THE REVOLUTIONARY DUALMODE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM
Chapter 21
Help Needed
“SOMEONE SHOULD DO SOMETHING”
“The world is made up of doers, don’ters, doubters and deadheads. The doers get things done. The don’ters try to stop them. The doubters stick around to see them fall flat on their faces, and the deadheads never know anything is happening.” — Bill SpeidelA person who wrote to “Dear Abby” said, “Whenever I hear myself saying, ‘Someone should do something about it’ I stop and remember that I am a someone, and then I do something about it.”
Someone should try to do something intelligent about our transportation problems, and I ended up being one of those someones. First I had the fun of coming up with the concept of dualmode (initially thinking that I alone had the idea). Then I discovered and got acquainted with many of the other inventors of dualmode. We doers (and we would like to include you) must next disclose dualmode far beyond our little inner circle.
This is a lot of work, so why do I bother? I am not normally an activist, and I have plenty of other worthwhile demands upon my time. Most of us dualmode inventors have given up our patent rights on the system, so we are not doing it for money. This book is free to read on the Internet: I am getting nothing out of it but the work. I won’t get to use the system personally because I am 86 and will be gone before it can be built. So again, why do I work on it? Because of a strong desire to help my fellow humans mold the future of transportation wisely. I’m sorry if that sounds overly noble: Admittedly, some of the effort seems more like fun than work. And—OK—there are some ego satisfactions in doing it.
POLITICIANS AND BUSINESSES
About seven years ago I sent roughly 250 letters on dualmode to politicians and others in positions of authority and got little response. I was most disappointed, but I have learned a few things since then: Not all politicians are endowed with vision; and those who are bright enough to survive in the game of politics may have to spend most of their time working on things they think will earn them votes. When enough of us tell them that we, the voters, want a National Dualmode Transportation System we will see action. Similar logic applies to businesses. Only when companies see a present or future demand for a product or service will they take action.DUALMODE TRANSPORTATION PLANNING
Knowing that the Revolutionary National Dualmode Transportation System has to be built, the time that it is taking to spread the word greatly concerns me. I am concerned because billions of dollars and decades of time are still being spent on planning, designing and building more of the obsolete types of transportation systems. These will not adequately solve our transportation and related environmental problems, therefore time and money will be wasted, and the ineffective results will further discourage and alienate the traveling public. It is like putting a lot of money into repairing an old obsolete car when we know that we are going to buy a far better replacement soon. But the problem here is that very few people, so far, know about this much better replacement. We must tell them.THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
The government organization that will have the most influence upon our dualmode system is doubtless the USDOT. This transportation revolution is certainly within the DOT’s purview, but like most bureaucracies the USDOT is entrenched and slow moving, and it is difficult to get the right people to seriously consider new approaches. At the moment there isn’t even a dualmode organization within the DOT, because they haven’t recognized the inevitability of dualmode yet. We need top-level USDOT leadership on this revolution, and there is urgent need to get some more dualmode study contracts underway. I am currently aware of only one. It is with the Center for Energy, Environment, and Transportation Innovation (CEETI) at Texas A&M University.A major roadblock that startup dualmode companies are repeatedly encountering is a requirement that no transportation system can be considered for use unless it has a track record of successful use for many years. Catch 22. No new ideas are allowed until they are developed and old. And they can’t be developed because they haven’t been developed. By that rule we will have only nineteenth and twentieth-century transportation systems forever.
This nation has people with both the vision and the skill needed to get things rolling. We need one with the stature of Einstein to write the letter to the President to get some attention on the coming national-dualmode-transportation revolution. Will it come from the USDOT or will that organization be dragged along kicking and screaming? This history-making project will present great leadership opportunities in many areas. And if the old organizations fail to pick up the ball perhaps new, more innovative organizations will be formed to do the job.
TO FELLOW TECHNICALLY INCLINED PEOPLE
The author urges all engineers, scientists, technologists, and technical-trades people to broaden their transportation thinking to include the coming national dualmode transportation revolution. We technical types, in a great many different fields, will be needed by the hundreds of thousands to create, design, develop, and test the system. Without us it could not happen; we have a prime responsibility for making it happen. Not only is it essential that we do it, it is going to be exciting challenging fun. Technical schools, colleges, and universities: It is time to start offering dualmode transportation-system courses. Use this book as a starting text if you want to. Technical societies: Please get on board. And we need a new technical society: “The Dualmode Transportation Society,” with branches in many countries.ACTIVISTS ARE NEEDED
If you now see a need for REV, please help publicize it. Do your bit. Standing in front of bulldozers, blocking street traffic, or bombing the opposition is not my style, but here are some of the things I do to promote the dualmode concept. I tell people where to find this book on the Internet. In my billfold I carry copies of typed slips of paper that give the title of the book and its online address. I hand one out to everyone that shows any interest in serious matters: Matters like, “How are we going to be able to travel the day after tomorrow.” People have to know of the existence of the dualmode transportation concept, need to understand it. The leaders in many different fields need to be sold on it. Businesses need to see that there is an enormous market for this innovation; there is money to be made. Money talks.HOW TO SPREAD THE WORD
If you support this remarkable project I encourage you to discuss it with your friends, write letters to the editors of your newspapers, send letters to the politicians, refer them to this book and to other articles on dualmode and on the need for it. Urge them to submit Dualmode Bills in Congress. The more letters you send the better. “Grass roots” efforts can be effective, but we need to plant a huge number of seeds: It takes millions of grass roots to produce a lawn or a DUALMODE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM.I have written a number of letters to editors, have gotten a few published, and many others were ignored. But in promoting dualmode, even letters that do not get published will help our cause. If the editors who select the letters for publication keep seeing the same subject coming up from different people, they will eventually take notice. Newspapers have to pay attention to public opinion or they lose credibility. And I think that letters signed by more than one person are more effective.
When I read a transportation article or letter that I disagree with I am tempted to write a personal reply to the individual writer, but that would usually be ineffective use of my time. Usually that person’s mind is already made up and not subject to change. And a newspaper letter or article may reach a million or more people, not just one. Debate the opposition, and agree with supporters in public rather than in private. The bigger the audience the better.
Attend meetings on local transportation issues. City, county and state transportation boards and committees frequently hold public meetings. Try to introduce the advantages of dualmode at these meetings, but don’t be surprised if you get opposition from the chair. Rome wasn’t built in a day, but if we keep pecking away at the job eventually people will listen and start to understand.
Talk up dualmode transportation in Internet Chat Rooms. Send the URL for this book, http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/rev/revcontents.htm to all of the appropriate people in your e-mail address book.
Whatever your position in life, you can speak up and help to get the ball rolling. Only you know the ways in which you can help, but your help is needed now. The louder and more frequently we insist on dualmode, the faster things will happen.
If not us, who? If not now, when? ----- (Jewish proverb)
THIS BOOK IS NOT COPYRIGHTED
In the interests of introducing dualmode as widely and rapidly as possible, others are encouraged to republish this entire book. No charge. The more it is published in other websites the more it will be read. No permissions are required, but the author requests that he be informed of such intentions or actions in order to keep track of our progress. Quotations from the book are encouraged, and online comments, pro and con, are welcome. Printed-book publishers are also invited to republish the book; and they are free to sell printed copies for profit without paying royalties to the author.
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Last modified: August 02, 2006
