this article presents ideas to vastly improve
transport and security, and a lot of other
things too.

I propose a new type of community centered around a
metal building with an innovative
built-in transport system.

it uses something similar to horizontal
lifts (elevators)
to move around the city-sized building.

the building would be round, similar to a huge
donut laying flat on the ground, so the horizontal
lift/elevator could go anyplace
in the building by going all the way around,
thus negating the need for a
car or the tube (subway).

horizontal lifts are similar to the tube
but offer many benefits. one obvious benefit is
safety since you dont have to share the lift
with strangers or terrorists, assuming the lifts
are small for one individual or one family.

so its just like an automobile in that
its not shared with strangers, but this doesnt
suffer from car crashes.

lifts could also be instantly available, no waiting,
by having a lot of lifts share the
lift shaft.
it could go to its destination without stopping.

it would be designed such that lifts move to
the side to stop and pick up passengers,
allowing the main part of the lift shaft
to be used for other lifts that are still moving.
similar to pulling off the side of the road in a car
so other cars can continue using the main lane.

this may be confusing but remember this would be a new
system so they could design it to avoid the problems
of old fashioned systems.

no reasonable person could say that designers lack the
ability to build such a system. some people did tell
the wright brothers that their airplane would never
get off the ground,
but skeptics are generally proven wrong.

trust me, if they can build a space shuttle, jet planes,
an international computer network (internet)
and all that other stuff, they can indeed build
a horizontal lift system that works as decribed.

if the building is 2 Km (1 mile) in diameter, 10 stories
high, having a good floor plan according to the diagram
I may post later, it would house 80,000 people so it
makes very good use of space.

regular vertical lifts/elevators go between floors of
the building. a perimeter road around the outside
of the building allows the use of cars as a backup or for
those people who want a car.

the horizontal lift would have a circuit on the ground
floor that goes all the way around the building so you
could go anyplace in the building on that lift,
afterwards just taking the vertical lift if
necessary to get to the intended floor.

the donut hole, the center of the building,
would be a huge park with lots of plants growing, maybe a
manmade lake, and any other thing people could want.

the building is not proportioned the same as a donut,
the hole in the center of this building would be
proportionally much larger.

this website has a drawing of the proposed community:

http://www.xanga.com/johnbergeron

everything you would find in a conventional city you will
find in this new community, except smog and other
bad things. there will be housing, jobs, dentists
offices, everything you could need or want.
bad things will be screened out as shown later in this
article.

multiple buildings can be connected together via
a safe transport system which is another version of
the horizontal lift, and old fashioned roads
as a backup, to form a large population equal in size
to any conventional city.

the overall theme of this new community would be to
have the most advanced hi-tech way of life possible.

every labor saving machine and technology will be
included, and new ones will be added as they become
available. some of us in the community will develop the
new technology instead of waiting for the rest of
the world to catch up.

it will be the most advanced city in the world.
its not even right to call it a city, its so much
more advanced than that.

we need to throw down a challenge to make the most
advanced community in the world, to help get
it started.

there would be no smog in this community because
the lift system uses electricity, most of which
comes from windmill generators on the roof or
nearby.
some people object to windmills spoiling the view
but they look better than smog, and windmills
can be located on farmland or other places
so you can preserve some of the mountain top views.

imagine how much oil and petrol (gas) is saved.
also how much greenhouse gasses are
reduced by that savings.

you could save a huge amount of money by not having
a car, yet still have a good transport system.

you could save a lot of time on transport due to
the no-wait and nonstop features of the lifts,
not to mention the convenience of being closer to
everything. many people would just walk the corridor
to get where they need to go, or jog through the
park; much healthier than sitting in traffic
in a car.

the average commuter who wastes an hour each way
to and from work is wasting over 400 hours a year,
thats the equivalent of ten standard 40 hour
workweeks. that could be avoided by this new
transport system.

a car is typically the second most expensive item
a person owns.
tens of thousands of pounds/dollars/euros/etc
could be saved by this system every year per person.

other improvements would be implemented to reduce the
load on the transport system, such as allowing more
telecommuting to work, and interspersing work
and housing so there is not a huge influx of people
moving from the housing section to the work section.
if people work on the floor above the housing floor,
a quik trip up the stairs or lift would take one
minute and greatly reduce the load on the transport
system. many other improvements are possible but
wont be listed here for brevity.

there would be zero highway fatalities or injuries
because lifts are much safer than cars.

this community would have a lot of advantages over the
conventional city/town besides the transport.
the other advantages are discussed later in this article.

there are a lot of details that are not being discussed
in this article for the sake of keeping it less than
the length of an encyclopedia.
feel free to ask specific questions if anything
you are interested in gets left out.

notice how this is similar to the turbolift on
the television show "star trek the next generation".
the only difference is our lifts are separate for
sideways or vertical.
our building will not necessarily be decorated like star
trek, or perhaps one floor could be, depending on what
everybody wants.

SPACESHIP HOTEL

perhaps one floor could be decorated with the space theme
and be used as a tourist hotel/theme park.
it could be very realistic, with everything inside that
floor or section of the building looking exactly like
a spaceship.

instead of real windows there could be display screens
projecting a space scene
so when you look out the "window", it looks like you
are in deep space.

people from all over the world would likely travel to
be able to stay in the spaceship building
for a week or so, living just like
it was on a spaceship and having other amentities.

especially if it is the most advanced city in the world.
if it has enough amenities, no smog, and a thousand
other advantages, it could be very attractive.

frankly, it wouldn't have to be very good to still be
better than the typical old fashioned city.

such a tourist attraction could help fund the construction
of the community.

CRITICS

obviously this type of community is not for everybody,
nothing is. then again, the conventional city is
not for everybody either.

people are different and want different lifestyles.
ask ten people anything and you will
get twelve different answers.

lets not dwell on the people who are opposed to this,
they can stay in the existing community.

lets concentrate on those who do want it, and making
it happen sooner.
children and grandchildren, future generations
deserve a better world than that
which we are leaving them as things are going now.
do it for them if for nothing else.

we should at least build one small test community
as described in this article, see how it works,
and go from there.

nobody likes to think about highway fatalities,
paralysis, and all those other negatives pertaining
to automobiles and all those other things in the
old fashioned cities, but they still happen,
and it is unnecessary.

FREEDOM

one problem with existing society is 51%% of the
population wants to do
things one way and the other 49%% doesnt.

the majority wins and the 49%% lose their freedom
to do whatever the issue was.
a lot of unnecessary rules get created.

in other cases a compromise is reached where nobody
really gets what they wanted.

since these new communities will be built from the
ground up, and be essentially self supporting,
we have an opportunity to solve these problems.

this is a simplified explanation, but two communities
can be built. the 51%% gets one community,
and the 49%% gets the other one.
everybody wins, everybody gets exactly what they wanted.

this can be a very effective solution to many
different issues. not all issues, but most of them
can be solved this way.

it does get more complicated when you
consider that solving 2 issues requires 4 communities
so that everybody will have a community perfect for them.

however it is plausible to build a lot of communities
like this, so this could become realistic.

another factor is what countries these communities would
be built in. some countries may not allow enough
local control to achieve this freedom, they are
too centralized and bureaucratic.

they have failed to learn about
the benefits of decentralization.

the internet is a good example of the benefits of
decentralization. if one internet server goes down,
the rest of the internet still works.
this is why the internet has been so reliable since
the beginning.

we need more local control. there is no excuse for
bureaucrats to impose unpopular and unnecessary rules
on the whole country; just let one community live that
way if they want to,
and the other community can have freedom.
it may not work on existing cities
because many people won't want to
move, but these new communities can be planned in
advance, then populated by the people who want to
live the way that community is designed for.

if there is enough support for these communities, they
could be built in several countries as an international
project, and people could move to whichever community
was perfect for them, even across borders.

in other words,
the communities could be international zones where
citizenship is irrelevant.

lets face it, so many people are already
moving across borders for so many reasons,
this is not exactly that outlandish a concept.

by making them international zones, or at least
simplifying immigration procedures for the new
communities provided the people stay in the
new communities, we gain enough people to make
each community viable.
otherwise there might not be enough people in one
country to make a community large enough to work.
remember many people are slow to change, so it
will likely get off to a slow start.

only the best people will want to improve society
by doing these new communities. others may be
too set in thier ways.

by attracting good people from other countries, we
could put together some very nice
international communities.

GATED COMMUNITY

some of these communities could be like gated
communities. it would be a lot easier to keep
troublemakers out of this type of community.

assuming the windows are secured
on the lower floors,
and the entrance points to the building are secured,
it would be virtually impossible for troublemakers to
get in this type of building.

the park in the center will have zero muggers or
criminals in it.

the typical gated community has a fence, so all they
have to do is jump the fence and they're in.

but this new community doesnt have those
security problems.

some gated communities are overly strict, but we can
avoid that while making these new communities.
we can specifically make these communities for freedom.

the world is what we make of it.
lets make it a good one.

since each community can be different, each group
can make a community that is perfect for them, no need
for compromise, as mentioned already in the section
on freedom.

if we can acquire enough local control to screen out
all troublemakers we can have a combination of a gated
community and a whole city, such that we could live in
the community full time, day and night, without
any troublemakers.
that avoids the problem of the typical gated community
where you still need to leave the community to go to
work, school, etc, and are exposed to the
troublemakers and all the associated problems.

your family would be much safer in this new
proposed community.

MONTREAL'S UNDERGROUND CITY, OR INDOOR CITY

Montreal Canada has an underground city
consisting of a variety of commercial spaces and
kilometers (miles) of pedestrian walkways.

half a million people go through this underground city
every day on their way to work or wherever, often to
avoid the cold/rain/whatever outdoors.

their city still lacks the horizontal lifts and
other features advocated for the new community
being proposed by this article, but it does show that
there is an interest in alternatives,
and it is practical and popular.

the first thing that comes to mind is:
what about the rest of us?

in other words,
their underground city is nice but doesn't
have enough jobs or housing for all the people,
therefore more communities should be built.

building a new community from scratch would allow
a good built in horizontal lift transport
system which would make it practical to go all the
way around the round building. all areas would
be accessable with just one changeover to the vertical
lift in some cases.

this way the bulding complex could be the size of an
entire city,
and you dont have to walk several kilometers (miles) to
get where you need to go.

another built in lift system could enable post (mail),
groceries, or other items to be delivered automatically,
along with other labor saving devices for everybody,
thus reducing the workload and hours that
people have to work.

alternatively wheeled robots could use the corridors
to deliver items. wheeled robots are already in
use in limited locations for a variety of purposes.
imagine ordering takeout food and having a robot
deliver it to your door!
just like room service but every day.

the robots could be a fringe benefit of living
in this community, no extra cost for it so you
can use it and all other advantages all the time.

this community would offer a much higher standard
of living than any city on earth today.

other machines or labor saving systems could be
incorporated into the community so we could all
have shorter working hours. if we have enough
local control, we could ensure that our pay remains
the same, since the machines dont need pay.

we could in fact get a pay raise due to
the greater overall efficiency of the system,
while still having shorter work hours.

the extra money comes from the greater efficiency of
the system, because machines work day and night
without sleep, their productivity is much higher
than a humans.

ever notice how the work hours used to be much longer
in the old days (history) before the industrial age,
coming down over the years to hit a plateau of
40 hours per week?
most places are stuck at 40 hours but we could
continue the trend of history of shorter hours.

how does a 3 day workweek sound?
or to put it another way, 4 day weekends every week.

by modernizing everything, eliminating redundant jobs,
etc we could achieve it if we wanted to, and if we had
enough local control to do it.

the old fashioned cities don't like to use machine labor
since people lose their jobs and money when factories
get automated.
so we stay with the outdated method of human labor,
this results in people working long
hours in boring jobs, and other people being unemployed.

we can do better than that.

we can try new systems where machines do all the work
that they can do, which is a lot, you might be surprised
how much technology is already available.

with machines doing much of the work, and redundent jobs
being eliminated, and more equitable sharing of jobs
among everybody who is qualified, we can indeed end up
with 3 day workweeks, or less, and get more money too.
people who enjoy their jobs can keep working as many
hours as they want.

VARIATIONS

getting back to Montreal's underground city,
there are a lot of benefits to earth sheltered housing.

the dirt acts as a good insulator, so heating and air
conditioning costs are greatly reduced.

some of our new communities could be below ground, thus
preserving the natural beauty of the land.

there would only be a few doors built into the side of
a hill to get in and out of the building.
once you are out of the building, you find yourself in
a beautiful forest or a field,
the building is below ground and out of sight.

this preserves the natural beauty of the earth,
and seems better than paving the whole planet over
for sprawl.

some people would like to live in an underground city
in a forest,
so they can come outside and have a wonderful
unspoiled forest for thier yard.

fake windows inside can project a deep space appearance
as mentioned in the space hotel variation,
or they can project any other appearance so when
you are inside it appears that you are in a
conventional building anyway.

this has other benefits although it is only practical
for areas that are on high ground so there is no
flooding.

that is just one of many different variations of the
idea for a better community.

everybody can come up with other variations that may
be more appealing to certain segments of society,
so there could be a new community for almost everybody.
those who want to stay in the old fashioned city
can do that.

WAIT

dont wait for somebody else to build such
a community for you.
it will never get built unless we get
together and build it ourselves.

if there is enough interest in this community, we could
start small and gradually enlarge as more people become
interested. even if only 20 people started it, that
would be like a seed that grows into an oak tree.

LAND

one of the most expensive things these days is land.
one possible solution might be to build an underground
community as already mentioned.
it would be similar to the underground city in
Montreal Canada, but different.

our underground community could be build practically anywhere
as the underground isnt being used anyway, so its like
free land.

an underground community could be build underneath farmland
or jungle or desert or anyplace.

some farms already enjoy the benefits of windmills, because
the farmer gets paid some extra money to allow
the windmill there, yet it doesnt use up much space so
crops can continue to be grown.

similarly we could build an underground community under
a farm, paying the farmer a little money, which would be
much less expensive than buying land. the normal entrance
and exits would be away from the farm to avoid conflict.
only emergency exits would be in the farm area.

this idea would allow people to have large roomy spacious
areas to live without the problem of overcrowding that
old fashioned cities suffer from with their crowded
tiny flats/apartments.

obviously this isnt for everybody but it sounds
better than converting the whole earth into sprawl
with suburbs.

BENEFITS

assuming the building is metal, and interior furnishings
are flameproof, which is highly recommended, then there
will be zero deaths from house/apartment fires.

virtually every single problem that the old fashioned
community suffers from can be avoided by starting fresh
and making a new community as proposed.

dont like something about the proposal?
change it, and keep the other benefits.

it is a lot easier to start from scratch and build in all
the benefits, than it is to retrofit an existing
community.

not only can we get a better transport system this way,
but we can populate it with like minded people who
can live harmoniously because they want to be together,
as opposed to the old fashioned approach of forcing
different people to suffer under the tyranny of the
majority or from compromises.

ECONOMY

if a large number of communities are built, then each
one can test a different approach to the economy to
find ones that might work better than the ones
we have now.

at least some, if not all, of these new communities
should be designed to be sustainable and have the
same number of jobs as housing so nobody gets
left out.
that would have to take all the details into
consideration, we wont dwell on that in this article.

if I didnt know better, I would think that the
present establishment/cities were made primarily
by rich investors and for their profit,
instead of being what is best for the
majority of the people.

star trek portrays a possible future where money
has become outdated, and everybody works for the
betterment of humanity. perhaps one test community
could be built in that manner.

if we try enough different approaches, we might
find one or more that works better than what
we have now.

this would of course require enough local control
to allow the new communities to be free from the
present establishment and all its bureaucracy
and inefficiency.

private companies are always more efficient than
government bureaucracies. there is a reason that
the government doesnt run everything.
imagine if stores were all run by the government.
prices would be high, and variety and quality would
be very poor.

private companies compete with each other, resulting
in much better service to the people.

imagine if all these new communities were privately
run by private companies, and competed against
each other to attract people to live there.

for the first time, people would have a choice
as to where and how to live.
you would see the quality of life rise dramatically.

in other words, one company would run one community,
and a second company would run a second community,
and so forth, up to possibly hundreds or thousands
of communities eventually.
people could pick which community to live in,
even across international borders, so everybody
would gain the benefits of competition and have the
highest quality of life possible.

some companies would have sales and special offers,
paying transport costs to get people to move to
that companies community.

it is a well established fact that competition offers
better service to the people, and its not what
we have now.

somebody will respond by pointing out a bad example
of privatization, however anything can be abused.

what I am proposing here would allow each individual
person to choose which community to live in.
a bad company/community will get nobody living in it,
and will go out of business very quickly.
these kinds of safeguards combined with a bit of
government oversight will prevent any bad
privatization examples.

obviously there are details to consider, but this
article is already getting long.

the basic point is that existing cities don't compete
with each other the same way that private companies
do. if people arent really happy in a city, it
doesnt matter to the city.

all cities are similar, they all have insufficient
number of jobs that dont pay enough, they all have
the same basic rules/laws within a country, etc.

privately owned and operated communities could
compete with each other like stores do, having sales
and promotions, special offers, resulting in
better service and higher quality of life for
the people who live there.

if a privately owned community fails to offer
a high standard of living,
people leave and go to better communities.
all this assumes that there are enough communities
to make a viable market, but the free market system
is usually good at making enough supply to keep
up with the demand.

obviously if there is insufficient housing then people
will be stuck living someplace they dont want to be.
sound familiar?

to work properly there should be more incentives
than money. each community should have a proportion
of land equal to the number of people living there.

if one percent of the people live in a community, then
it should have one percent of the land.
a community with 2 percent of the population gets 2%%
of the land.

this way an unpopular community doesnt get more than
its fair share of land.
and the popular communities get more land so its
not overcrowded.

independent and competing nonprofit organizations
might actually be a better choice than
private for-profit companies.
while the profit motive has had some success,
there are disadvantages too.
as long as we keep the competition, thats the
winning factor.

NAME

we should think of a good name to call these
communities, because it would help promote them.

any constructive suggestions?

AUTHOR/COPYRIGHT

copyright 2006 John Bergeron
johnbergeron@uk2.net

this article and the drawing
may be copied/distributed as long as it is not
altered, nothing is left out,
and this notice is included.