From: Chen Yixiong, Eric (cyixiong@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Dec 18 2001 - 21:32:55 MST
http://www.msnbc.com/news/674375.asp
This article talks about meglev trains for pseudo point to point transit, a little like what I wrote in a previous posting about
advanced transportation systems.
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Levitating cars above freeways
Transit system would raise commuting to new heights
By Paul Heltzel
TECHNOLOGY REVIEW
Dec. 18 — Driving from Vienna, Virginia to Washington, D.C., you notice a Metro train broken down in the median. Poor slobs,
packed in like sardines with nowhere to go, you think to yourself as you sip your travel mug and turn up NPR. Just then a blue pod
races past you on an elevated guideway at 190 kilometers per hour—inside it, there’s a car just like yours. You look over just in
time to glimpse a woman in the driver’s seat, a newspaper spread out against the dashboard. You’re not certain, but she may have
even been catching a nap.
IF KRISHNAN RAMU, director of the Center for Rapid Transit Systems at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, has his way, commuters
in northern Virginia will have it that easy. They won’t have to choose between trains or highways—Ramu wants to provide both, but
without the crowds and congestion. For about 30 cents a kilometer, they’ll enjoy a rapid, personal transit system that will glide
them along inside of their own cars using an electromagnetic levitation system—all without even having to even look at the road.
When they get to their destination, they’ll be able to drive off and head straight to the office garage, having enjoyed the speed of
mass transit without sacrificing personal space.
“The current mass transit systems are not an American solution,” says Ramu. While high-speed trains have carved out a niche
in countries like Germany and Japan, he says, in the States “people want to go door to door.” In other words, Americans love their
wheels too much to leave them at home.
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