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	Small-Scale Solution for A Big-Scale Problem

An Eco-friendly, Aesthetic, Affordable People Mover

Mega-Transportation Projects are Slow, Inadequate, and Expensive

Currently cities provide poor commute choices for urbanites. New transportation projects focus on monorail systems which are slow, inadequate, inefficient, and expensive. Typically these monorails move 200-300 people from station to station every 5 to 10 minutes. Monorail trains move from one end of a line to the other on one rail while other trains move in the opposite direction on another parallel rail each of them stopping every couple kilometers for a minute at each station. Very much like 19th century train technology, just more stops on much more expensive elevated rails.

A 10 station commute of 20 km will include:

• A 3-5 minute walk to get from the station entrance to the monorail.
• A 10 minute wait for the monorail to arrive.
• 10 minutes of dead-stop (1 minute for each of 10 stops).
• Time to accelerate and de accelerate 10 times

Even with a peak speed of 80 kph this 20 km commute will take 50 minutes. An average of 25 kph. Most bicyclists can ride a bike that fast! (If you have to do a transfer add an additional 10 minutes.)

But that's just the beginning. A commuter must get to the starting station then from the destination station to the final destination. Because the infrastructure (rails and stations) is so expensive most large cities can only afford one line going North-South and another going East-West. Most commuters will choose to use dirty, unsafe, and super-slow ground transportation because the stations are too far away. Paying for a tuk-tuk, motorcycle taxi, or taxi to get to a station plus the cost of the monorail is too much.

Obviously people living in one of the corners of a large city will spend more time and money getting to the station than riding the monorail. Commuters lucky enough to live near a station are the exception; however, they may not be so lucky finding a destination station close to their commute destination. The monorail may average 25 kph but typically the total average commute speed might be a mere 15 kph.

What about the efficiency of 200-person monorails systems? While monorails are aerodynamic and use low-polluting efficient electric motors, the trains are spending most of their energy starting and stopping; basically overcoming inertia. Absurdly, most of the 200 people aboard the vehicles at any particular stop don't want to stop! 19th century train technology so good that we must keep doing it?

Four Critical problems:

• Multiple starts and stops slows the commute.
• Multiple starts and stops wastes energy.
• Waiting for the train to arrive for 5 to 10 minutes slows the commute.
• Expensive infrastructure means very few stations, far from most commuters. This lengthens total commute times, drives up commute costs and makes the system unavailable to most commuters.

The Fly Rails Solution Provides:

• 1 start, 1 stop.
• Vehicles that are immediately available.
• Rails which are a fraction the cost makes it affordable to provide many stations close to most commuters.

How Fly Rails provides a 1 Start, 1 Stop Affordable Infrastructure Solution:

• 1 person per vehicle is the answer!
  • Because 1 person vehicles are small and lightweight the support poles for the above-ground rails are the size of utility poles. Modern monorails have support pillars that could support a freeway!
  • Rather than 200 people every 10 minutes Fly Rails moves 1 person every 5 seconds. 200 people per 10 minutes is 1200 people/ hour and 1 person per 5 seconds is 720 people/hour.
  • Fly Rails places boarding stations on a 1 km grid. A 20x20 km square will be covered by 400 stations capable of moving 400*720= 288,000 people/hour or 6,921,000 people/day. Monorails covering a similar space have 40 stations capable of moving 40*1200=48,000 people/hour. Fly Rails is available to everybody (no more than a 1 km walk), cheaper, faster and can move 6 times as many people per hour.
  • 1 person vehicles stop only once: at the destination.
• Vehicles are computer controlled. Predictive demand analysis moves the vehicles to the commuter at the time they are needed. Vehicles wait for the commuter rather than commuters waiting for the vehicles.

Industries in developing countries provide dirty ground transportation

I work for an American Company in a developing nation: Thailand. The company I work for is the largest American employer in Thailand. The company leases 250 diesel buses to transport 20,000 employees in two shifts everyday. It makes sense: 40 employees (40*250=10,000) per bus and 99% of the employees use the provided bus. Transportation is an important part of a company's benefit package. Without it most shift workers would work elsewhere (no possibility of individual cars; employees make $10/day). Companies like mine are located just outside of Bangkok in Industrial Parks typically 50 to 60 km's from downtown. Because of these buses the pollution is worse in the Industrial Parks than it is in downtown Bangkok.

At this time the most efficient and least polluting public transportation is a monorail and subway system that runs a 20 km loop around downtown. Because of the cost there is no way this alternative could extend to the industrial parks some 60 km's away. My company and others would jump at a chance to rid themselves of these expensive, polluting, slow, dangerous, and unpredictable buses. The Fly Rails alternative would provide affordable, clean, fast, safe, and predictable transportation for all employees.

For more information:

In Thailand call: 66(0)7-267-2002

Or Email: mike@redbicycle.org