Please take a moment to fill out the survey form below. It will help CTCTC to chart our course. Thanks.
These few questions have to do with a metropolitan dualmode system only. A national system able to carry larger vehicles faster will be in the future after we solve our present metro problem. For the metro system only, we feel it is important to design sufficient weight and size capability into the system to meet our criteria for solving our metropolitan freeway traffic congestion problem, but not to make the system so massive that it becomes needlessly expensive to build and operate. Additionally, if the system becomes too massive, it becomes obtrusive and ugly.
Under consideration here is how the system will be first implemented before guideway and ramps are built. Will commuters be so enamored at the thought of not having to deal with traffic congestion during their daily commutes that they will go out and buy a new dualmode car (if car manufactures even made them available) before the guideway is completed? I think as many as twenty percent of the commuters will under the following conditions:
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A national or international specification has been established for metropolitan dualmode automated guideway systems.
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A firm commitment by at least one large metropolitan area, such as the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, to build such a system.
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Auto manufacturers (maybe only one or two initially) see the market potential for such dualmode vehicles and announce plans to make them.
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Auto manufacturers are able to offer two-place tandem vehicles for around $8,000. Deluxe models may go for $10,000. Ford Research and Advanced Engineering has a dualmode concept car (PRISM) it proposes to solve traffic congestion, and it weighs only 600 kg (1320 lbs)
It seems to me that commuters tired of the daily hassle will be placing orders for the new vehicles a year or two before the guideway is complete. As folks think about trading in one of their present vehicles, wouldn't they give very serious consideration to a new dualmode vehicle for everyday use? The only way we will know for sure is to take a survey. Therefore we encourage you to answer the few questions on the survey form below after you have perused the DUALMODE Sub Web site and have some idea of what dualmode is and can do for us. In any case, families will probably want to keep a full size vehicle around for a few more years until dualmode actually links distant metropolitan areas together in a national system.
When answering, please consider the above conditions as the given.