The Flow of Transportation – Moving people, products and serv...

The Flow of Transportation – Moving people, products and services

From: Lance (Improving the Flow of all We Know)
Remote Name: 66.82.48.1
Date: 18 Oct 2003
Time: 23:35:14

Comments

The Flow of Transportation – Moving people, products and services. One of the most important things in any civilization is the flow of transportation. People have needs to transport themselves around. And since we do not have those nifty Star Trek transporter machines yet, we need to find efficient ways to move our bodies in linear time to other places of interest to fulfill our needs and desires. People have places to go and people to see, for instance; commuting to work, taking a vacation, having some fun, going to the doctor, getting to school, going to church, picking up materials to finish a project. And of course picking up necessary supplies like groceries, clothes, hygiene items, etc. Think of all the things in your household, all of those items, TV, refrigerator, sofa, plants, items in the garage, etc. Where did they all come from? Well they came from destinations all over the globe, even if you are careful to buy local or buy American, many of the movable parts inside those items came from other countries many many thousands of miles away. All you had to do was to have thought; http://parthe.net/_cwg1003/00000014.htm turn off the lights; http://parthe.net/_cwg1003/00000015.htm grab your car keys, jump in your clean car; http://www.detailguys.com and transport your self to the store. But that is not where the journey ends of begins; http://parthe.net/_cwg1003/0000001f.htm . You see the items in the store were produced, whether they are agricultural products which were grown; http://www.TractorWashGuys.com ; raw materials which were collected http://www.washguy.com/mt/construction.shtml ; or whether they were manufactured; http://www.carwashguys.com/finite.pdf . All these items of course came from where they were produced or collected. Then they were transported; by Truck; http://www.TruckWashGuy.com ; by plane; http://www.Aircraftwashguys.com ; By Train ; http://www.truckwashguy.com/railcars.shtml ; By ship ; http://www.BoatWashGuys.com or most often a combination of these methods of transportation. Sometimes the products come to you with B2C websites; such as Online Grocery Sites, Safeway-Vons Stores http://shop.safeway.com/offers/swy/default.asp?cmp=KNC-2IP457688932 and Albertson’s http://www.albertsons.com/ and HEB http://www.heb.com/welcome/index.jsp and Piggly Wiggly http://www.shopthepig.com/grocery_stores.html (this may not always work however http://www.webprowire.com/summaries/567397.html and http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,45098,00.html ) ; Books online at Amazon http://www.Amazon.com Barnes and Noble, http://www.barnesandnoble.com/index.asp , (lots of Brand extention and other items listed); something you bought on Ebay http://www.Ebay.com ; your home business SOHO office supplies from Office Depot http://www.officedepot.com/ , Office Max http://www.officemax.com/ or Staples http://www.staples.com/ (these companies have over 45,000 products and 100,000 software titles each) ; your Dominos Pizza http://www.dominos.com/ just in time for the game. These products come by delivery services, smart and innovative leading edge companies http://www.orderawash.com or those who specialize in getting it there Absolutely Positively Overnight such as FedEx Home Delivery, UPS, Emery, Airborne or regional expeditor of which you would not believe how many there are in the larger cities. So products can either be picked up by transporting yourself or by having them transported to you. There are many theories of methods which can be used to transport products to your home, some are good and some are merely wishful thinking, such as Santa Clause utilizing chimneys and roof tops. Then there are services; you might transport yourself to get a hair cut, Karate Lessons, consulting assistance, etc. using a bicycle, moped, skateboard, passenger car, taxi, bus, motorcycle, a new Segway Scooter or your feet and tennis shoes. Or you might hire a service to come wash your car; http://www.carwashguys.com ; put a coating on your Deck; http://www.DeckWashGuys.com ; Clean you windows, since you don’t do windows; http://www.WindowWashGuys.com or have your pool cleaned, dog groomed or rain gutters cleaned out ; http://www.HomeWashGuys.com ; home repair ; http://www.WeServeHomes.com . Or god forbid you might be in need of essential or emergency services from professionals such as paramedics, firemen, animal control team, refuse collector, AAA Tow Services or police. These types of product delivery companies, service companies, everyday needs and emergency professionals have to stay efficient to conserve costs and operate on a strategic grid plan to insure proper service to all on a timely basis. http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/0000005c.htm This of course is essential to good quality prompt service and for safety of our people. If you think of a Football play, Net-Centric Warfare Event; http://www.carwashguys.com/050802_1.shtml ; Even a disease vector using the blood stream to transport itself and then transfer to another host through the natural flow of species interaction http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0803/00000055.htm or even something as simple as delivering the mail, milk or newspapers every day to the same addresses, every thing involves transportation. All these transportation systems can be studied and controlled by use of computer programs such as the ones designed by ESRI with hundreds of vendors who design add on systems. Transporting energy, water, fuels, cable TV, etc also work on a grid theory in order to make delivery possible. No matter what macro or micro system of transportation you are describing, the key to survival is in simple redundant systems and logistical processes. And although we now have high tech tools, really this is nothing new to human beings, the history of the species as described by Evolutionists discuss the theory of hunter-gatherer tribes roaming around, having seasonal patterns knowing where to find the food and transporting themselves by walking. Later agriculture based became prevalent as the most recent activity. And we know from written history of the last 10,000 years that mankind transported them selves for water, food, battle and later trade on the backs of animals, in the hulls of boats and on people powered apparatuses. The first pilgrims came to Plymouth Rock to set up that first colony by way of boat, as did Columbus to the West Indies before in 1492. Leif Erickson is said to have come over 1000 years earlier. As the colonies grew they built up the area, by building trails and roads. Later on we built inter coastal boat transportation, then trains, trolleys, barges, submarines, cars, trucks, buses, blimps, aircraft, helicopters, etc. Today transportation impacts every single part of our daily life and it is the Flow of Transportation, which is the one of the most important flows to insure quality of life and higher standards of living. If you ever have the opportunity to visit some of the Transportation museums in the New England States including the Trolley Museum in Maine; http://www.trolleymuseum.org/ and The Land Cole Transportation Museum in Bangor Maine; http://www.colemuseum.org/ . Danbury Railway Museum; http://www.danbury.org/drm/museum.htm ; and The Golden Age of Trucking Museum; http://www.goldenagetruckmuseum.com/ you will certainly conclude that, we have come a long way. As a matter of fact after visiting nearly every truck, aviation, railroad, trolley, ship museum in the country, one would have to say that we have put a huge emphasis on transportation in this country, from day 1. We have attempted to build unbelievable transportation items and prototypes for instance the Spouse Goose, jet powered bullet trains, under water autonomous vehicles and those X-Planes. Speaking of which if you have been to all the aviation and space museums you would have to be impressed with what we have achieved so far in air transportation, but we cannot stop here. Here are just a few of the museums we have been to; http://www.aircraftwashguys.com/action.shtml and look at these jet trains; http://www.aircraftwashguys.com/tours13.shtml down the street from the R and D, Department of transportation Center in Pueblo Colorado run by Bechtel . It is essential that we should continue research on all types of new and improved methods of transportation such Magnetic Levitation Trains, Hyper-Sonic Aircraft and space craft, Pelican type super transports, Mega-Cargo Blimps, Air-Cushioned Trains, Self Driving Trucks, Smart Cars, Pilot-Less Trains, UAVs, Underwater Unmanned Vehicles, RLV-Reusable Launch Vehicles Space Craft, Road Surface Safety Materials, Warning Systems and Smart Traffic Controls. We have discussed at length on our Bulletin Board all of these emerging technologies. It is important as populations expand to work on the Flow of Transportation components that improve the flows without increasing cods in the wheel with over burdensome rules for operators, slow moving steering committees, long-term bureaucrat heads, confines on R and D, duplication of regulations by states, pet projects, linear decision making and pure partisan politics. When transportation fails us we are put into a very bad situation. For instance in 1892 we saw the collapse of 4 railroads, right after the banks failed, 10’s of thousands became unemployed and thus the panic of 1893. If we study history we see that when transportation fails stability becomes uncertain and chaos can ensue. We saw during the recent Blackout power outage of 2003 when the subways stopped, traffic signals stopped, gas stations could not pump and the transportation stopped. Although people kept calm you can see the transportation issues with the movement of people. On the day and days following the International Terrorist events on 9-11 (before they were eventually put on the run and wiped out from the surface of the planet) we saw the grounding of all commercial aviation transportation, taking out a major sector of travel. Many people who were stranded soon found out that there are a multitude of other methods of transportation. These other forms of transportation included Amtrak, rental cars, Greyhound and Trailways, Tour buses, private cars, motor homes, trucks, etc. These back up systems in place of air travel may not have been as convenient, but a heck of a lot more convenient that the expeditions of Lewis and Clark or great migrations of families in covered wagons. Even the first automobile to travel across the United States set a record; it took exactly 66 days. Today you can drive it in four or five if you have to. Think about it. Having redundancies and today’s technologies in transportation we have protected the system for nearly any eventuality. Today in California, the BART train tram system is trying to figure out how to continue with mounting costs and California’s financial debacle of the Davis era. The idea to fix this problem has been pondered and they have come to the conclusion they need to. This is linear in thought and sure to destroy the integrity of confidence with the riders and patrons. Although with rider ship down due to less jobs in Silicon Valley, East Bay and in San Francisco raising fees to cover costs will mean even less riders, as a matter of fact when you surpass the cost that the average person is willing to forgo that unit of trade we call a “Dollar” for the opportunity to spend it somewhere else, there is a hyperbolic curve of people willing to continue to participate with the voting of that dollar. Simple supply and demand comes into play. With the Bay Area in California losing population and jobs there will need to be some restructuring. The BART system is one of the finest in the world, with tunnels under the bay, huge stations, which can handle huge volumes, parking and easy access, as well as a network of private shuttle services, corporate shuttles, city buses, taxi cabs, trolleys, CalTrain, Amtrak, Greyhound and private carriers with matching synchronized schedules. But when the economies of scale cannot be supported in times of a weak economy we need to figure out how we can lower costs and go for the volume needed. Water companies ask us to conserve and then raise our rates because they have fixed costs and charge per unit used, this of course does not mean we should not conserve water only that the incentives to do so do not take into consideration the innate characteristics of mankind. Obviously we should conserve water because it is a finite resource in a given drought year. As new systems are built they will need ways to conserve costs and it’s finite capacity. For instance the number of commuters traveling into NYC is only 1% higher than in 2000 than it was in 1990 as per the Census Study done by the transportation department. Now a new super system which will be even higher tech than the BART system is being built in New Jersey by the same company, it will be a world class system, state of the art. We need to figure out ways to save money on these systems through operational efficiencies. One way to save money is to spend more in the technological capital constructing of these projects and stack the deck with the highest of high tech. For instance the use of pilot-less trains. High Speed Trains have a great advantage over short distances that make standing in line bordering a plane and getting off a plane and finding a cab, shuttle or picking up a higher priced rent-a-car (supply and demand issues with decreased air travel). If you consider the two hours ahead of time they require for check in and screening, the one hour to get off the plane and get your checked bags, stand at the curb, drive to the location or hotel you can see that a 200 mph train; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0503/00000088.htm has the over all advantage, 3 hours at 200 mph is 600 miles. Distances of 700-800 mile trips, would be much better served by high-speed train. Distances, which are under 150 miles people usually will prefer to drive. So those mileages between 150 miles to 800 miles a bullet train is best. For those not wishing to fly for fear of flying, they may wish to travel up to 1500 miles or more by bullet train. The length of California on the 5 Freeway is about 1000 miles (try that in a truck at 55 mph?), similar to the width of Texas. Driving across TX can be a living hell and cause you to want to kiss the ground at the first off ramps in Louisiana or Las Cruses, New Mexico. Travelers have often made these “living hell” comments traveling from Denver to Kansas City. The distance from between NYC and Florida is about 900 miles (not an especially satisfying drive when you throw in Florida’s length), Salt Lake to San Francisco 600 miles, Denver to Chicago 900 miles, Detroit to D.C. 700 miles so you can see the benefits. One reoccurring idea from soccer moms traveling is to; piggy-back on flat bed rail cars, like ferry. The high-speed train could streak across the region and then you simply drive off. In studying this concept which seems more than relevant could be done by modifying the TTX Auto Hauler Trailers design for high-speed rail and put in a couple of portable toilets so you could get out and use the restroom. Then you have your car when you get there. Trains with no engineers are here and this is one way we can take out human error and reduce costs. Perhaps with the strong union controls in New Jersey, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Massachusetts, Connecticut. Maryland and D.C. it may not be feasible, but surely for cargo transport trains; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0803/00000083.htm and http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2003/09/01/smallb1.html . We recently saw another ferry accident, this one in NY when the pilot of the vessel fell asleep, which may have been a medical situation or condition, but never the less, accidents like these would be prevented by pilot-less transit systems, this would be no problem with modern technology. We know in the future this will be an accepted method and fully safe, today we will see a union propaganda road show with the media incited fear in our citizenry to protect their jobs through a blocking of these future technologies in the near term through self interests and political action committee donations to politicians and their decision makers on ‘K Street” this is unfortunate for mankind and the transportation advancements in this present period. All to often such linear decision-making hurts the process of incremental betterment for all. We have the technology now and this will improve safety, prevent hi-jacks from International Terrorists, improve operational costs by a pre-controlled perfect trip setting and lower labor, energy and fuel costs. With the increase of work place shootings of former fired workers, even if such technologies were set in motion, we might have displaced union workers try to sabotage these systems and then the first accident of a pilot-less train would get intense media coverage dwarfing the OJ Simpson, Kobe Bryant or Scott Peterson Court Trails. We often see pet projects, which make no sense, which due to public out cry also adversely affect the public trust in vital transportation projects. Causing one to wonder why we have lawyers and politicians at all. one for instance is a Vermont bill to have a high speed rail from Boston to Montpelier the capital of Vermont, well this is absolutely silly considering only about 8000 people live in Montpelier, VT and most of them are lawyers, politicians, small business owners and crystal meth drug addicts. I have a friend who was the police chief in that city who is a retired from Los Angeles Country Sheriffs Office. http://www.carwashguys.com/tour_vt.shtml . Talk about pet project ideas, spending the people’s money? Now if the project included New Hampshire’s capital and traveled up to Burlington VT and the University; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000002.htm ; and down to Boston, you might be able to justify it, but weather issues would be a big deal in winter, now it could seriously help Vermont and New Hampshire Tourism, but the distance is not great and a regular train would suffice. The projects across the country are worthy, but we should be doing more; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg1202/00000003.htm . For years they have been discussing High Speed Trains, between Los Angeles and Las Vegas and from Houston to San Antonio to El Paso, Houston to Dallas, Dallas to Austin to San Antonio, Dallas to Amarillo, Amarillo to Denver, Denver to Kansas City to Wichita to Oklahoma City to Dallas. Montana needs a high-speed rail and North, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska could all benefit from a high-speed rail system. Connecting the Mid West to all of the Texas markets and Texas to Los Angeles and Florida to Texas through the Southern States could vastly improve transportation and travel in this country. It would not hurt airlines. The discount airlines; such as Jet Blue, South West, America West, Air Tran; would continue to do well and time factors would be a reason to fly the coast-to-coast routes. Discounters can cut price and stay in business due to the business model used as a major part of their overall growth strategy; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/0000004f.htm . Greyhound Company might suffer in the beginning from a National Network of high-speed rail in the US, but that bus line is now owned by a Canadian Company anyway, eventually they will be able to work with the network to fill in the gaps and actually make more revenue for connecting people to final destinations. More contacts, competition and intra nation trade means the increase in the flow of transportation would bring America closer together and stronger. The United States is often more representative of a United Countries with our myriad of regulations and rules which change the second you cross the border into a new state, even though we really are one country. Obviously with Snow serving as Secretary of Treasury these issues have been studied on this grand scale, especially considering the decade of railroad consolidation during his time at the Helm of CSX. With roads in need of repair and traffic getting to be a major issue and our expanding population, we need to look ahead on these serious issues. With magnetic levitation and air-cushioned technology there is no reason we could not build a great network inexpensively that would have the speeds necessary for rapid movement of people. http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0802/0000000b.htm Also with the latest technologies it could have WiFi wireless computer access so no one is out of touch during the travel time. This is being done now in Baltimore to NY trains and in Sacramento to San Francisco Trains thanks to Amtrak. After all we now have WiFi hotspots at McDonalds, Starbucks, Airports and hotel lobbies already. http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=42029 By having these amenities we can get people to stay out of their cars and enjoy the commute and or take a high speed train on their next trip. Once the system is built the operational costs are relatively low considering the costs of expanding airports which tend to have cyclical trends during boom and bust years and thus hard to manage your ROI, with gates becoming empty and then new gates which need to be built in the up cycle. One only has to follow the sector rotations of the airline industry and take a trip through the California desert and look at Billions of dollars of Airliners sitting hibernated which may never be used again. Between the cut throat price wars, Bankruptcy tactics and now era of International Terrorism we need to rethink our transportation strategy to include other redundancy methods which can deliver the speed and comfort that we use to have in Commercial Aviation. We have only a couple Nationwide Bus Companies that deliver people across the country. We need to insure buses are safe also in the era of International Terrorism. After we wash all these buses; http://www.BusWashGuys.com and people feel comfortable with them again we should figure out how to make them safer and more efficient. We know that the International Terrorists like the idea of attacking buses as we watch every week another attack in Israel. There have many ideas on how buses like Greyhound might protect the drivers through use of a high-tech ultra-strength plastic shields or enclosed see-through boxes. Lately Canada and the FBI in United States have been looking at tour buses traveling into the country, looking into the riders and drivers. I once had a call from a Tour Bus Operator in Ontario Canada on his way to Florida Coast with Tourists, he was going to stop in Columbus GA or Across the river in Phoenix City, Alabama for the night. Think about this they found a make shift training facility for terrorism up the road about 45 miles. The bus again was to be driven from Canada to AL, with no scheduled stops. With large school districts sub contracting the school buses in this country and out sourcing though companies like Laidlaw, a Canadian Company along with the Greyhound Company owned by a Canadian holding company we need to be sure that our transportation system, which utilizes buses to deliver people to their desired destinations is watched closely. These buses travel along with private automobiles and share the roads, highway, freeways and toll ways. Having a strong bus sector for travel helps in that people can travel for less by bus and they have more options of where the buses can go. Some of these Greyhound buses go 500,000 miles between oil changes, the motors are never turned off, this is the level of efficiency and is rarely matched in public transportation systems. It is an integral part of our Flow of Transportation. Without buses schools would have a trouble educating our kids. In the future we will have more schools using the Internet for the hard to get to rural areas. One option is to schedule schools on staggered schedules based on where you live. So if you live on the East side of town you might go to school on Mondays and Wednesdays only. This would allow for areas to spend less on schools and get more work done and lower class size without bankrupting states, it would also alleviate the problems of massive amounts of buses to deliver kids to somewhere else to be taught, here are some thoughts on how we might assist schools without disrupting peak flows in the transportation departments of the educational facilities. http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0803/00000044.htm . Right now I see this being a method best used for those days when the weather is unacceptable to put kids in a bus and risk driving them to school through rural areas with unsafe roads for the conditions. Eventually those areas with over stressed budgets can look into the issues of large bus contracts or large bus fleets to move kids to schools which are not ready to accept such large temporary inflows of kids which might only last for a few years and then the school is under-utilized, thus might need to close and bus those kids even further in the future. Today many schools have set up modular classrooms in peak years as another strategy. This week Los Angeles Transit workers are on Strike and the RTD is not operating, this happens every few years. This disrupts the flow of people on their way to get food, go to work, attend college or visit friends. When the flow of transportation is disrupted it hurts our trust in the integrity of the system and affects our lives. When you design a city and have a transportation system to support the population and then turn it off you cause chaos. In Los Angeles they are having a grocery store strike this week along with a transit strike. So going to the store to buy food is irrelevant, because they are not open and you can’t get there anyway. Disruptions in flow hurt businesses in that their customers cannot get to them and their workers cannot come to work. This means businesses make less money, pay less taxes, might go out of business when times are already challenging and workers cannot get paid for working and therefore cannot pay their rents. Everyone loses. This is why we need additional choices of transportation. Shuttles, Taxis, private cars, buses, trains, aircraft, ferries, etc. The more choices and the more competition the better prices, level of services and quality. This means people can get where they need to get to, in order to fulfill their needs and desires or pursue their dreams, goals and happiness. Having public transportation break down is as bad as having roads in disrepair. One problem we have also is the roads in this country need to get more attention. What I usually see is construction projects that take years on major freeways, block traffic, slow logistics and make families traveling wait. This costs society as it is blocking or bottle-necking the flow of transportation costing the efficiencies of trucking, which is already stressed with over regulation, high insurance costs and fuel costs. Insurance costs in trucking passed onto consumers and vendors; http://www.parthe.net/_oilchangeguys/0000004c.htm and after 9-11 there have been many other reasons for high insurance on the businesses, many smaller trucking companies are really hurt by this; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0503/00000060.htm and regulations and fuel costs are tough also with increased competition from large super consolidated trucking companies; http://www.parthe.net/_oilchangeguys/00000057.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_oilchangeguys/00000058.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg1202/00000068.htm . Trucking will have to find new and innovative ways to improve efficiencies to continue. http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0803/0000000e.htm . One thing which is becoming more typical is the piggy back on the flat bed rail car approach, where the trailer is delivered across the country and the tractor hooks up to it and takes it to it’s final destination. This means that fewer trucks will be on the road and the driver shortages that the industry is experiencing will not increase safety issues with newer and inexperienced drivers filling those jobs. Each time a truck is in an accident with a four-wheeler, the DOT does a report and this increases the costs for all trucking companies and adds to even more regulations. As more cars are sold in the US and the auto manufacturers continue to make and sell more cars to keep the factories open and increase profits in the sector we are seeing the freeways and large cities have huge peak time traffic jams. We are seeing more accidents too. Much is being done to prevent these increases in accidents to protect the public, although we are also seeing less attention to the road with cell phones, DVD players, Surround a sound entertainment centers, etc creating sensory perception over load. The military has done testing in combat stress situations on this and the reality of the performance of the human brain with such distractions is all to real and can lead to accidents as well. http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0803/00000033.htm . One idea came in to me today was to put a little light on the dash boards of cars so when an ambulance, fire truck or police car with lights and sirens was on it would flash on the dash board to alert drivers to pull over. This could very easily be done with a small network sensor in every car and a small light on the dash, which would activate automatically when an emergency vehicle was within one-eighth of a mile away. Clean windows of course help for visibility; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0503/00000012.htm . Other ideas which are on their way to a car near you include such things as improved kids car seats: http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0503/00000063.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg1202/0000006f.htm . Also innovations in air bags, radars and simple things you can do to protect yourself; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000007.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0803/0000004f.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0503/00000080.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/0000000e.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/0000000c.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000014.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0503/0000002c.htm If you are involved in an accident you need to be aware of what to do, chances are every driver will sometime be involved in an accident sometime in their lives http://www.parthe.net/_cwg701/00000030.htm If you are wondering what safety features you next car might have check out this list and see if your choice for your next car is safe enough for your family http://www.parthe.net/_cwg900/0000004e.htm . For safety sake the silent running electric vehicles will now be required to make noise. To prevent accidents of other cars, bicycles and pedestrians. Electric Automobile makers are using this as a marketing tool saying you can choose the sound you wish your car to make. You can get the Ferrari Sound, Beethoven, Motorcycle sound, or even swooshing air. The sounds will be played at 60 watts with speakers facing out. And will be required by law so you have to choose one when you buy the car. You can get the sound of the day buying all seven if pay for that added feature. If you are a street racing enthusiast, count on new safety items for you too; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0803/0000000c.htm . The Auto Service industry also takes this seriously too; http://www.parthe.net/_oilchangeguys/00000021.htm . Some say the best way to stay safe is to be bigger and others say that is the problem; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0503/00000076.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_oilchangeguys/0000005c.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000003.htm . In case you are wondering why we study this, it is because 47,000 people a year lose their lives in traffic accidents. You are worried about the Iraq conflict? This is 2000 times greater. Another huge issue of cars mixing with truck traffic has been studied to death, probably due to the deaths, which can result. I can tell you having driven some 500,000 miles around the country that when you are on the open highway and you separate the speeds of cars and trucks by too much for example trucks drive 55 and cars drive 70 you are asking for an accident to happen. There are many places in this country where the speed differentials are like this. What happens is that cars try to pass at bad times adjust for the trucks and end up causing an accident. Did you know more traffic deaths are caused going up hills than down hills? Why due to the severe speed differential, slow vehicles and fast vehicles trying to pass or adjust and fit in between cars moving in faster lanes, many of these accidents are rear collisions or partial rear collisions. These are among some of the most severe accidents. Trucking is very proactive in their safety innovations as well; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg900/00000230.htm due to the previously discussed insurance costs. A new warning system will soon be located on trucks to warn them of an impending rollover risk. The devise will be activated either by transponder on the roadway or roadside service vehicles. It is possible that the 15,000 truck rollovers per year will be cut by over 45%. One thing we must realize is when we make rules to help in aspects of safety the must not slow the flow of traffic or transportation. They should solve both problems, improve flow and improve safety. For instance when improving the roads there are special markings, which work better in inclement weather such as fog, rain or wind storms. Also available to us are incredible new roadway materials, which reduce road noise, help the tires grip better, stop quicker, repel water and do not ice up as easy. Similar techniques have been learned to prevent ice from forming on bridges. There are many problems with freeways and toll ways in America. First the toll ways in America are clogging the flow of traffic. http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000011.htm With the proper systems in place like the Los Angeles, Atlanta, Baltimore video cameras on the freeways and the system in Seattle run by Battelle, there are ways protect the people, monitor the flow, prevent International terrorist attack using our road ways and alleviate any impending rush hour grid lock. All toll ways should disappear in all states and interstate toll ways and highways and become freeways. This increases flow and removes the cancer blocking the transportation life-line. We should take all the information we know about flows and information and use them to keep our systems safe. http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0503/00000046.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0503/00000045.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/0000001e.htm . We take all the traffic information, weather information, daytime population migrations, census data and we put it all together and display it on a 4-D model we can watch and study to improve traffic flow; http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000058.htm . By doing this we can see what the roads on the NY Toll way into NYC are doing with pot holes the size of wheel barrels and destroying truck undercarriages and suspensions on even the Hummer SUVs. Giving your hard earned money to pay toll and then being subjected to bumpy roads which are ruining your car. Imagine paying to drive on a road when you cannot even keep from having your Big Gulp or Starbucks popping out of the drink holders. This is modern bureaucracy at best and highway robbery at least. But to be fair the 101 and 118 in California are about as bad ever since the North ridge Earth Quake. Also the I-10 East of Houston all the way to Lake Charles, LA are utterly horrendous. The I-20 and I-30 Freeways in Arkansas are a fine how do you do to travelers and the Wal-Mart trucks. There is no excuse for such roads in such a modernized country. To even think this might be acceptable only proves that some have never known any better, meaning this lackadaisical attitude in these places and agreement to live in mediocrity has gone on for generations. Surely we can fix the roads and prevent equipment failure for a smooth transportation flow. In these areas mentioned we see the traffic is very bad due to people slowing down to 35 miles per hour in places to negotiate the potholes, ripples in the road and constant bumps. The current bidding process for road projects is also flawed due to the mandated minority bidding requirements. The HUB process is also flawed and the entire idea of minority bidding quotas is a politically correct notion, which is incorrect thinking. In fact it has become used and abused and fails to even come close to providing minority businesses with opportunity. The theory was ill though and now the public pays for it over and over again with projects, which are in default of contract, take extra months and years to complete and are awarded to those who cannot perform and have little track record of ever performing. All these delays cause a restriction of flow, artificial choke points, continuous detours and costs to companies which are passed onto the consumers like an additional tax on society. After the North Ridge Earth Quake there was a company who hired a black guy to be the minority bidder, gave him title of President had him drive around in a pick-up truck which said supervisor, yet he had no more to do with the project than name and of course a high pay check. Turns out there were no black business man bidders except this guy who could not do it, so he hired out the larger and more experienced construction company. This hardly seems right. No one ever talks about this stuff, but it happens every day in government contracts all over America all in the interest of political correctness. It is a waste of money and rewards mediocrity. The best person should get the job regardless of race or color. So much is at stake in our infrastructure for transportation in America it requires reality based thinking, not political correctness without consideration of performance risks. The flow of transportation affects our lives in a very big way and it is unacceptable to approach such contracts to be given out using the current method. In the US there are surface streets, which are outrageous as well. In Missoula, MT they have an intersection called “Dysfunction Junction”, which is an understatement. Although this is just one example, AAA puts out a list of the most dangerous roads in America with the most accidents. There are over 100 listed. Now most states have gird lock laws which make it against the law to block an intersection when the cross traffic has a green light. Downtown streets in metro areas across the country are in gridlock during rush hours. The traffic on the freeways near the center of towns all the way out to the suburbs is outrageous. Much to this is due to improper planning. You see the cities in America started where there was a river and small populations sprung up, then the railroad steam engines needed a place to fill up the water. Eventually the towns got larger and grew near the rail stations. Then as people moved outward and behind the downtown areas they grew without regards to modern day planning methods, making increased surface transportation rather difficult. Today master planned communities and larger city planners design the outlining areas with ring roads. Yet even with all these modern theories you still get the terms; Spaghetti Bowl, Mixing Bowl, Cluster F_ck, by those who have to navigate such areas where major roads all come together. One little fender bender and the entire system breaks down. When cities are built around bodies of water a ring road theory or design fails because ring road concept serves the center, but in the center is only those fish, which are used by the Sierra Club to file lawsuits on behalf of. If you look at large cities near bays, the successful ones with transportation flows have concentric rings around the outside of the lake or bay. The traffic flows in Bay Cities is often ill conceived and causes problems with growth and makes for deplorable traffic conditions. Some cities have meandered traffic flows to make sure that all roads lead to the regional mall, auto mall and of course City Hall, in order to collect revenue from the sales tax as consumers buy products in their city. This was the big push in city strategy between the 1980’s and 1990’s and for the most part it worked but caused local traffic to go around such roads and thus caused other streets traffic issues, but the cities had the money they needed to build parks and maintain high levels of city services. In the 1990’s a new fad started the older cities and even newer projects worked to build a downtown with tilt up prefabs like the project in Columbus, Ohio at the Limited Co. mall. These projects go on today in many cities trying to revitalize downtown. http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000060.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000062.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/0000005f.htm and http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000028.htm and for the cities which work to bring people back to downtown and the flow into those areas which have experienced urban flight to “the burbs” it has come with hard fought eventual success. The Smart Growth debate will continue until far into the future, what is of importance is to not lose sight of the flows, which go into the proper growth. Here is a very relevant article which makes this point quite well; http://www.tripnet.org/smartgrowth.htm . Just like the song; The foot bone is connected to the leg bone, the leg bone is collected to the hip bone, the hip bone is connected to the…. In other words all roads are connected in some way to all other roads even if a ferry is in-between. All roads are connected to all bus stations and all railways connect and intersect to all roads. And all airports are connected to one another and to the ground transportation. Ring roads and proper surface street infrastructures separate the good transportation flows from the bad ones. Some cites have done better than others in this regard, but one only has to look at places like San Francisco and the Bay area to see the problems. If you look at 101 and 280 on the West side of the bay you can see attempts at a solution with connecting highways, but they are far and few between. Even down lower in San Jose the last minute expressways are hard to navigate and were put in too late. East Bay is a complete disaster and you can see why BART was necessary. There are many good examples of ring roads which have been done correctly for instance Houston, but when you add people so fast, even a well done system can be overloaded. Most of our major cities are now over loaded with cars and the roads are not handling the flow. And we keep making them and buying them, which is our choice as consumers. The problems are that we are not utilizing our transportation systems correctly, We have peak periods where no one can get anywhere and times when the streets are literally empty. We have the same problem at Airports, where aircraft are usually parked in the middle of the night and fewer and fewer red eye flights these days. Instead we should be trying to figure out a way to use these resources better. http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000060.htm And http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000063.htm There is tremendous growth at our airports for instance Dallas, Las Vegas, Atlanta, San Francisco, LAX, etc. And many other smaller airports Akron/Canton, Long Beach, Flint Michigan, etc. are seeing incredible growth. The FAA is in need of less regulation from other bureaucracies to do it’s job as well as some privatization. The EPA routinely withholds monies to airports until they comply with NPDES permits with EPA and will withhold funds or add in those costs in their funding as mandates. The problem is that first you need to expand the airport and thus increase revenues then you can solve these other issues. But the bureaucracy is unnerving. Having been around airports all my life and discussing things with small, medium and large Airport Managers and Executives their issues are not being served and their hands are tied behind their backs with mandates from the DOT, Congress, EPA, Homeland Security, it is amazing they are still able to even function. My Grandfather was the former head of the FAA at Fresno International and these issues are very old, they have been going on for years. Airports are an integral part of our transportation system. Many Airports have become great transportation hubs as needed by the patrons who frequent them. Chicago, Newark, LaGuardia, Reagan, San Francisco, Hawaii, PHX, and many others have figured out how to move people in and out quickly and connecting them to the desired ground transportation. Likewise those which are in close proximity to bus-train stations hubs or have incorporated them into the overall plan seem to really do well for the traveling public. Trams, which go from the airport to downtown or to the bus or train terminals and parking structures for rent-a-cars, really serve there nearby cities well. This brings in business to the cities and completes the transportation loop. Economic Development Associations, which work closely with their airports will often are able to encompass the needs of the people, businesses and government into a seamless. We see in the organized world of the Japanese with their transit systems and floating airports and super engineering anti-Tsunami bridges many ideas in the theory of flow, which assists every part of their society. Although it is much more sterile in the eyes of the world of the “Beef Man” who knows a good steak when he sees one and gets busy eating it like a real man, we can learn a little bit from their ideas in the system of flows and simplicity once the giant infrastructure projects are finally completed. We have some really great boarder line world-class transportations systems in the US but they are not cohesive in all regards. Alas, but with a little fine tuning they certainly could be and with all the space we have in this country we have so many possibilities of making it logistically perfect, people friendly, efficient in operation, safe from International Terrorists, redundant without worry of break down and cost effective to increase usage and confidence with the patrons. To do this we must prevent trucking regulations which are duplicated in every state and often contradictory. EPA laws have to take into consideration the free-market mechanism to clean the air. http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0503/0000000d.htm . We have seen severe restrictions and deadlines forced on the trucking industry which should have better considered. When large items need to travel down existing roadways and are considered wide loads, long loads or oversized loads they often have different rules for different states, highways, federal and even some counties have their own rules. Making it difficult to get a much needed part to a power plant, military base, infrastructure project, building, government agency or individual. When businesses have to deal with all these different, often redundant rules and regulations they cannot use the existing transportation system and when these things happens it hurts the flow of products and services to the over all people that it was built to serve. In addition to this every permit, fee, fine or rule imposed causes and increase in cost and an over all tax on society. When we slow any form of transportation, increase regulations these costs are passed on. When companies are over taxed passed the amount their customers can afford they have tow choices, file bankruptcy like United Airlines, Consolidated Freightways, Penn Central Railroad, Budget Group, Laidlaw, etc. Now we could discuss the transportation sector and bankruptcies of the last three decades for 36 hours and never get to the bottom of it. What needs to be considered is that when regulations to prevent accident slow the flow of transportation to the point that profit cannot be made because the costs for rider ship or shipping a product is out of sinc with reality of the free market then we all lose in that loss. Friedman Economics comes into play here and too the books of Ayn Rand, we cannot use linear thinking to run the wheels of government bureaucracy due to media stirred controversy and PAC politics. Transportation must be above all that if we are to insure the integrity of it’s flow. The flow of transportation cannot be compromised by the mere threat of International Terrorism, nor should we allow it to be used against us. By making the transportation system all encompassing, no one problem can stop the flow. No one terrorist act can prevent our system from serving the will of the country and people. All rules, laws, regulations, incremental changes, and screening in all forms of our transportation infrastructure must use the most technological advanced systems to see that the we can move people, products and services efficiently, cost effectively and quickly. I hope you have enjoyed this chapter “The Flow of Transportations” in this project called “Improving The Flow of All We Know.” My name is Lance Winslow, I drive a truck, http://www.carwashguys.com/blitz.html and Thanks for listening.

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