once seated inside a SkyTran pod, the rider simply waves a (one-day or monthly) SkyTran Pass or a debit card over the small front-mounted touch-panel in the pod, then selects a Destination Portal listed on the panel. The automatic seatbelt and pod door then close and lock, and the pod proceeds out and quickly speeds up onto the main guideway.
13. SECURITY ENHANCED --- The interior of every brightly night-lit SkyTran portal and pod will be video monitored 24/7 by SkyTran Security Centers, with SkyTran security personnel continually patrolling every portal location, ready to immediately respond to any Emergency Assistance Call signal (activated from buttons inside every portal and pod), or any emergency cellphone call. The SkyTran portals will always provide the personal security, lighting and weather-protection for commuters that many unmonitored, unlighted and weather-exposed bus stops do not provide now.
14. TOTALLY SAFE TO RIDE --- Unlike cars, buses and trains, the SkyTran pods are always elevated away from all ground traffic, with every pod automatically kept widely spaced apart in transit, making collisions with other pods impossible.
15. TOTALLY PRIVATE --- Personal PRIVACY is the primary reason why most commuters prefer to regularly use a personal road vehicle, instead of using the often crowded buses and trains, and most commuters also naturally prefer to avoid the frequent coughing, sneezing and odors of other passengers. But unlike buses and trains, the two-passenger SkyTran pods will accommodate only you, or you and another person you want with you.
16. ENVIRONMENT-FRIENDLY --- The narrow, widely-spaced SkyTran support poles do not require the large-scale, environment-damaging landscaping and massive concrete supports needed for the large and heavy trains. And unlike train tracks, the lighter SkyTran guideways can also be attached along the sides and topsides of tall buildings, greatly reducing the number of support poles, thus making the SkyTran system less visible in business and commercial districts.
17. A TELEPHONE POLE ELIMINATOR --- The elevated SkyTran guideways can also contain many fiber-optic voice and data cables, making possible the removal of thousands of antiquated, unsightly and unwelcome telephone poles throughout most every city in America and the World.
18. NON-POLLUTING, ENERGY EFFICIENT and EXTREMELY QUIET --- At any time in most vehicles on the roads and freeways, there is only ONE passenger aboard - the driver; an extremely inefficient use of energy for a vehicle weighing close to two tons. But unlike cars, buses and fueled trains, the lighter SkyTran pods are electric-powered, extremely energy-efficient and create no air pollution in operation, and by having no moving propulsion parts, the pods do not contact the rails in transit, preventing the loud, annoying contact-friction noise constantly made by road vehicle engines and train wheels running on tracks.
19. EXTREMELY COMFORTABLE --- Unlike cars, buses and trains, because the SkyTran pods are maglev (magnetically levitated) vehicles, the ride is extremely smooth, without the annoying and constant bumps, shaking and vibration of buses and trains. And every SkyTran pod will also feature built-in audio-video entertainment for whenever desired, automatic-darkening tinted windows and automatic, user-adjustable air-conditioning and heating.
20. EXTREMELY ENJOYABLE and FUN TO RIDE --- Have you ever ridden on a Disney monorail?....and in the front seat? The sensation of riding on SkyTran will be like that and more, almost like flying free through the sky. And unlike in cars, buses, trains and subways, the elevated SkyTran ride will provide spectacular near 360-degree panoramic views of the city, horizons and mountains not visible from road vehicles or trains, or at ground-level.
21. EXTREMELY ECONOMICAL TO RIDE --- The cost of regularly using SkyTran will be a small fraction of the increasing costs of owning, ensuring, fueling, parking, repairing and regularly cleaning any personal road vehicle, saving SkyTran commuters up to thousands of dollars every year.
22. EXTREMELY BENEFICIAL for the AMERICAN ECONOMY --- With American commuters regularly using SkyTran instead of the millions of gasoline-fueled vehicles now on the roads and freeways, America will greatly reduce it's dependence on expensive foreign oil imports, making possible more federal funding for our critically urgent domestic needs of more schools, universities, hospitals, police and firefighters, and the urgently-needed repair of thousands of decaying roads, bridges and city infrastructures throughout America.
23. EXTREMELY BENEFICIAL for AIDING NATIONS --- With the addition of billions of dollars of increased annual revenue from SkyTran into our economy, America will then be able to greatly increase emergency foreign aid and assistance to other countries, thus improving and increasing our international relations and commerce with them.
24. THOUSANDS of QUALITY JOB OPPORTUNITIES --- SkyTran will provide many high-paying salary and wage positions throughout America and the World, including in administration, finance, engineering, construction, maintenance, security, public relations, international business and more.
25. READY for INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT --- Millions of people in cities throughout the World who are enduring continual and increasing road traffic congestion will benefit greatly when SkyTran is incorporated into their city infrastructures. And providing such an economically and socially beneficial and clean technology as SkyTran to other countries will also greatly improve our international relations and commerce with them.
26. GREATLY BENEFICIAL to INTERNATIONAL TOURISM --- With SkyTran incorporated into the infrastructures of cities throughout the World, vacationers and visitors from every country will have greater and easier access to distant hotels, shops, restaurants and attractions, with greatly increased revenue to the tourism industries of every country.
By Paul Merrill - December 22, 2010 SkyTran - A List of Benefits
