The FlyWay Booking System

If you do things merely because you think some other fool expects you to do them, and he expects you to do them because he thinks you expect him to expect you to do them, it will end up in everybody doing what nobody wants to do, which is in my opinion a silly state of things! (George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950, British playwrite)

his is a fairly technical page, where we will examine beamcar booking issues. Automatic transport systems running on guideways, isolated from other traffic, and reaching "everywhere", has the potential to provide the best of all worlds; time-scheduled travelling, "taxi-cab" service, dual-mode transport and cargo shipping. The first categori consist of vehicles that follow certain routes, berth at certain stops and follow timetables, which can vary somewhat, according to transportation demands. But the booking system handles all of these other services.		Note: this page is still under construction! General Customer categories Service categories Booking interfaces A typical station

1. General

The booking system used by FlyWay® is quite sophisticated. It has to serve 5 categories of customers: Individual travelers Group travelers Dual-mode vehicle owners Customers who want to send cargo Customers who want to use the beams with their own vehicle.

It provides 5 kinds of services: Taxi-cab vehicle, of desired size and makeup Dual-mode vehicle carrier Cargo-carrier (flatcar) Cargo-carrier (container mover) Traffic control for customers who use their own vehicles on the beams.

It provides 5 kinds of booking interfaces: Booking a car over the phone Booking a car on the Internet Website Booking a car at or near a station, using a stationary booking terminal Booking a car from anywhere, using Internet access Scheduled customers, who are serviced with particular vehicles according to a time schedule.

2. Customer Categories

Text will hopefully be forthcoming here!

3. Service Categories

Figure 3:2

hile taxi-cab service is the first that comes to mind when talking about beamcarried traffic systems, the other 3 services might be even more important during the long building phase of the network. Before the network reaches practically "everywhere", taxi-cab service will be of limited use. Rather, the dual-mode vehicle carrier service will be more attractive. As time goes by, the network will most likely be expanded so as to provide cargo-carrier service with flatcars and container movers.

Important information that the booking system will need in this respect is: Time and place of pickup Time and place of delivery Type of cargo Size and weight of cargo Regular, time-scheduled service or one-time. Container sizes are standardized, and FlyWay´s vehicles are of course adapted to those standard. One important consideration, though, is that all beams that are available for container-moving vehicles need to be sturdy enough to carry the heaviest containers.

Private vehicles Travellers which use their own vehicles will pay for the traffic control services that the network provides. The vehicles need to be previously registered with the network, so that network control is familiar with all relevant parameters with the vehicle, such as size, weight, etc. Private vehicles need not have all facilities that FlyWay´s vehicles have, such as lifts and on-board routing information. The only requirement is that they are compatible with beams and communication modes of the network, and that they do not pose safety hazards for themselves, their passengers or the network in general. Thus, some network services are optional for private beam vehicles, such as preventive maintenance notifications.

Figure 3:3: Container movers

4. Booking Interfaces

There are these options: Booking a car over the phone Booking a car on the Internet Website Booking a car at or near a station, using a stationary booking terminal Booking a car from anywhere, using Internet access Scheduled customers, who are serviced with particular vehicles according to a time schedule.

Nowadays it´s possible to implement seamless network roaming between different networks such as Bluetooth, Wireless LAN, GPRS, GSM, CDPD and ordinary LAN:s, using just a single log on. In practice this could mean that a mobile user logs on to a corporate network with a laptop or handheld computer via the Wireless LAN at the office and creates a secure connection. Whenever the user loses contact with the Wireless LAN, the secure connection to the corporate network is automatically handed over to the public GPRS network.

Later, the user might enter an area covered by another Wireless LAN hot spot or a Bluetooth network, and the session will again be automatically handed over to the new network. The relevans in this context is that if a potential traveller just has access to the Internet, he can book a beamcar from where he is, using a laptop, WAP-phone or other device.

5. A Typical Station

igure 1:1 shows a typical FlyWay® station platform. In this example, the travellers are using Bluetooth interface to communicate with the system. This station has 4 berths (or individual stops) in each direction of travel, and 8 information terminals. These terminals are equipped with a monitor and some kind of keyboard, maybe also a microphone and a small loudspeaker. The microphone and loudspeaker are for emergency use, however, and are not part of the system we are going to discuss here. These terminals are part of the booking system and the information system. They are also Bluetooth-units, with transceivers that are able to communicate with the small mobile units carried be the travelers on the platform.

Figure 5:1