Metro System Competition
Highways
  • Expanding highways is usually the first choice. Many highways are congested, are the source of significant air and noise pollution, and cannot be easily widened.
  • Many congested highways cannot obtain federal funding because of existing high air pollution levels.
Highways can carry 2,800 people per lane per hour at an average speed of 55 MPH. An eight-lane highway can move 11,200 pphpd (passengers per hour per direction), giving a capacity of 616,000 pmphpd (passenger miles per hour per direction).

Compared to highway widening, the maglift monorail's footprint is small, and in many situations it would be possible to add the equivalent of six to eight lanes in capacity while staying within the median of an existing highway.

Light Rail
  • Light rail systems can carry up to 25,000 pphpd at an average speed of 15 to 22 MPH, giving a maximum capacity of 550,000 pmphpd.
  • Maglift monorail has a higher capacity at 2,000,000 pmphpd (40,000 pphpd at an average of 50 MPH)
Unlike light rail systems, the maglift monorail does not require its own right-of-way; it can be elevated and located in the median of an existing highway.

Monorails are more popular than light rail systems when voters are given a choice.

Pendulum Monorail
  • A pendulum monorail has one line of wheels which runs along the top of the beam (the fulcrum), and the heavy motors are above these wheels, making the monorail act like an upside-down pendulum. Guide wheels below the main wheels run on the side of the beam and limit and dampen the oscillations. These monorails are inherently unstable at speeds around 55 MPH, severly limiting their top speed.
The motors on a pendulum monorail, mounted above the load-carrying wheels, prevent people from walking the length of the train, making supervision difficult. People can walk the full length of the maglift monorail.

Pendulum monorails can carry up to 13,200 pphpd at an average speed of 50 MPH, giving a maximum capacity of 660,000 pmphpd, much less than the maglift monorail's capacity of2,000,000 pmphpd.

All monorails are very popular and the public votes overwhelmingly for them when given a choice. The public's approval is based on experience: The monorails at Disney World, for example, carry 55 million passengers per year and have carried over one billion people.

Commuter Rail
  • Commuter rail systems can carry up to 30,000 pphpd at an average speed of 35 MPH, giving a maximum capacity of 1,050,000 pmphpd.
  • Unlike commuter rail systems, the maglift monorail does not require its own right-of-way; it can be elevated and placed in the median of an existing highway.
  • Monorails are more popular than commuter rail systems when voters are given a choice.
Automated People Movers
  • People movers can carry 5,760 pphpd at an average of 30 MPH, giving a maximum capacity of 172,800 pmphpd
  • Maglift monorail has a higher capacity at 2,000,000 pmphpd (40,000 pphpd at an average of 50 MPH)
  • Maglift monorail can operate at substantially higher speeds.