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| To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. |
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 Swede Track System Inc., a Swedish company with radically new ideas how public transportation of people and goods in big cities should be handled! |
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| To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research. |
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Swede Track System Inc., a Swedish company with radically new ideas how public transportation of people and goods in big cities should be handled! |
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It was started in 1991 by three engineers, each of whom had for a long time worked with alternative methods of transportation. The company has at the present 18 shareholders. It has been involved in project work for PRT-systems for Gothenburg and has made computer-based simulations of a general nature for city environments. The board of directors consisted until recently of 10 persons, 7 of whom are physicians, economists and civil engineers. As SwedeTrack is now a public company, some alterations to the board of directors have been made. The executive comittee includes 3 of its most experienced persons in the beam-traffic field. |
We at SwedeTrack believe that there are many places in society where good engineering can improve the environment, and do so in an economical way, while improving the quality of life for people. FLYWAY® is our attempt to fit a human transport system into such a context. Our goal is to work towards and promote a new, environmentally sound traffic system. We do not believe that ours is the only viable solution to the problems of city traffic. There are many interesting ideas in existence all around the world. Our goal is to stay in touch with all these ideas. Our worry is that there are strong forces promoting conventional traffic, forces that tend to counteract and block all attempts to implement more efficient means of transport. | This work all ties in with the Agenda 21 resolution, which endeavours to try to create a better world, or at least try to stop its environmental deterioration. It is plain to (almost) everyone that the present transportation systems (or the lack of them) in big cities are already leading to a deteriorating city environment. Traffic, noise and pollution are at the present making big cities oppressing to live in. SwedeTrack System is a member of the Swedish Environmental Technology Network, which, as the name suggests, is a network of Swedish companies promoting environmentally friendly technology. The severity of this problem is increased by the fact that people move to the cities; these are growing much faster than the population increase. The severe pollution in some cities are actually, daily, making people sick! But that can be changed! |
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SwedeTrack has in detail studied how a good transportation system for people and for goods should function, and what attributes it should have, in order to be of optimal use in an urban environmenet. The cheapest and quickest way to produce a functioning system is by further development of the "SIPEM" system developed by Siemens in Germany. We at SwedeTrack have chosen to call this complete system of ours for "FLYWAY"®. Since Siemens has chosen to no longer promote its own system, SwedeTrack has developed this by itself. Thus, FLYWAY® is a genuinely Swedish project, and it is described in detail on many of these Web-pages. |  |
The details that distinguish "FLYWAY"® from other existing and proposed systems are:
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The Inventor´s "Catch 22": "If this idea of yours really is as good as you say, why hasn´t it been tried before?" |
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It is said that "No force can resist an idea whose time has come." Why, then, has not the idea of beam-carried, automatic public transportation in big cities caught on long ago, when it´s plain to everyone living there that present transportation systems are inadequate for many reasons? Well, maybe something can be learned from this story:
He was a great technologist but not a great businessman. In his interesting new book, "The Invisible Computer," the cognitive scientist Donald A. Norman suggests that Edison's business failures were often due to the fact that, rather than trying to understand what people wanted, he relied primarily on his own taste and technology-centered logical analysis. |
For example, when he invented the phonograph, he studied both the cylinder and the disc, and made the mistake
of selecting the cylinder because of its technological superiority (due largely to the fact that as the cylinder revolves, each part passes under the stylus at the same speed); he also preferred cylinders because phonographs using cylinders would allow individuals to make home recordings. (Edison did not anticipate that the phonograph would be used primarily for the distribution of music; he thought of it as a tool for the paperless office, that would allow a businessman to dictate a letter onto a cylinder that could be mailed to recipients without the need for transcription. He really foresaw the paperless office. Discs, however, had certain important advantages over cylinders: they were less fragile; allowed greater playback volume; took up far less space; were easier to store, package and ship; could accommodate longer playing times simply by increasing the diameter; had a second side that added more capability without adding storage space; and were cheaper and easier to mass produce. Don Norman writes: "Note the moral of this story, for it will apply over and over again in the high-technology marketplace. Know your customer. Being first, being best, and even being right do not matter; what matters is what the customers think. |
Edison was first, and he did have the best sound quality; but because he failed to fulfill his customers' desires, he fell behind in sales. He lost out by pushing the cylinder, even though the customers preferred the more convenient disc. Edison pushed the phonograph as a recording medium when customers were more interested in listening to
prerecorded music. When Edison finally did switch to discs, he wouldn't use famous-and expensive-musicians, but instead hired excellent but lesser-known musicians. As a result, he was never able to capture market share from his
competition, especially from the Victor Talking Machine Company. And finally, he used a different technology than that of his leading
competitors: at first cylinders instead of discs, and then vertical instead of lateral recording. Edison had studied all the methods; he thought his choices were superior. Maybe they were. "This is the important lesson about infrastructure technologies. It doesn't matter whether or not your technology is superior; it only matters that what is being offered is good enough for the purpose. Moreover, if you lead the marketplace in sales, it is permissible to use a nonstandard infrastructure. After all, if you have the majority of customers, then what you do becomes the standard. Your competitors have little choice but to follow. If you are the leader, then having a nonstandard infrastructure is a bad idea. Ultimately, it leads to extinction." |
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I have a Master of Science degree in Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Around 1988 I sat wondering a rainy day in which field the use of my engineering skills (in general), would provide the greatest benefits to humanity. I came to the conclusion that new schemes to transport people in cities under computer control would be the best choice.
Being a Master of Science in mechanics, I set out by concentrating on the best geometry of such a new transport device. After some weeks of thinking, I came to the conclusion that an "upside down U-Shape - a giant "curtain roller" - like FLYWAY would be the best choice, I then developed the idea further....
After a few weeks, however, I discovered that many people had studied this idea before me, and that several systems had already been built and tested. This came as a big surprise to me - it must be the most well kept secret in the world!
Then, I discovered that a man living just 10 km from me had been working with systems like this from the "computer side" since 1972. This man was Sten Staxler, and he had another big asset - he had a large network of contacts with other people. I am not an evironmental "freak" (= environment at any cost). However, I believe that there are many places in society where engineering can improve the environment, while at the same time being economical AND able to improve the quality of life for people. FLYWAY is an attempt to fit into such a context.
Nowadays, I am not so convinced that just FLYWAY is the only viable solution to the problems of city traffic. There are many interesting suggestions in existence. My main goal right now is to stay in touch with all new ideas around. My main worry is that many strong forces promoting conventional traffic tend to counteract and block all attempts to implement more efficient means of transport, mainly for short-term economic reasons.
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Sten Staxler
Doctor of Technology, Sten Staxler, is chairman of SwedeTrack System. He became engaged with the environmental movement as early as at the end of the 1950-ies. At that time he read the books by author Georg Borgström, the Swedish professor that later on emigrated to the USA. Borgström wrote books such as "The Limits of Growth", "Food for billions", etc, pointing out how the population explosion is a serious threat to the planet and its resources. Mr. Staxler left the Chalmers Institute of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1957, having earned a Master of Science degree in Engineering, specializing in the elektronics field. He took a licenciate examination in 1971 and a doctor of technology-exam in 1980 at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, specializing in Information Technology. This included studies in control theory and feedback systems, measuring techniques, flight engineering and mathematics.
During 1957 - 1959 he worked at Saab with big analog-computer-generated models of mobile vehicles. During 1959 - 1965 he was employed at the controling board of the Robot department of the Defence department´s Supply-division. The work involved control of robots, most of the time as chief for about 40 employees. 1966 - 1997 he worked for a telecommunications consulting firm, which at the outset was Sweden´s largest consulting firm in the IT-field. He was section chief, handling jobbs such as navigating, steering, roadtraffic, airtransport, control systems, industry automation, man/machine-interface, electronics, datacommunication, energy supply and systems economics.
During the years 1959 - 70 he held a teaching jobb at the Military Academy in Stockholm in robot technology, from time to time also teaching control systems, radio technology and mathematics. From 1959 to 1988 he held a steady teching jobb at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, specializing in Information-technology for vehicles. At both places he was also a mentor for about 15 exams-projects. As early as the beginning of the 1970-ies he commenced work on an idealistic basis with beam-carried traffic systems, in connection with the first PRT-evaluation in Gothenburg. And so, in 1991, he was one of the three engineers that started SwedeTrack System AB.
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Master of Science in Electrical Engineering, Certified Network Engineer (Novell CNE), consultant in computer communications and safety.
I was born and raised in Stockholm, Sweden. When I was 18, I emigrated to Australia, and the 4 years I spent there are among the best in my life. So why did I go back to Sweden? Well, the Aussies wanted me to do a 2-year stint in the army, and I did not feel like it. I have also been living in Israel and Tanzania. Back in Sweden, I spent one year in the Swedish Air Force and then went on to study electronic engineering at Linkoping's Institute of Technology. I got my Master of Science in Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and since then I have been working at the Swedish Telecom. (nowadays called "Telia"), Ericsson Radar and Celsius.
Since 1993 I run my own consulting firm, specializing in helping medium-sized companies with their computer networks; designing, upgrading and optimizing their networks, and implementing security functions.
I am very much engaged in the question of making our cities liveable, considering the fact that urban populations grow faster than the general population growth. Traffic congestion and pollution are key issues in this regard, and so, it´s natural and logical for me to promote alternative, viable modes of transporting people. I have so far not come across a transport system that would perform this function better than the electrically propelled, beamcarried, wholly automatic system described here.
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Gunnar Carlbaum
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| Copyright © 2004, SwedeTrack System. | Last Updated: 2007-04-12 | This site is maintained by Johnson Consulting |
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