In a recent report, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) states that the US infrastructure (public buildings and services. water supply, roads, electrical grid, health system, schools etc) is badly maintained, unsafe, and unable to meet current and future demands. In the 2009 Report Card for America's Infrastructure that the ASCE released, yes its sounds like we are all still in school, the overall grade is a D. The bad stuff about this has been all over the news, however, the ASCE was kind enough to give a few positive solutions.
- Increase federal leadership in the infrastructure.
- Promote sustainability and resilence - attention inventors, a huge market lies in developing green technologies and energy sources
- Makes federal, state and local infrastructure plans.
- Address life cycle plans and ongoing maintenance.
- Increase and improve infastructure investment from all stakeholders.
My research suggests that transport need not be what it is today.
That it can be very reasonably and quite lucratively accomplished with out the vast bulk (potentially 97%) of its current energy and resource consumptions. In a manner of form and processes which are ecologically and environmentally sound. And whose dramatically enhanced economies and exponentially increased abilities promise to truly revolutionize the utilizing populations abilities.
20 years ago my interest in sustainability issues suggested that in order to achieve a sustainable society, that such a society must absolutely must continually devise, implement and utilize a full set of social and economic processes whose abilities are not only respective to the populations needs but whose accumulated impacts are respective to the maintenance of life’s living working support processes.
In a review of our current infrastructures. I found that they are not only failing to meet the increasing needs of the population but they are also not respective to the maintenances of ecological and environmental needs. Our collection of distribution processes have become antiquated and are not at all respective to our current abilities. That they were devised in a far off time and in a much different understanding than which exists today.
An attempt to understand if some reasonable measure of change could be accomplished I uncovered an old transportation design which had intrigued me as its cost and benefits appeared to be a step in the right direction. Both addressing a large enhancement in social and economic processes and resolving some large ecological and environmental issues as well. The 1970′s design rather simply proposed the implementation of a permanent structure which would serve to provide support and that accomplishment of fixed rigidly controlled lanes. It called for utilizing individual electric motors to which in place vehicles and containers could then be attached.
A system whose considerable cost in structural provision seems to be preventative. However that is a misconception. As a comparison with today’s highways suggest it to be a very lucrative investment. Such a system composed of primarily permanent structure and permanent processes is largely different in cost than are the highways of today whose cost are almost entirely short lived, high maintenance, energy and resource consuming processes. The economics here I suspect are similar to those being encountered in Atomic energy production. A large investment is incurred in implementation whose cost is primarily interest. One which then produces energy with out a dependency on conventional resource consumption costs.
In this case however the larger investment seems to have a interest cost which is less than currently being incurred in highways and the vastly more efficient energy efficient processes appear capable of capturing energy values which truly dwarf the investment costs. I suspect there is an opportunity to achieve a investment return that is at minimum 3 to possibly 9 times greater return in energy values. Basically transports true costs can then become largely reduced and then held to the profitable provision of a permanent structure and processes.
The benefits of such a systems accomplishment are not at all limited to the economics of structural, resource, and energy efficiencies. The social benefits are just as staggeringly positive. As that accomplishment of transport on fixed pathways and in controlled environments allows a large number of other benefits to become realized as well. Accidents ca be made impossible. The Federal DOT claims we incur twice as much cost each year in accidents and congestion, than we currently spend on highways. Automation can remove human error, close the distances between vehicles and it can also allow the speeds to become largely increased. All of which will dramatically increase the systems flow rate capacities, which can significantly reduce the amount of structure which is required. One lane can replace 9 lanes of highway.
Our modern society, our humanity, is indeed standing at the edge of taking a most momentious step. One whose beggining, incremental and ever increasing realization promises to bring us all into a very prolonged period of such enahnced capabilities that we may then begin to get beyond nealy al the difficulties we know today.
I can reasonably support this accomplishment of large change through the utilization of little more than 50 year old structure and technological applications whose outcome’s are known and reliably proven.
The quetion is not a technical ability. The question for me is how to capture the interest and support which is necessary to bring it to hopefully a speedy realization.
An implementation does promise the ability to employ the now idled work force and to restore that lost economy. While its accomplishment achieves an unprecedened level of abilities in social, economic, environmental and ecological pursuits.
Gods Speed
George Schrader cell 850 527 7612
1208 Grace Ave. Panama City, FL 32401
scurader@comcast.net