|
|
Solve Someone's Problem
There are immediate market niches where JPods can create profits by saving people time and money. Morgantown is a great example that can be down-sized to make more distributable and inexpensive. Below the following videos are network examples with specific paybacks listed. In general, the cost to finanance, buiild, operate, maintain and power these networks is about 1/3rd that of oil based transportation.
|
Albuquerque, NM |
Airport to local hotels, 1 mile |
 |
Anchorage, AK |
Airport to downtown hotels, 1 mile |
 |
Chicago, IL |
Chicago can be networked with a dramatic cut in transportation costs. The industrial base on the western shore of Lake Michigan is very important to quickly expanding production capacity. |
 |
CGV, Cincinatti, OH |
Airport with two major physical barriers, the Ohio River and large river bluffs. Transport between downtown and the airport is often 30 minutes to an hour for an "as the crow flies" distance of about 9 miles. |
 |
Crystal City / Potomac Yard |
High density urban area with incredible mass transit. Yet congestion is still a major problem. Parking is expensive and difficult. The community has the political capacity to lead a major re-tooling of sustainable infrastructure. |
 |
De Anza College, Cupertino, CA |
This is a 260 meter Horizontal-Elevator connecting a bus stop to the campus across a very busy parking lot. These type networks can be deployed between buildings such as in a hospital complex. |
 |
Edina, MN |
Center of a large and commercially powerful beltway. Yet access within the area and to the City of Minneapolis is congested 3-8 hours per day. This is 6 miles from a major airport. It is a significant regional retail location and 6 miles from the Mall of America (a significant international retail location). |
 |
Hingham & Hull, MA |
Hull, MA has a long history of transportation innovation. It was to home to the first electrically powered railroad. |
 |
Huntsville, AL |
High density urban area with incredible mass transit. Yet congestion is still a major problem. Parking is expensive and difficult. The community has the political capacity to lead a major re-tooling of sustainable infrastructure. |
 |
I-35W Minneapolis, IN |
Rescue-Rail deployment to solve bridge collapse congestion. |
pdf |
Lilly, Indianapolis, IN |
Private network between major industrial campuses of a single corporation. |
 |
Kunming, China |
First city to adopt the transition to solar-powered mobility. |
 |
Minneapolis, MN |
Minneapolis has experienced a larger than expected ridership on its LRT line (25,000+) riders per day. JPods can run rails radially and laterally in about 8 directions to give access to similar numbers of riders. |
 |
MSP, Minneapolis-St Paul, MN |
Network the economic community around the airport in stages. This will include the Mall of America, hotels on the 494 Corridor, park and rides, redevelopment in the noise abatement area of Richfield and other business, commercial and educational interests as far west as Eden Prairie. Security will be enhanced as congestion and traffic are diminished around the airport. |
 |
New Orleans |
Network at New Oleans' Airport. This is a 4 mile network to link parking, car rental, nearby hotels and freight management companies |
 |
Oakland, CA |
Networks for the City of Oakland |
 |
Ontario, CA |
Networks for the City of Ontario |
 |
Ottawa |
Major metro area and the capital of Canada. Wonderfully beautiful city with significant population densities arrayed across a 'green belt' of natural and agricultural land. Currently spending a $billion on Light Rail for 31 km. Great comparision that they could resolve many congestion problems and have 200 km of JPods for about the same capital costs. JPods would add to the cities revenue. Light Rail will require operational subsidies. |
 |
Sacramento, CA | Example of a 12 by 22 mile network and connection to the airport applied to the City of Sacramento. Colors note 10, 20 and 30 minutes from blue crosshair. |
 |
San Jose, CA | Significant International airport disconnected from regional rail capacity. Parking and other access constrained by the high cost and limited real estate.The community has the capital assets, technical and intellectual capacity to lead a major re-tooling of sustainable infrastructure. |
 |
Santa Cruz, CA | Santa Cluz has requested proposals to build a network in the city. The proposal is included in this link. |
 |
Seattle, WA |
Example of a major metro area that wants to be "green" but still pours vast amounts of capital dollars into promoting oil dependency.May break from the "oil addiction' and seriously engage in sustainable infrastructure. The community has the capital assets, technical and intellectual capacity to lead a major re-tooling of sustainable infrastructure. |
 |
Shakopee Souix Community |
Forward thinking Souix leaders are moving their entire community into oil independence with energy use and energy production capabilities.Putting a network in the Mystic Lake complex benefits by being independent of the adminstrative road blocks to innovation. |
 |
St Paul, MN |
St Paul, MN will be hosting the Republican National Convention in 2008. It has little sustainable infrastructure and significant need to lead the way in demostrating the ability to end the "oil addiction". |
 |
Virginia, Northern Metro |
Example of JPods feeder rails to existing Metro Stations. |
 |
|
|
|
There is a carrot and stick for building solar-powered transportation networks.
- Carrot: About 85 cents of every dollar spent on oil can be recovered by re-tooling transportation networks as jobs, infrastructure and profits.
- Stick: We much either reduce energy required per passenger-mile by 80% or nature (Peak Oil and Global Warming) will forcably reduce the number of passengers by 80%
The timeline looks like 2012. The Olduvai Gorge malthusian collapse assumes an oil-powered economy. We need to transition to a solar-powered transition fast enough to push the 2012 tipping point further into the future. This will be hard but doable. By 3 efforts:
- Victory Gardens; self-reliance begins with the self. Food security is a fundamental personal responsibility.
- Feed-in Tariffs (FIT); allow small businesses to generate and distribute electricity.
- Performance Standards; grant access to transportation rights of way based on exceed a Performance Standard of 300 watt-hours per passenger-mile (114 miles per gallon). Following is a table showing a guess that we need about 1.4 millon miles of sustainable transportation networks to displace about 70% of oil-powered transport and secure the food distribution system and get people to and from work in this era of post Peak Oil.
| URBAN | Miles of Road | | % converted | Miles of PRT |
| Interstate | 13,491 | | 600% | 80,946 |
| Other Freeways and Expressways | 9,175 | | 200% | 18,350 |
| Other Principal Arterial (115-130ft) | 53,447 | | 200% | 106,894 |
| Minor Arterial (80-106 ft) | 89,911 | | 200% | 179,822 |
| Collector (60-90 ft) | 88,604 | | 120% | 106,325 |
| Local Road (little thru traffic) | 598,514 | | 100% | 598,514 |
| URBAN SUBTOTAL | 853,142 | | | 1,090,851 |
| | | | |
| RURAL | | | | |
| Interstate | 33,067 | | 200% | 66,134 |
| Other Principal Arterial | 98,952 | | 100% | 98,952 |
| Minor Arterial (80-106 ft) | 137,751 | | 50% | 68,876 |
| Major Collector (60-90 ft) | 433,754 | | 10% | 43,375 |
| Minor Collector (limited thru traffic) | 272,360 | | 0 | 0 |
| Local Road (no thru trafffic) | 2,102,977 | | 0 | 0 |
| RURAL SUBTOTAL | 3,078,870 | | 9% | 277,337 |
| | | | |
| TOTAL miles | 3,932,012 | | 35% | 1,368,188 |
Energy and transportation problems are so overwhelming the tendency is to look for a single quick fix. There are none and we are out of time. Severe consequences are by the most optomistic estimates 26 years away. It will take 50 years to re-tool our economies. At JPods we wake up every morning wondering if we can invent something today or rally more people to act in advance to shave a little off being at least 24 years behind unavoidable consequences.
The good news we can, by working together, driving everyday, implement a process that will forge a bright future from our current state.
The significant problems we face. cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. Albert Einstein
In the very near future there will be much fewer resources than needs. For communities that aid in early action, we pledge 3 things:
- Deployment will be executed on a first come, first served basis. Communities that grant right of way first will be the first served. Installations that are economically viable, JPods will assist in funding the network. Example networks are listed below.
- JPods will work with any community to educate your children on sustainable infrastructure.
- JPods needs and will place factories and create jobs in communities that act in advance of consequences.
- JPods welcomes competitors and will actively support industry organizations that promote sustainable infrastructure. The task at hand will far exceeds all known capacities.
If your community or you personally would like to help to implement sustainable infrastructure, please contact us immediately, bill.james@jpods.com.
Please consider when looking at the very high rate of return on investment of JPods networks that the standard against which we compete has been stagnant, mired in regulation for 60 years. Implementing in specific niches, creating new revenue sources for cities, followed by changes forced by Global Warming and Peak Oil will shatter those obstacles.
There is no obstacle to deploying 10-20 miles of JPods networks per day per installation team. This also may seem incredible but remember on April 28, 1869 a crew from the Central Pacific layed 10 miles of heavy rail between sunrise and sunset. The long installation time of current infrastructure is a decision, not a requirement.
|
|