The Flow of Transportation in the United States is crucial as it is
everywhere. 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.carwashguys.com/boatlaunch.shtml

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...NC-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

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

http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stori...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

http://www.parthe.net/_oilchangeguys/00000058.htm

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

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

http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0803/0000004f.htm

http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0503/00000080.htm

http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/0000000e.htm

http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/0000000c.htm

http://www.parthe.net/_cwg0703/00000014.htm

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

http://www.parthe.net/_oilchangeguys/0000005c.htm

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 opening overview to start the
Online Dialogue on the The Flow of Transportations?

About the Author

Lance Winslow: http://www.carwashguys.com/history/founder.html