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Imagine getting up in the morning, having a shower and throwing on a few clothes. Then you go to the lift under the stairs, which takes you down a few metres. You step out straight into a mag-lev car. Your breakfast is laid out on a small table, next to your newspaper and your favourite music is playing. It is all part of the service provided by the hire company - and the best part is that your company pays for it all. There is a brief wait because your neighbour is also leaving for work but once you're on the city network, you whizz along at a steady 50mph. Not that you notice, for the motion is so smooth that your caffeine-free coffee doesn't move. Indeed you've hardly time to finish your breakfast before you have to leap out into another lift, which takes you up to your company's offices.
Later that day you have to go over to the Continent for a meeting. Back you go down the lift, but this time the waiting car is larger and has more obvious safety features. When you get onto the long distance network, the acceleration presses you forward into your safety harness. Within a few seconds you're travelling faster than sound.
Fantasy? Yes. But the need for an entirely new kind of transport system is becoming more and more obvious. Cars are causing all sorts of problems. Congestion is increasing, the countryside is disappearing beneath tarmac, there is an asthma epidemic amongst children and many thousands of people are maimed or killed every year, in every country. However traditional public transport also has its limitations - people want to travel when they choose to, without having to spend hours trying to decipher timetables or spending the journey with their nose in somebody's armpit.
We all know what we want from a transport system. It should take you where you want to go when you want to go, as fast as possible but without risking life and limb. Its construction shouldn't involve the wholesale destruction of the countryside, nor should it pollute the environment. So what would such a transport system be like?
- like cars, the basic vehicles should be small, so that they can take people directly to where they want to go and allow them to travel alone or with friends. However privately owned vehicles are not very efficient - most cars are only used for one or two hours a day and spend the rest of the time sitting around waiting to be stolen, whilst taking up vast amounts of space. Hiring a vehicle only when you need it is far more efficient.
- vehicles should be computer-controlled. Some people may not like this idea but the fact is that computers can respond to events in a fraction of the time humans are capable of, which has all sorts of advantages. For example, vehicles could travel much closer together and there would be less delay at junctions, greatly increasing the carrying capacity of any system. A central monitoring system could automatically divert vehicles away from the busiest parts of the network. Plus computers don't get bored, fall asleep or attempt to drive under the influence of intoxicating drugs.
- metal boxes moving at high speed should not travel in the same space as children, dogs and other metal boxes travelling at high speed in the opposite direction. Going underground solves these problems, and more. Underground systems aren't affected by the weather (no more leaves on the track) and can be extended when necessary without having oust people from their homes or engage in lengthy battles with protesters. Nor are underground tunnels blocked by parked cars or held up by pedestrians - every tunnel would be the equivalent of a major road.
Put it all together and we have electric vehicles travelling around an underground network of tunnels. All tunnels would be one-way only and the network would consist of a series of interconnected loops. This would make some routes slightly circuitous but avoids complex and dangerous two-way junctions. All journeys would be non-stop - vehicles would have to leave the main network before people could get out. Most vehicles would be small (for one or two people), but the system could be designed to accommodate larger vehicles as well.
A mini-network with two stations
Initially the system would be a much improved version of the Underground - you would travel alone and straight to your chosen destination, but only between public stations. Later companies and individuals could have their offices or homes turned into private stations, allowing door to door travel. Relatively slow city networks could be linked together by long-distance, highspeed networks, allowing you to go directly from one city to another without having to change vehicles. Perhaps these high-speed networks could themselves be linked together by ultra-highspeed networks that would span whole continents, creating a network of networks - the SuperTube.
To maximize efficiency the vehicles could be supported by magnetic-levitation and propelled by linear induction motors. This would reduce friction and thus reduce energy costs. Taking the air out of the tunnels (or pushing the air along at the same speed as the mag-lev cars) would reduce energy requirements even more dramatically.
If a SuperTube system was ever constructed, it would have a profound impact on the way we live. Nothing would improve the quality of life more than separating our living space from what one could call high-speed transport space, and ridding cities of cars, buses and lorries. Our lives would be transformed. Imagine never having to queue for a bus, wait for a train or sit fuming in a traffic jam ever again. Not having to spend ages planning journeys. Not having to spend loads of time and money keeping your car roadworthy.
The streets could be emptied of the massed ranks of metal boxes. Cyclists would no longer run the risk of being mown down by some juggernaut. Children would be able to play in the street and walk to school. Cities would be quieter and the air fit to breath. Commuting would quick and stress-free. People would be able to go where they liked at any time, whatever their age, blind or sighted, drunk or sober.
That's not all. At the moment having small packages delivered is expensive, especially if you want to get them quickly, or the goods need to be kept frozen or refrigerated. But the SuperTube could change this. Goods would simply have to be packed into vehicles and the vehicles told where to take them. Not having to pay drivers, or having to use several different forms of transport would cut costs dramatically. Delivery times would be measured in hours rather than days.
This would make home shopping, which is already growing rapidly, far more attractive. It would be possible to have everyday shopping like food delivered directly to your home, for no more than it would cost to go and get it yourself. Perhaps supermarkets will metamorphose into robotic warehouses, receiving orders and dispatching goods, and not a human worker in sight.
Or perhaps supermarkets and large shopping chains would be put out of business altogether. The Internet is already making it much easier for individuals and small companies to advertise and sell their goods directly to a potentially vast market, cutting out the middlemen. A decent transport system would make it possible for the "microeconomic sector" to expand further. In other words, instead of buying your milk from the corner shop or supermarket, you could buy it straight from the farm. Having to order your potatoes from one farm, your eggs from another and your wine from yet another would be a pain, but this problem could be solved by a computer program that kept track of your chosen suppliers and did the ordering for you.
This would give consumers far more power. We would know exactly where our food was coming from. No longer would we be forced to choose from the non-descript, mass-produced foods on offer in the supermarkets. Instead we could choose from a vast range of distinctive products. The people producing the food should get a much better deal. But it would be bad news for shop workers and lorry drivers. Many shops, shopping centres and malls would probably be forced to close, further transforming cities.
The likelihood of the SuperTube ever being built seems small, to say the least. Creating an entirely new transport infrastructure would be very expensive and needs people with vision and imagination, people who are prepared to make long-term plans and carry them through. Modern governments seem to be singularly lacking in these qualities. But it is certainly worth thinking about. Dreaming a better world is the first step towards creating a better world.
All tunnels would be one-way only and the network would consist of a series of interconnected loops
This idea has been taken from the PRT2000 system (Rapid Personal Transit) designed by Prof. J. Edward Anderson and currently being developed in the US. The first PRT systems might be up and running in a few years.
Asthma epidemic
If you want to find out more about air pollution, try the following sites:
Building underground
Yes, I know, building underground systems is extremely expensive. But:
- in densely populated countries, with high land prices, it could make economic sense. Once a few systems had been built and the technology and expertise needed became more readily available, costs should drop.
- technological developments might further reduce the costs of tunnelling.
- if, as I suggest in FutureLife, people's lives are greatly prolonged in the future, a far higher value might be placed on human life. In which case, a transport system which kills as many people as the road system might become unacceptable.
Magnetic levitation
This would also reduce the number of moving parts, so mag-lev cars should last longer and require less maintenance. But it would only be practical if cheap low-temperature superconductors become available.
Packed into vehicles and the vehicles told where to take them
If lots of vehicles were travelling around empty apart from a few parcels, it could clog up the networks (though these deliveries would also be saving people from making journeys). One way round this, since most consumer goods are small, would be to create parallel networks of narrower tunnels carrying much smaller vehicles, specifically for non-human traffic.
Presses you forward
In safety terms, it makes far more sense for people to sit facing backwards. Especially if there is nothing to look at.
Problems
For a good summary of the UK situation, see Cars and Pollution.
Span whole continents
Why not build tunnels beneath the oceans? After all, if it were possible to tunnel beneath the Channel, why not the Atlantic? Sadly, it isn't quite that easy:
- The tunnels would have to be built at great depths - the pressure and the problems would be enormous.
- Worse still, the tunnels would have to cross the boundaries between the continental and oceanic tectonic plates. Earthquakes or volcanic activity would constantly threaten disaster.
So the system is unlikely to replace aeroplanes and ships. But it might reduce air traffic by replacing domestic and short-haul flights. This could be important, as it is suspected that air traffic could play a big role in the destruction of the ozone layer. And as far as I know, no-one is planning to build a battery-powered jumbo jet.
Taking the air out of tunnels
Another advantage of building underground. But it would only be worth doing if vehicles travelled at very high speeds.
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