Structure and operation of a three dimensional transportation system

Abstract

This invention provides methods of guideway construction and vehicle operation for a three-dimensional transportation system, in which a vehicle changes lane or direction by widening or narrowing the width between its left wheels and its corresponding right wheels. In such a transportation system, vehicles diverge from a source lane and merge into a target lane aerially either above or below the tracks, through the empty space between the left guideway and the right guideway. A transportation system in which traffic lanes could be stacked vertically one above another, and additional lanes could be added later without additional land usage. In such a transportation system, a vehicle could raise or lower its center of gravity in the vertical direction to offer the advantages of safe operation and easy loading/unloading. Such a transportation system could accommodate dual-mode vehicles. Such a transportation system is suitable for automatically moving people and goods.

1 . A system of guideway construction and vehicle design methods as described in  FIG. 1-2 , and  FIG. 4  to  10 , in which vehicles ride on the guideways groups supporting left and right wheels, with empty space between the left and the right guideways. Lane and direction switching are accomplished by guideway switching among inner, middle and outer guideways. A vehicle initiates the guideway switching by widening or narrowing its wheel width, at a horizontal section that contains at least two of the inner, middle and outer guideways. After guideway switching, upper-moving guideways (outer) could guide the vehicle up and down-moving guideways (inner) could guide the vehicle down, and straight-moving guideways (middle) could guide the vehicle forward. In this system, outer guideways are for sending vehicles to above and receiving vehicles from above; inner guideways are for sending vehicles to below and receiving vehicles from below; and middle guideways are for carrying vehicles traveling at the current level. If a vehicle at one level needs to move up, it could move out of the straight guideways by widening the space between its left wheel and the corresponding right wheel and moving to the outer guideways. If a vehicle needs to move downward, the width of its wheel spacing needs to be narrowed to match the width of inner guideways, so that the wheels could ride on the down-moving guideways. In such a transportation system, vehicles diverge from a source lane and merge into a target lane aerially either above or below the tracks. Vehicles could move between levels by going through the empty space between left guideways and the corresponding right guideways.  
   
   
       2 . A guideway construction method of  claim 1 , in which outer guideways of a level could guide a vehicle up to another level and inner guideways of a level could guide a vehicle down to another level. If the later level receives the vehicle from its underside, then the guideways would curve into inner guideways of the later level, with varying left to right track width along the way. If the later level receives the vehicle from above, then the guideways would curve into outer guideways of the later level, with varying left to right track width along the way. It is convenient for multiple levels aligned vertically; however, the principle could be applied to any relative spatial location of the lanes.  
   
   
       3 . A guideway construction method of  claim 1 , in which up-moving guideways and down-moving guideways have fixed width. However, the upper level guideway width is wider than that of the lower level, so that lower level outer guideways could connect to upper level inner guideways without narrowing or widening.  
   
   
       4 . A guideway construction and vehicle design method of  claim 1 , by which a vehicle's passenger or cargo compartment could be located above the guideway level, even with the guideway level and below the guideway level. Such construction method would allow the passenger or the cargo compartment of a vehicle to be lowered or raised for loading and unloading, and for safer operation due to lowered center of gravity.  
   
   
       5 . A guideway construction and vehicle design method for directional changes of a rigid vehicle with non-rotating axles, as shown by  FIG. 11  and  FIG. 12 . In a directional change, all outer wheels will follow a single outer guideway and the inner wheels will follow mutiple tracks, one for each inner wheel. The track trajectories are determined by tracing the movements of each inner wheel. All the inner tracks could be combined to form a wide single inner guideway to accommodate all the inner wheels. This implies that all vehicles in the system must have the same size and the same wheel locations.  
   
   
       6 . A guideway construction method and a wheel restraining method as shown in  FIG. 14 , in which the guideway is a channel and the wheel assembly includes supporting wheel and guiding wheels. The edges of the channel restrain the guiding wheels and prevent a vehicle from derailing.  
   
   
       7 . A guideway construction and vehicle design method of  claim 1 , with each section of the guideways as an open channel as defined by  FIG. 9  and  FIG. 14 . The ascending and descending guideways form continuous arches that could also provide structural support for the straight moving guideways as show by  FIG. 15A . This guideway construction method could accommodate dual mode vehicles that could travel both on guideways and on regular road. A dual mode vehicle could enter an elevated guideway system by aligning its wheels with a pair of up-moving guideways and exits the guideway system by aligning its wheels with a pair of down-moving guideways that lead to the ground. A dual mode vehicle could enter an underground guideway system by aligning its wheels with a pair of down-moving guideways and exits the guideway system by aligning its wheels with a pair of up-moving guideways that lead to ground openings on the street.