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TriTrack Quick Answers

Quick Answers to Common Questions

City Planning

  • Capacity

    As the population increases, and city sizes grow, traffic inevitably gets worse. If we keep building more and more highway to accommodate the population, eventually cities will be nothing but asphalt. Each lane of TriTrack guideway is equivalent to 3 highway lanes, yet is only 8 feet wide and uses virtually no ground space.
  • Cost to Taxpayers

    Roads are expensive to build and maintain. Many cities are barely scraping by, just maintaining the current roads. TriTrack guideways cost only $150,000 to install. A full system of guideways installed in the city of Austin would cost about $500 million, and could pay for itself in 5 years with a nominal $.035/mile surcharge to users.

    Guideways are constructed from aluminum, steel and concrete, making them easy to recycle and rebuild. This keeps the cost of maintenance very low.

Day-to-Day

  • Convenience

    A TriTrack car is a personal car, it can drive on the street, and it can take you where you want to go quickly. It comfortably seats up to four passengers and has a trunk for storage. You buy your own car and keep it at your own house so it is ready to go exactly when you are.
  • Traffic

    TriTrack cars go up to 25 mph on surface streets, and 180 mph on the guideway. Thanks to the grid layout and the on-board computer navigation system, there are no more traffic jams, and it is possible to get to the other side of town in minutes rather than hours. A trip across Austin that used to take an hour is easily reduced to under 10 minutes.
  • Safety

    The safety record of monorail systems is unsurpassed. TriTrack cars are constrained to the guideway and are under computer control when they are traveling at high speeds. They have sophisticated crash avoidance systems with built-in redundancy.

    On the ground, the car is limited to 25 mph, a speed at which it is very unlikely to have a fatal collision. The structural strength of the car is in the outer shell.

    The crash avoidance system works not only on the guideway, but on the ground as well. While your chances of surviving being hit by an SUV may be small no matter what car you drive, your chances of being hit at all will be even smaller if you're driving a TriTrack.
  • Cost per Mile

    When you factor in the cost of purchasing an average $26,000 new car, financing it, maintaining it, the cost of gas, and depreciation, a traditional car will cost $.56/mile on average.

    The TriTrack equivalent, at an average cost of $10,000 and including a $.035/mile surcharge for the cost of the guideway infrastructure (see cost to taxpayers above) is just $.31/mile. A TriTrack car will pay for itself in about a year.

Environment

  • Beautification

    TriTracks are driven on an elevated guideway, and require less physical space for an increased capacity. This eliminates the need for new roads, and possibly some existing ones. The space that would have been used for highway can be dedicated to something more beautiful like grass or gardens.

    TriTracks will have a symbiotic relationship with the power company, and there is space inside the track to put existing power and cable lines. This means there would no longer be ugly cables running alongside streets and in neighborhoods.
  • Air Pollution

    It is well known that traditional cars are awful for the air we breathe. An electric car like the TriTrack emits only 1/10th the amount of NOx compared to a traditional car.
  • Noise Pollution

    Electric cars are much quieter to operate than gas and diesel powered ones. In addition, compared to driving on asphalt, driving on a rail is much quieter.
  • Limited Resources

    Whether or not we want to admit it, most people realize that fossil fuel is a limited resource and that there is not enough to last much longer. Whereas the average car sold in 2003 got only 20.8 miles per gallon, a TriTrack can easily travel over 100 miles for the same amount of energy input.

Innovation

  • Alternative Energy Sources

    As alternative energy sources become more feasible, it is easy for the TriTrack to adapt. The TriTrack relies on electricity, but it doesn't care how that electricity is generated, be it natural gas, fuel cells or solar/wind power. A traditional car, however, would have to be completely re-designed to run on anything other than gas or diesel.
  • Better Computer Control

    Right now many people are timid about letting a computer drive their car. By starting simple with the computer only controlling while on the guideway, the general population can gradually hand over the controls to the computer and not feel as though something is being taken away.

    With the computer control system in place, doors are opened for brand new technologies like automatic valet parking, completely hands off driving, and potentially even a 'kid's car' that follows along behind the parents.