The Need for a New Approach
to Public Transportation
Safe, reliable and cost-effective public transportation is one of
the world's most pressing needs. Mass transportation by personal
vehicles causes a host of problems such as increasing congestion,
pollution, environmental degradation, high injury and fatality
rates, and excessive reliance upon fossil fuels. In addition, the
operational range of highway travel is becoming constrained by a
lack of land to site new freeways and by significant environmental
concerns, such as global warming.  Air
transportation requires large, centralized hubs to operate
profitably. North America's newest airports, Dallas-Fort Worth, and
Denver International, each use over fifty square kilometers of land
to house the requisite infrastructure. The movement of traffic to
and from these central hubs also creates congestion problems.
Increasingly, under these constraints, air travel has become
unsuited for short-distance trips.
Rail transportation, including electric trains, is safe, clean, and
inexpensive. However, speed and capacity are limited. Because of
physical constraints, convenience to the traveler is relatively low.
Building new rail corridors requires long, straight, rights-of-way
which are no longer available in medium to densely populated areas.
While rail technology can be adapted to permit speeds in excess of
250 km per hour, increased speeds require long, straight and level
grades, and more distance between stations and between trains to
accommodate acceleration and deceleration. Conventional and newer
high speed rail systems cannot serve a decentralized population.
Magplane Technology Inc. has developed a system that has
successfully integrated a number of disciplines that collectively
result in a newer and better solution to high speed transportation.
MTI's proprietary technology and wholly owned patents have enabled
it to design a transportation system unlike any other. This system
provides an economical and environmentally acceptable alternative to
high speed trains, commuter planes, and also, to a large extent,
automobiles and intercity buses. Magplane also provides a system so
flexible and efficient that it can compete effectively with planes,
trains and automobiles at certain distances and have a profound
impact on stimulating and managing future growth in an
environmentally sustainable manner.
Magplane is not a faster railroad, but a high-capacity means to
provide continuous traffic flow along magways, installed either
within existing highway right-of-ways, or through and to previously
inaccessible locations. It can serve closely spaced magports located
off-line at major malls or transportation centers many kilometers
apart. It can interface with existing transportation systems or
provide an entirely new transportation infrastructure. Magplane
offers a realistic alternative to the automobile because it offers
similar convenience without the limited range and capacity
constraints, and as such is not just an alternative to rail and air
travel.
|
