Road structure – process – or apparatus – Road system
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-12
2003-05-13
Will, Thomas B. (Department: 3671)
Road structure, process, or apparatus
Road system
Reexamination Certificate
active
06561727
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates to the area of civil engineering and, more particularly, to an improved transit system and method for access by pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, motorists and, in some cases, equestrians, to improve urban mobility and ecology, this particularly in congested or moribund city and town centers, to thereby afford an experience of community within a transit environment connecting public and private transportation, community destinations, and commercial activities.
2. Description of Related Art
Efforts in the prior art to define pedestrian, bicycle and transit integrated urban and town center space have been burdened with an unfortunate developmental and planning history which, largely, has been a result of an emphasis during the twentieth century upon the automobile as the dominant mode of transportation. Thereby the development and fate of communities have been largely dictated by land and access remaining after all highway construction and reconstruction has been completed, with a resulting deterioration of the inner city and atrophication of commercial and cultural activity in the wake of the well-known suburban sprawl, wherein a wide variety of dispersed destinations and shopping malls have replaced city centers as the primary locus of employment, retail, social and cultural activity.
With the departure of business and, thereby, pedestrians and bicyclists from the historic inner city or, in the case of less urban areas, the town or village center, vestiges of the socially responsive lifestyle of the nineteenth and early twentieth century have largely disappeared. In others words, due principally to a lack of planning or design to integrate community transportation needs with other needs of the community, there has resulted an automobile and interstate highway network of roads which has impacted upon human values and social interactions across a broad range of community activities including, without limitation, housing, employment, education, and social or personal activities such as recreation, entertainment, shopping, restaurant, cultural, religious and governmental events or endeavors. As such, the dominance of the automobile, and its concomitant highway and super highway networks, has depleted inner cities and community centers not only of people, but also of architectural components, environmental qualities, urban adapted wildlife habitats, and open space large enough for a full array of social and personal events and activities associated with historic city centers, wherein most of the historic expression of society has occurred.
The present invention may, therefore, be understood in terms of a system and means through which traditional transit systems may be linked to all modes of transport utilizing an ergonomic hybrid transit access arrayed within a community to provide both commercial and social stimulus to city and community centers, by providing a visually diverse, and well landscaped, attractively built environment and open social space within the transportation corridor, and physiologically-defined parameters designed to create personal interest or “hold time,” i.e., parameters designed to create for individuals within a system of such corridors, a personal interest in the space and people around them to thus encourage a pedestrian or bicyclist to want to continue in that mode of transport within an inventive “greenway” transit access corridor until the arrival of public transit, pursuant to an ergonomically defined schedule of service. As such, the present invention may be understood in terms of its purpose which is to provide improved pedestrian access to traditional rail and bus public transit systems for larger numbers of people over greater distances so as to counter, remedy and furnish alternatives to the automobile/interstate highway/shopping mall/sprawl development/destination dispersion lifestyle which has come to dominate contemporary life.
3. Prior Art
The prior art, as reflected in U.S. patents, discloses various types of transportation systems, some related to urban shopper traffic. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,405,612 (1968) to Pearson, entitled Method and Structure for Handling Urban Shopper Traffic, teaches a system in which all vehicles greater than passenger automobile height are barred from streets during shopping hours, and includes urban pedestrian bridges over streets.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,671,681 (1997) to Senior, entitled Transportation Method for Rider Propelled Vehicles, teaches the use of a covered bridge-like structure in which air moving therethrough provides aid to bicyclists riding in the direction of air flow within the structure.
In view of the above, the instant transit, access corridor may be viewed as a part of an evolutionary process of transportation intended to ameliorate the pedestrian, bicycle and transit adverse atmosphere found in many cities and suburban environments, while providing an improvement in the ecological, commercial, and social space characterizing city and community centers today.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention defines an ergonomic hybrid transit access corridor definable in terms of an x,y,z Cartesian coordinate system, in which such a corridor is characterized by a plurality of integral x-axis, y-axis corridor segments, the corridors having an aggregate x-axis width in a range of about 50 to about 230 feet, in which the entire corridor is characterized by between 12 and 17 longitudinal transversely narrow segments. Within an ergonomic hybrid transit access corridor there exists a plurality of corridor segments. In most instances, there is centrally disposed a vehicular bi-directional two to six lane roadway, including, in some instances, a roadway median to enhance bi-directional vehicular movements and street crossing safety and comfort. Each vehicular lane exhibits an x-axis width in a range of 9 to 12 feet. Reduction in lane width occurs or is imposed as a function of available space and a desired reduction in auto traffic speed to a rate of vehicular movement compatible, safe and comfortable for the nearby pedestrian and bicyclist or similar movements. Arranged symmetrically outwardly about said roadway are laterally disposed parallel parking segments and bicycle lane segments, and, thereafter, a greenscape segment usable for a variety of selectable landscape and hardscape variables. Symmetrically outwardly from said parallel parking segments, bicycle lane segments and greenscape segments are greenway transit segments for pedestrian and slow speed pedestrian compatible bicycle or similar movements, which include sets of small gauge rail tracks installed flush to or near the surface of the greenway transit segments, for use by a pedestrian compatible low speed, low profile pedestrian compatible tram, trolley or train-like transit vehicle having floors situated at an horizontal (xy plane) level not exceeding about 20 inches above the plane of the transit segments. Such segments are of sufficient width to facilitate co-use by pedestrians, bicycles, and these small transit vehicles and other pedestrian compatible vehicles or conveyances. Such segments connect to intermodel transportation linkages adjacent to the inventive corridor.
Beneath each greenway transit segment, a multi-purpose underground utility conduit may be constructed to serve as a foundation and also as a means of unified utility, information and service delivery and protection of utility conduits therein, these including without limitation: electric power cables; drinking water, re-use water and sewer lines; storm water drainage pipes; natural or synthetic gas lines; telephone, cable television and fiber optic communications; data transmission means; pneumatic tubes; security devices; fire services; a low current magnetic inductive track for vehicular propulsion; and storage, maintenance access, and transit power equipment for the multi-use subcorridors.
Further symmetrically outwardly therefrom, are respective second greenscape segments usable for
Addie Raymond
Silverman M. K.
Will Thomas B.
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