TCI Regional Policy Design Stakeholder Submissions

I believe Vermont needs to coordinate with our neighboring states to get our emissions from transportation under control. I live on the Connecticut River. I own a car, but try to drive as little as possible. I take the Amtrak occasionally if I have business in Northern Vermont. I would take the train more often if it ran more frequently. We need more light rail in our state and in New Hampshire. Once upon a time, there were trolleys connecting small towns. Light rail could fill that same niche.
We need additional funding to provide creative non-polluting transportation initiatives tailored to the needs of small towns and rural lifestyles.

Hello!
I am a farmer and small businessman who supports mitigating climate change.
I support the following measures:
A cap on carbon emissions of at least 25% by 2032
An increase in the minimum investment in overburdened and underserved communities (>35%)
Request that investments be put towards active transportation like better sidewalks, bicycle infrastructure, and high quality public transit
Thanks,
Mark

Go clean, carbon free and help save the planet and its inhabitants. Go electric transportation powered by renewable energy sources.

We pay more than enough tax money. This will not solve or improve emission pollution or stave off changes in our climate. Any monies collected by the politicians will be ill spent. It will be all about pet projects (pork). Pay attention Richie Neal And Eric Lesser. People on a fixed income actually suffer with these corrupted mindset mentalities.

The Swarm Solution for Climate-Friendly Transportation by Kenneth A. Capron
The TCI is anticipated to be expensive. We know that. The immense costs of changing processes and/or acquiring new equipment may seem overwhelming. New infrastructure is even more ominous. Change itself is a hard sell. Potential CO2 efficiencies on the table currently are focused on electrification of vehicles even though an extensive roll-out of EV's may require an upgrade in the capacities of the electricity production and distribution systems. And EV's (cars, busses, etc.) still result in deterioration of the roadway and wear and tear on the vehicles. In fact, if one does an in-depth analysis of ALL the costs associated with existing transportation and related factors and the overall climate impacts, it may surprise consumers into awareness and action. Big Time.

The facts say that the existing transportation sector is unsustainable for all but the most populous states. As an example, Maine has approx. 28,000 miles of roads and an equally overwhelming number of bridges. Just at the State level, we have a shortage of $232 million in annual road and bridge repairs and maintenance. And that's just for about 8,000 miles out of the 28,000 total. Can you really imagine how we can afford this year after year with no solution in sight? Even TCI can't make a substantive impact on sustainability. And in Maine, at least, few businesses exist that could make a dent in funding the repair of the old and the addition of new transportation infrastructure.

Overwhelming problems demand overwhelming solutions. TCI is actually only a small piece of the long-range solution that will move us toward tomorrow's climate-friendly transportation systems. But TCI does invite the opportunity to try something new. It may just be that we have literally reached the end of the road. Really.

I have been working on developing a new mode of transportation which combines maglev motive power with swarm intelligence to automate the movement of people and products. After all, that's all transportation really is - the logistics of moving something from one place to another. The only difference is who is controlling movement within that process. Left up to humans, transportation is a nightmare. Accidents, drunk drivers, squished pedestrians, traffic deaths, trains killing people, Uber assaults, missed appointments and so on. Left to the companies that make vehicles and sell fuels, we end up with a system that produces somewhere around 40 percent of climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions.

Now cut that out! We are an intelligent species (are we?). Surely we can develop a safe, fast, reliable, inexpensive and climate-friendly mode of transportation. Take away the powered vehicles and suddenly the surface is more amenable to pedestrians, bicyclists, scooters and, yes, even horses. Remember the horse?

So I set out to create a mode of transportation that is climate friendly. We need a system that is fully automated - no human intervention needed. I wanted to create a system that responds rapidly, OnDemand, to your needs and then delivers you non-stop to your stated destination. I wanted it to be impervious to weather and run any day any time 24/7/365. In order to avoid intersections and rail crossings that slow ground transport, I wanted a system that was elevated up out of the way. And I wanted infrastructure that lasts hundreds of years unlike our roads and highways. Do you realize just how harmful asphalts are to the air we breathe and the organics in the environment? Every day we breathe in microscopic particles of soot, smog, rust, paint, tires and dirt kicked up by cars and trucks. Is your windshield pitted? Mine sure is - like riding behind sand trucks for hours on end.

My interests in innovation and problem solving led to a system I call MicroRail. Micro because it is a small scale, perhaps 1/8th that of a bus or rail car. And rail for lack of a better label for the overhead structure which will guide hundreds of vehicles and their passengers to and from any other point on the system. To eliminate CO2, magnets will serve as the driving force behind this system. Magnets produce no gases, and due to lack of friction they create zero particulate. An FTA study that ended in 2012 looked at the feasibility of low-speed maglev transportation. The 2 page executive summary of that study points out the many benefits of a maglev powered system. It also highlights the gorilla in the room for such a system - cost.

"magnetic levitation technology offers a cost-effective, reliable, and environmentally-sound transit option … Maglev promises several attractive benefits, including the ability to operate in challenging terrain with steep grades, tight turns, all-weather operation, low maintenance, rapid aceleration, quiet operation, with superior ride quality, ... is unmanned and operates on elevated guideway …".

That last part is very important since the guideway is designed to prevent injury to animals unlike ground transportation. It saves you from the need to explain your lost cat to your child.

Now comes the issues of cost. Richard Thornton, PhD, who led the FTA study at MagneMotion in Massachusetts made a very compelling argument for substantially lowering costs. Most people envision a massive elevated train weighing 20 tons per vehicles when they hear MicroRail. But Thornton emphasized that a "swarm" of small vehicles served by lightweight infrastructure would be much less expensive and substantially more responsive to the transportation needs of humans and businesses. He suggest a 1/7th scale vehicle. We have opted for 1/8th scale, just a little bit smaller, in order to maximize the savings. We have also focused on lighter weight materials that have only become available recently - composites. Composites are light weight, stronger than steel, have extensive life spans and can be easily manufactured.

The vehicles that form the Swarm are expected to carry four to six passengers and weigh less than two tons each and move at any speed up to 100 mph. Each is individually controlled and contains most electronics needed for passengers to communicate and work during their ride. And each is voice controlled. " 'Alexa', take me to DiMillo's." As these 'pods' develop, we expect to offer customized variations, unique designs, and multiple paint schemes. The outside limit to their range will be the extent of deployment of the system. In the other direction, they will be micro enough to provide service to each street and eventually each driveway. A trip that may take 30 minutes today will be cut to 5 minutes with MicroRail. From your door to your destination will be reduced by more than half. We're even innovating a maglev lift to lower passengers from rail to ground or vice versa.

The challenge is cost. We are partnering with USM and numerous experts around the nation to solve the many challenges to be faced. We have a variety of engineers, urban planners, business advisors, lawyers, authors, sociologists and others who will attack every challenge along the way.
Our goal is to have a scale prototype on the Gorham USM campus by year-end 2020 and a full operating system by year-end 2021 with the full link between the Portland-Gorham campuses by the end of 2022. Obviously, the more funding we have, the sooner we can start eliminating the use of gas powered vehicles.

As soon as the prototype is approved, MicroRail will be deployed aggressively. Every trip provided with MicroRail will eliminate a trip in a gas powered vehicle. That makes it an especially good fit for the TCI program. In preliminary calculations, a 15 mile route in Greater Portland would eliminate 7200 metric tons of CO2 annually. For an application in Acadia National Park which had 3.2 million visitors in 2018, MicroRail would eliminate 32,000 metric tons of CO2 annually - just for the travel on MDI. The greater the deployment of MicroRail service, the greater will be the tonnage of CO2 withheld from our atmosphere. It is the single most effective way to make a dent in transportation related CO2. And overall it will cost the consumer, the taxpayer, less too. It's a win-win for the environment and consumers.

Im excited to see a high impact regional approach to tackling carbon emissions moving forwars. This will greatly benefit us all living in the area. Please support the policy.

In 2014 we voted NO to increasing a gas tax. This TCI is a tax and should be put to a vote. Legalize Gambling and steal that revenue. Did you people ever study how this country was founded? Go back and read our history....Years of your mishandling and mismanagement of our taxes doesn't warrant you to reach into our pockets again. I'll drive to NH and get gas and do ALL my shopping there...I'll buy 4 5gal gas cans and fill them there. PUT IT TO A VOTE!