When, in the year 2000, I began to re-visit my childhood idea of a tube-based transport system to replace motor-cars, buses and trains, there were no systems of this kind anywhere in the world. By now, however, many such systems have sprung up: automated pod-cars, called “Personal Rapid Transport” systems in multiple places, and, at Changzhou, in China, an operating system that resembles my proposal in many respects.
However, none of these new systems around the world quite get it together like Krunchie’s Cab. Most emphasise the need to transport a lot of people at high speed. They miss the point that, when you go out your front door, your urgent need is not for speed, but for transport to get you directly from there to your local shop, school, restaurant, church, train station, theatre, friend’s house, seaside, sports ground, public park, hospital, college or whatever. (The bus can’t do that, because it has a fixed route, hitting some destinations only, so you still rely on a motor car for most).
Krunchie’s Cab, however, can, indeed, take you directly to any of these places, in one non-stop journey, as well as to Paris or New York or whatever place, far or near, that you wish to visit. This is not just wishful thinking. The mechanisms for achieving this are described in this book.
All routes for Krunchie’s Cab are combined in a network that joins local routes to each other and to inter-city routes, and national routes to international routes, with automatic routing to every destination.
Of course, the first implementations will be of single routes. A single route in Krunchie’s Cab is multiple times more efficient than any competing bus-route. Soon after the first routes are implemented, they can be joined into a network and local networks joined into the larger network.
In my childhood, I visualised this “happening” without any help from me. It seemed really obvious that this “would happen,” because that seems to be the natural progression , but the world is so slow at getting it all together, that I am forced to publish these clear instructions, for the benefit of all.
So, let me describe how it will work. You will walk out of your house and go no more than a hundred yards to a Cab-Stop. There you will find that there is already at least one Cab (capsule) waiting for you. You will show your Card (Travel Card, Credit Card or Mobile Phone) to a panel. This action will open the door of the Cab-Stop and the waiting Cab to you. You will select your destination: country, city, street and Stop (if there are multiple stops on that street) from a dedicated screen; and the Cab will take you directly to that destination, at 30 miles per hour; (and at faster speeds on longer routes).
Now, if you were taking a bus instead, you would not be making your journey at 30 mph. With all the stopping and starting at intermediate stops, and lining up with other traffic, you would be very lucky to make fifteen miles per hour.
Supposing you live five miles from town and the bus actually makes 20 mph, it would take 15 minutes for the bus to get into town. Add to that the indeterminate time you would spend waiting for the bus. Also, the bus has a fixed route and very often will not take you exactly where you want to go. You may have some walking to do, or have to get another bus.
Krunchie’s Cab will take you that five miles in six minutes and always take you exactly to where you want to be.
This is not pie in the sky. It is perfectly feasible with today’s technology. Moreover, it is utterly low-cost and multiple times more efficient than other forms of transport, and can have zero carbon foot-print and save the world.
When I began this project 23 years ago, I doubt if anybody was ready to listen. Now, however, many realise that the world faces disaster if we do no de-carbonise world transport, as Krunchie’s Cab promises.
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