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Privately Funded, Solar-Powered Transportation for Malibu, CA

Situation:Life requires energy. Oil is finite. Less affordable energy, less life.
Problem:Moving a ton to move person.
Solution:Strive to move only the person.
Benefit:
  • Save families a car payment per month.
  • End transportation pollution contributing to Climate Change.
  • America saves $600 billion a year spent to import foreign oil.
  • America saves part of the $600 billion a year spent to defend access to foreign oil.


Studies and Reference Documents



JPods Concept: 10x Paradigm Shift

Transcontinental Railroads were built a 3 to 10 miles per day per crew. Deployment of JPods is expected to be similar.



Business case for JPods



JPods in Malibu

Start small, iterate relentlessly.













Counting walking, ticketing and travel time from the Blue Cross, areas in Green are 10 minutes, areas in Yellow are in 20 minutes and areas in Red are in 30 minutes. Black lines represent computer instructions on distances for calculating travel times, not precise routes.









Short video clips using the Meadowlands as an example of how Time-Maps are created:





Power of Niche Solutions: JPods, Bikes, LUVs (Local Use Vehicles), ET3 and others

JPods are railroads that are grade-separated from the organic plane. People and animals move without risk of accidents from 2 ton vehicles. As more and more congested car traffic is removed from roads, roads become safer for alternative transportation solution. Bikes and Local Use Vehicles become safe to use.

Since CargoPods, DirtPods, SewagePods, TrashPods and other specialty vehicles also remove truck traffic, lower the costs of moving goods and cost of highway repairs (road costs increase as the 4th power of axle weight). Connecting the city to rail heads, airports and harbors will substantially improve the cities options for resupply and waste removal.



JPods formed an alliance with Club Car in 2009 to integrate Local Use Vehicles with JPods networks to provide safe, low cost, last mile solutions. JPods is working to deploying networks in Fayette County, GA. The County for Peachtree City.

Match Stations to Communities

Images by Robert Therrien and Judeth Van Hamm matching JPods technology to local esthetics. This network is primarily locally owned. Local interests will make the decisions.

Example station:




Fire, Earthquake and Beach Defense

Rescue-Rail networks can be temporarily deployed to:
  • Mitigate transportation disruptions after an earthquake.
  • Deploy along contours to deliver water and help fight fires.
  • Create and then remove wave breaks.


Link to the talking points with the Deputy Commanding General of the US Army Corps of Engineers





Jobs and Save Families a Car Payment per Month

Jobs: Adopt Performance Standards and jobs will created building and exporting JPods Networks. Download an example city plan.

Economic Lifeboat: Oil if finite. Life based on oil is terminal. We build Economic Lifeboats that make cities durable against unstable oil prices and supply.

Presentation to the Fremont, CA City Council by co-founders of the Alameda Mobility Company on the importance of sustainable transportation and lifestyles to young people.





Based on a study by the Center for Housing Policy, as transportation as a service network density increase, families have fewer gasoline, car and insurance payments. Disposable income increases. As gasoline prices rise, families have ever more trouble affording to pay for both their mortgage and commute. CNBC article: Missing $4, 155? It Went Into Your Gas Tank This Year



Security: Life Requires Energy. Less Affordable Energy, Less Life

Joint Forces Command's Joint Operating Environment 2010 (JOE-2010) warning to all US military commands:
  "By 2012, surplus oil production capacity could entirely disappear, and as early as 2015, the shortfall in output could reach nearly 10 million barrels per day."

"A severe energy crunch is inevitable without a massive expansion of production and refining capacity. While it is difficult to predict precisely what economic, political, and strategic effects such a shortfall might produce, it surely would reduce the prospects for growth in both the developing and developed worlds. Such an economic slowdown would exacerbate other unresolved tensions, push fragile and failing states further down the path toward collapse, and perhaps have serious economic impact on both China and India. At best, it would lead to periods of harsh economic adjustment. To what extent conservation measures, investments in alternative energy production, and efforts to expand petroleum production from tar sands and shale would mitigate such a period of adjustment is difficult to predict. One should not forget that the Great Depression spawned a number of totalitarian regimes that sought economic prosperity for their nations by ruthless conquest."

"Energy production and distribution infrastructure must see significant new investment if energy demand is to be satisfied at a cost compatible with economic growth and prosperity."

"The discovery rate for new petroleum and gas fields over the past two decades (with the possible exception of Brazil) provides little reason for optimism that future efforts will find major new fields."

Foward by General James N Mattis





Self-reliance Will Result from Free Market Solutions

In 1984 communications infrastructure was restored to free markets resulting in millions of jobs, vast innovation and better service at lower costs. That same success can be repeated as transportation and power infrastructure are restored to free markets via Performance Standards. It is the interaction between customers and innovators in free markets that allows innovations to scale to commercial viability.

After the 1973 Oil Crisis a Personal Rapid Transit network (PRT) was built in Morgantown, WV. It has delivered 110 million oil-free, injury-free passenger-miles. Car accident are mostly unnecessary. Few parents would allow their children to ride a roller coaster with the safety record of Department of Transportation highways. Radically more safer and more efficient transportation is well understood:
  • Freight railroads average 480 ton-miles per gallon. Yet the Interstate Highway network caused the loss of thousands of miles of railroads.
  • The Personal Rapid Transit network (PRT) in Morgantown, WV has delivered 110 million oil-free, injury-free passenger-miles since being built as a solution to the 1973 Oil Embargo. In the same period Morgantown PRT has been injury-free, the highway monopoly has killed 1.3 million Americans.