Executive White Paper - The Puget Pullway Development Task
"The Pullway embodies several features that realize conservation in our nation and the world."
Mechanically, a pullway is an upgrade for urban and regional segments of existing single lanes of grade-separated highways serving commuter and transit needs. By addition of an overhead guideway, modules, and couplers, it enables electrification from the grid. It thus pulls cars and minibuses along without gasoline. Then, by exploiting the guideway’s potential for steering, spacing and stopping quickly, it adds 200% capacity, reducing congestion, improving safety by about ten times, reducing vehicle energy consumption to a third of present and eliminating or reducing congestion. Accidents on a Pullway will be extremely rare: no rear-enders, no sideswipes, and no skid-caused accidents.
Traction is augmented by the guideway. Vehicles roll on their own tires. The guideway steers but does not replace the pavement. The pullway is end-to-end, garage to office. The conventional lanes alongside are always open and enable the pullway to close at night. While occupying one lane, it offers, for example, 3 lanes equivalent, or 5 lanes equivalent from a 3 lane corridor. It can mobilize 5400 vehicles/hr high quality mobility in one lane, congestion free, accident free, incident free while leaving the other lanes for conventional traffic: oversize or un-modified POV; big buses and trucks. The upgrade thus provides up to 9000 vehicles/hr. by adapting to or adopting the Pullway. More could be had; the pullway only uses the lower half of the lane.
Financially, the pleasing decrement from the current 17 cents-per-mile energy cost of driving is reduced by electrification to between 4c and 7c per mile. An initial toll of at least 17c/mile is suggested. The idea is to use the extra not only to pay direct expenses plus amortizing the initial cost, but also to improve ramps and so on, needed in any case and get on top of this problem. A 17c figure allows about 10c/toll mile, or $540 net per lane mile at capacity.
To the driver, a 10 mile trip twice daily costs $1.70 each way, same as gas conserved. A trip of one hour’s travel (length, 50 miles) costs $8.50. The 2-way Pullway provides a mobility metric of 270,000 vehicle miles per hour, or $45,900 per hour per direction. The 10c net to operator is $27,000/lane/hr or at 3000 hr operation per year, annually $81,000,000. With a lane cost of $250,000,000 the annual cost of money is reasonably $20,000,000. The lane thus generates a pro-forma net income of $61,000,000. A two lane pullway will net $122,000,000. One might reasonably expect the average speed to increase from 50 mph with operating experience, and the capacity will then expand in proportion. These numbers are reasonable, and would amount to 24% return. The utility will gross $51 million for two-way, 3000hr/month operation at 7c/kwhr.)
The power cost is very sensitive to vehicle speed due to aerodynamic drag. Raising the speed to 68 mph almost doubles the power bill. But streamlining the vehicle body shape to reduce the drag 10% will reduce the power usage 20%. Weight has ½ the drag effect.
The vehicle must be retrofitted, in the fwd underchassis area, with a dual hitch half (we hesitate to call it a trailer hitch since it doesn’t use a ball connection) and some wiring to enable battery charging. In the rare instance of total power failure, the vehicle can push its way along the dead guideway at an acceptable speed. Some, but not most vehicles require a cooler for the transmission.
The Pullway allows driverless TRAMs on Pullway. Idea: At exit the driver comes aboard for route over surface street. Many possibilities… Entry and exit are automated except that the driver must pass a simple “awake” test prior to release at an exit. Upon failure, vehicle is shunted to a spur.
The Pullway concept is strongly innovative and we think essential for reaching our national goals: energy independence, congestion reduction, freight mobility improvement on regional portions of interstate routes, accident prevention, minimization of non-cost-effective transit projects, especially light rail, recovery to state of the art for surface transportation long overdue and inevitable due to technology progress. (Our technology starts with “now and soon” but not hyper.)
The Pullway enables simple adaptation of grade-separated roads and existing vehicles, but brings automated, coordinated service, safety and hands free cruising by operating under three tier control system. A national 20,000 mile network of pullways obviates importation of crude oil for motor fuel of light vehicles, we think will save about 5500 lives and 50,000 accidents annually.
Your help/support in developing this concept is solicited and we invite your comments and questions. . .
Puget Pullway Inc • Mercer Island WA 98040 • Please email: John Bruns: info@pugetpullway.com