In his State Of The Union Address on 27 January 2010,President Barack Obama stressed a need for and invited innovative inputs from the American people relative to clean, energy-efficient operations and high speed transportation. An Industrial Designer friend ( 40 Yrs Experience )  just published a book titled “Wind Spirit – A TRANSPORTATION PLAN FOR THE 21st CENTURY” that responds to that request precisely. It is brief , 45 pages text & 17 Engineering Drawings ;  however, it is written to be understandable to the layman public and hopefully elicit questions/suggestions/prototype development & implementation through coordinated efforts of engineers and developers. The authors personal description of the books purpose, its content and his email contact for questions etc. follows :
 
Wind Spirit    A TRANSPORTATION PLAN FOR THE 21ST CENTURY
The transportation concept described here employs 20 passenger cars that can change lanes on an elevated track at 80 miles per hour. This permits an extraordinary improvement in public transportation, up to 70,000 passengers per hour per line. This book details the construction of the cars and the commuter system as it might be installed in Minneapolis, Minnesota as well as a convincing critique of light rail in general. This type of system has never been proposed before. In Minneapolis it would consist of four pie slice shaped lines running in each direction, that is, a triangle shape from town center to a ten mile radius to encircle the town and back to town center, each about 40 miles long. Running in both directions the 4 lines could transport 560 thousand people an hour. And the most remarkable thing is that most people will have to stop no more than twice before they get to their destination regardless of the trip length!
It seems reasonable to expect public transport should carry 50% of commuters an average distance of 20 miles each, That would be 133 thousand people an hour for a 3 hour period morning and night in Minneapolis*. That number of people would require 22 light rails. If the cost is $ 300 million a mile and is the same length as this proposal the cost would be 132 billion dollars. Reminder: This is only for Minneapolis/St Paul.
This book was written with the intent of instructing the general public in the futility of pursuing light rail as the solution to their transportation problems and to encourage them to demand something better.
The book includes 17 engineering drawings to illustrate how it will be constructed. Finally there is a description of personal auto transport and also a cargo carrying system that can replace the long haul trucking industry within the next half century.
You’ll be amazed at how simple this is! There is no new technology required.
 
CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1  A view of light rail
CHAPTER 2  Take a ride with me.
CHAPTER 3  How it works
CHAPTER 4  How the system is constructed
CHAPTER 5  How it works in Minneapolis
CHARTER 6  How to get 40,000 people an hour off of this thing. (downtown)
CHAPTER 7  The future looks good.
Plus 17 engineering drawings.
 
Author; Randall J Schwab
rand1555@whidbey.net
windspiritcommute.net  
 
*These numbers are extrapolated from a Time magazine article of November 26, 2007 titled: “One day in America”
 
Ask for it at your favorite bookstore. Also available at Amazon.com