INSTRUMENTATION
The Transportation Dilemma ~Y\f Ε CONTINUE to wonder when the scientific and technical resources of latter-twentieth century America will be turned to the transportation problem which is rapidly getting out of hand. President Kennedy warned the nation of the urgent nature of this question in a remarkably clear and penetrating analysis. He pointed out the multitude of regulatory agencies, often working at cross pur poses and most of them fettered with nineteenth century rules and regula tions. Opinions about the problem are always a function of the source. Some carriers, basking in the luxury of heavy Federal subsidy have few complaints. Others such as the rail roads have played this poker game for a half century with a deck loaded against them. Transportation experts, if they have no particular axe to grind, like to envision a transport complex, com pletely coordinated and more or less automatically relegating to each mode of travel its particular advantages, comforts, and conveniences. To some it sounds like a fine Socialistic idea which would require an army of bureaucrats for its regulation and en forcement. I t might also be regarded as a complete rejection of our com petitive free enterprise system. Actually, the public makes its choice, is none too happy with what it finds, and there are enough bureaucrats around to arrest any real progress. It would be interesting to correlate the vast amount of data which exists, to find the cost, weight, and bulk of transportation media required to trans port our citizens. We suspect that a pair of roller skates would head the economy list but presumably they may be ignored for the moment. A motor car, unless filled to capacity, would seem to be near the other extreme. This of course ignores its convenience and availability on short notice. Our largest cities can no longer cope with the motor car and their alterna tive modes of transportation are an tiquated. A strange but reassuring fact is that the dilemma has finally been recognized. Apparently when a few million people make enough noise, the transit authorities wake up. For many years our good friends in Los Angeles have explained patiently why a monorail network with high speed,
by Ralph H. Müller
streamlined, and air conditioned cars is quite out of the question for that vast metropolis. One could buy several Panama Canals for the same price, we have been told. Perhaps they think faster in San Francisco or are quicker to see the handwriting on the wall. A vast sys tem is under way in the Bay area and apparently much advanced thinking has gone into the planning in every category. If we confine the large problem to just passenger travel, it would seem that all possible conveyances would have to be considered in a well co ordinated scheme. I t presupposes that each would be brought up to the prevailing state of technology. Our list is not complete but would include aircraft, the motor car, railways, steamships, street cars (not a mere desire), subways, buses, taxicabs, monorails, and canal boats. By in cluding the latter, we expect to be classed with De Witt Clinton and have someone send us a tall beaver hat. Someone with vision and enter prise might make a tidy fortune by rediscovering the canal boat, especially if he has traversed the Gota Canal between Gothenburg and Stockholm or been poled through Venice's canals and rios in a gondola. Our shrewd entrepreneur will also realize that an increasing number of our citizens are taking second, third, and even fourth honeymoons these days. Military and private aircraft are already under construction to operate in the Mach 3 range. We propose a new unit which may be useful in the near future—it is the milli Mach or about 1.09 feet per second. It is in the class of a drifting canoe. As a consequence of C. C. B. (continuous coffee break) we may all be on a permanent vacation with computers giving and executing orders to the automated production line. At that time and with nothing to do, it may not be so imperative to get from here to there in nothing flat. As has happened so often "there" isn't so much better than "here" but there might be a comfortable, luxurious, and pleasant way of going in either direc tion. The solution of the Nation's trans portation problem presents no insuper able technical difficulties. The most
perplexing questions lie in the realm of political, legal, economic, and above all, in pubic relations. The negotia tions and planning could exhaust the diplomatic finesse and talents of a Machiavelli or a Metternich. Instru mentation and automation, however, still have a crucial role in an accept able plan. If we consider the vast array of electronic instrumentation, automation, navigational, and com munication facilities in a heavy bomber or a jet liner with the limited equip ment in other carriers, the latter turn out to be rather primitive. On the few remaining luxury trains in our country, most of them in the West, one is still cut off from the rest of the world, at least between scheduled stops. One can still write out a tele gram, tip a porter, and have him drop it off at the next stop. This was a procedure well understood by Grand father in the Gay Nineties. One technical necessity has arisen recently and electronics supplies the answer. One small advantage, held in common by trains, street cars, elevated and subsurface trains was the fact that their motion was spatially confined by rails. As a consequence, one had complete and constant knowl edge of where the vehicle might be expected. In more or less free-space motion, characteristic of aircraft, ships and to a lesser degree, motor vehicles, these things are controlled only by law, regulation, or statute. The advanced thinking of highway and automotive engineers leads to the inescapable conclusion that such vehi cles must be put back on a "track." Several prototype systems have already been built in which vehicles ride an invisible electronic beam. The latter controls the cars and accom plishes the most intricate maneuvers all in the interest of safety and com patibility with a large mass of heavy traffic. This, the experts point out, will have to be done if vehicular speeds in excess of 100 miles per hour become legal. When and if our entire transporta tion system can be overhauled and coordinated and when the angry cries, recrimination, and interminable argu ments have subsided, dozens of tech nical talents and American ingenuity should come up with quite a few startling innovations.
VOL. 36, NO. 11, OCTOBER 1964
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