TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

Cleaning up our transportation system is a vital step in transforming our business-as-usual wastefulness into a sustainable economy for all.

I am a disabled rider who cares about reducing pollution for the present and future generations who will become or have become disabled from environmental pollution and degradation. Pollution from transportation is our largest source of global warming emissions (regionally and nationally).
I ask that New York formally join the plan to reduce emissions. The policy must have a strong component of equity by prioritizing clean investments in areas overburdened by pollution and/or for those who don't have access.

Dear Sir or Madam,

Shouldn't everyone care about reducing pollution from transportation? This is the largest source of global warming emissions, both regionally and nationally. The Susquehanna Valley's air quality is below what we should expect, and FAR below what it should really be.

I hope that Pennsylvania formally joins the plan to reduce emissions and with the state government's full backing and support. It's my hope that the policy includes a strong component of equity by prioritizing clean investments in areas overburdened by pollution and/or for those who don't have access. I'm grateful for the bipartisan nature of this project, and have sincere belief that this will move us forward, even while the federal government takes us backward.

Regards,
Sharon

THIS IS LONG OVERDUE! It's essential.











This is long overdue! Essential!

Scotland is aiming for 100% renewable energy THIS YEAR. Certainly we can at least have clean transportation in our nation's Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.

please design a regional low-carbon transportation policy proposal that would cap and reduce carbon emissions from the combustion of transportation fuels through a cap-and-invest program or other pricing mechanism… [and]… to complete the policy development process within one year, after which each jurisdiction will decide whether to adopt and implement the policy.

As a lifelong resident of the Northeast Corridor (Maine-DC), I cannot state more strongly the need for improved public transportation options. Driving from Charlottesville (when I was in college) to New York sometimes took up to 8 hours due to traffic. I now live in the DC area and would prefer to take the train home to visit family, but it is cost prohibitive in comparison to driving. It's ridiculous that the better environmental choice is more expensive monetarily. All of us in the Northeast Corridor (as well as the rest of the country) deserve better options.

My own proposed above-grade automated transit system that I have named "Teleport" incorporates about 100 of my own separate innovations. I have quite a few interim transit inventions, but I’ll put them aside for now because human civilization needs to move quickly to 90% less fuel per passenger-mile.

My bare bones Teleport cost target is roughly 3 cents per passenger-mile including the lifetime cost of above-street trackage. This price is far below the total cost of automobile travel. I aim for the electricity equivalent of 300 mpg. I expect to achieve ADA-compliance -- all Teleport stations can be at ground level or at floor level in skyscrapers, with double elevator doors. I expect the automobile to be turtle-slow versus Teleport's net urban quickness, and I expect Teleport to compete versus the automobile in terms of inter-city travel.

Teleport's "last mile" transit section hangs from a zip line system. The simplest zip line system has two slack wire cables that hang from multiple support towers. At the support towers, cables morph into rails. A zip line track of, say, a mile can be supported every 100 feet or so. Individual cars have batteries and electric motors with which to negotiate the zip line system.

The experience of passing one support tower, going slightly downhill on a cable, going slightly uphill as the car approaches the next tower, transitioning onto the rail and passing the next tower is surprisingly smooth as compared to a conventional ski lift gondola car negotiating small bumps at every support tower. I have my own pivoting rail design to make the transition accelerations remarkably smooth and to reduce up/down motions.

The beauty of a zip line system is that simple cables cost at least 90% less per mile of track than even so-called "ultralight" or "flyweight" above-grade rail systems, and 99.99% less per mile to build than, say, a 1950s-vintage Disneyland above-street monorail system. Teleport needs two cables (a second cable adds a layer of safety) and support towers.

Full automation is far safer 20 feet above the street than with cars on the ground, with 99.9% fewer objects to hit. This saves money and lives.

Above-grade Teleport lines can cross each other at different levels without cars having to stop. Traffic congestion is seriously simplified. Perhaps 100 times as many Teleport cars can be fit above a freeway as autos on the freeway.

- - - Teleport rails, switches and elevators

Teleport car wheels are designed so that they can rather smoothly transition from zip lines to rails at support towers. Automated Teleport rail switches, similar to railroad siding switches but automated, can be built into rail sections. An automated switching system means that a particular Teleport car can be routed to any requested track or station on the automated Teleport network. All Teleport cars have forward and reverse abilities.

At Teleport elevator shafts, specific rail sections can be raised or lowered. This allows Teleport cars to be lowered to ground level so that wheelchairs can roll into Teleport cars through standard double elevator doors. The same system will deposit wheelchair-using passengers directly onto train platforms and onto various floors in a Teleport-ready skyscraper.

Certain Teleport stations will have local sidings where spare cars may stack up. When a commuter train pulls in, quite a few people will all want to use Teleport at the same time. Teleport's control system needs to anticipate that at a certain minute on weekdays a certain station is always flooded with patrons, and then stockpile extra cars in a timely manner.

Busier Teleport networks will have circulators, multiple cable routes between most stations. In rare circumstances a zip line may be put out of service by a leaning tree caused by a hurricane. Teleport needs to detect this problem almost instantaneously. Then, lines of individual cars are quickly and automatically rerouted around the bad section. The days are numbered for a gasoline truck rollover at rush hour causing a five-mile backup of uninformed freeway drivers.

- - - The Teleport tractor-trailer extension

A more advanced Teleport zip line transit system separates individual gondola cars and cargo pods from the automated carrier units that latch onto them from the top, that lift them off of ground level and that carry them under zip line cables.

If the zip lines and controlling computers are seen as part of the automated Teleport system, then the carrier units are equally part of the automated transit utility. Some individual gondola cars may be people's private gondola boxes with windows. These private boxes could probably fit into a homeowner's standard garage. Other Teleport cars may be luxury cabs stocked and maintained by a cab company or they might be public bus cars owned by the Teleport utility. They may equally be cargo pods, some with onboard refrigeration ability..

Most Teleport cars will be elevator-sized, about 6.5 feet high, 6.5 feet long and 5 feet wide. A few Teleport carriers may have simple hook devices for carrying oversized freight objects such as replacement support poles over the Teleport system.

In a tractor and cargo pod arrangement, "tractor" is used in the sense of "tractor-trailer". Automated Teleport zip line tractors have motors and battery packs. They pick up and move Teleport cargo pods. Human-capable pods typically carry their own small battery packs for running various in-car human conveniences such as large computer monitors and refrigerators.

Teleport automated mini-trains move groups of Teleport cars on above-grade suspended train lines. For longer-distance commuting purposes it's more energy-efficient, more cost-efficient and more streamlined to move groups of cars versus single cars. On-train plug-in amenities such as a rest room pod and a coffee wagon pod are possible.

- - - - - - - Advantages

- - -Total system quickness

Battery-powered above-grade systems are much quicker than, say, battery-powered cars stuck in urban traffic. Automation allows for a public car to often be immediately available behind any elevator door when you walk up, and then the car starts up the elevator shaft as soon as the door closes. Teleport can drop you off not just at your door but on your floor. It drops you off, then it parks itself and picks up your groceries. How much time do you waste parking and walking to your downtown destination with all of your bags?

Teleport cable systems might move cars the "last mile" at 20 mph or at a steady 3 minutes per mile with few pauses. Low air friction, high capacity Teleport above-road trains might run at an energy-conserving 50 mph to 100 mph. Because loading/unloading is automated and because different trains may have different destinations, waiting times at stations will be limited. Automobiles spend half of their time at red lights, rush hour is never any fun and urban parking can cost a commuter an extra 15 minutes, but a Teleport car travels near its maximum listed miles per hour.

- - - Personal convenience

With Teleport you're not driving, where driving can be stressful. I want my personal pod with a fold down cot, a large screen and a fridge.

Teleport's last-mile solution can inexpensively reach suburban and even ex-urban streets. Running inexpensive Teleport cables into private garages is likely. Teleport is set up to move someone's private pod including all of their personal stuff from a home garage to any building in town.

Many people have bulky stuff that they want to use someday. One elevator door inside an apartment can accommodate one closet pod at a time. Moving across town becomes far easier if two houses or apartments both have Teleport stations. Storage of Teleport closet pods across town is easy. Teleport closet pods can be stacked.

Teleport cars can be shopping cart accessible. Shopping carts can be wheeled from checkout lines directly into Teleport vehicles, then to apartment refrigerators without unloading them. All sorts of items, from furniture to pizza to a closet full of seasonal items, can be delivered to the elevator door near or within an apartment if the apartment building is Teleport-capable.

- - - Lifetime Cost

I price Teleport cables at about 1 cent per passenger-mile. Teleport public cabs (non-luxurious models, at least) and engines would be another cent per passenger-mile, and the electricity to move a tractor and cab one passenger-mile would again be 1 cent. Total system cost (not counting R&D) is about 3 cents per passenger-mile. No automobile and freeway system could possibly compete financially with this transit system, not without vast built-in political subsidies for the old-fashioned motor vehicle technology.

I estimate 90% lifetime energy savings over a gasoline and ground-based freeway system, plus the last 10% can be mostly renewable electricity. Teleport is long lasting - it's sustainable and maintenance is low. No other known automated system is nearly as climate-friendly as Teleport transit.

- - - Industrial extensions

Teleport turns a city into one large assembly line. Everything gets less expensive when the delivery cost of all freight, both retail and industrial, plummets toward zero. All sorts of goods and tools can just show up at people's homes as needed.

An automated Teleport system pretty much assembles its own new Teleport cable lines. Each new support tower and cable comes in on a Teleport line from an automated factory across town. A walking crane allows each piece to travel the last 100 feet or so. Buckets of concrete for stations can show up also. The same system can inexpensively help to assemble a house or a skyscraper onsite, piece by piece.

- - - Implementation Costs and Benefits

Dreaming and drawings are relatively inexpensive. First, draw. Next, prove out most of Teleport's subsystems, eliminating the biggest questions and financial risks first. Eventually, proper crash testing could take on the order of a $100 million dollar investment.

Displacing almost the entire automobile and freeway construction industry is a trillion dollar domestic market, and it would displace 20% of all worldwide greenhouse gas production. That's a bargain. It demands funding.

- - - Not shown here

There's a lot to the hardware. My cables have gone through several iterations. My rails are also new, and so are my support towers. I want wheels that really grip the cables well in any potential disaster, and that in rare cases can reattach to one cable or rail. I want airbags in case a ground-based truck hits a support pole or a tree breaks both cables. I want anti-terrorism equipment sniffing certain cars for explosives to properly designed airport departure and arrival gates. Rest room pods go to special stations for cleaning as needed. Passenger pods need heat/cooling, lighting and creature comforts. For a perfect quick food sale, the pod's elevator door opens and there's someone behind a counter for the customer. Special tractors and cars are made for emergency vehicles, for hauling 30 foot poles or for hauling plywood. Above-grade maintenance and rescue cars are another specialty item.

Next, there's a lot to the cellular software, from computer network security issues to optimizing network flow given emergency vehicles and freight rates. Inquisitive newcomers should be brought in to a central station for a free pass (at least on the first day), a brochure and a gentle sales pitch. Persistent scofflaws can be redirected to the police station for a talk with the desk sergeant. Emptying a large sports stadium would involve letting fans walk into elevator cars labeled to travel in their general destination directions. Full and heavy passenger cars might be assigned premium travel times by the network computer at rush hours.

My wife and I are opposed to this TCI plan. There is still no foolproof alternative to our present mode of transportation. From what I have seen the energy use to create electric MV's is equivalent or greater than what is used to operate gasoline MV's. My car gets 30+ PPG and frankly I cannot the cost of the electric cars.
We do not think that enough positive and honest proof has been obtained to make the case for forcing our citizens to environmentally accepted MV's. There seems to be two versions of so called climate change and until more positive proof is shown than it is unfair and un-American to force such taxes on us to make us change our methods of transportation. It is a bad deal to force cultural change on people via taxation. I urge that this problem be given much thought and alternative methods be carefully looked at before we are taxed just for a reason that is yet to be proven.