Finding Freely - 4 Updates

Part III of the IPERT series (Updates 2 & 3 May 31, 2014)
©MMXIII The PRT NewsCenter

The International Personal Express Rapid Transit story so far has been defined by what Ivan Workman has voluntarily claimed, contradicted, and contra-contradicted. And that is the problem -- all we know about him and IPERT is what he has chosen to make public.

But what about Roger Freely? When he has had anything to say it has been second hand, passed along to the public by Workman.

Why? Who is Freely? Is he even real? We have determined that he is -- and this is where the trail took us:

IPERT Part II - Update 4

©MMXIII The PRT NewsCenter

International Personal Express Rapid Transit President & Co-Founder Ivan Workman, apparently displeased with the publicity in "A Brief Look At International Personal Express Rapid Transit" (Nov. 19, 2013), finally decided to re-contact the NewsCenter on Nov. 26, writing among other things:

For your information, the maglev & prt patents are all under my partner Roger Freely, not me, get your information right David.

Those who have been paying attention will recall Workman already stated in The 2nd Email that, "my brother and I are the inventors and patent holders for the technology". (Oh, and the patent search for Roger Freely comes up zilch too.) 

A brief look at 'International Personal Express Rapid Transit'

©MMXIII The PRT NewsCenter

Part I

People who follow developments in advanced transit may have noticed and wondered about 'International Personal Express Rapid Transit' (IPERT).

Recently the NewsCenter (wearing our GetThereFast.org webmaster hat) was contacted by a person identifying himself as Ivan Workman. Workman said he was interested in hiring the creator of the GetThereFast.org "Better Campus" video to perform similar work for his PRT effort, IPERT. Workman's email ended with the following passage, which cried out for further information:

IPERT's PRT system is based on the only operational Maglev PRT system (since 2004) that has been built and operated successfully, profitably, and large enough to transport people and freight for a city covering 12 square miles and a population of 200,000 people at the Los Alamos Nuclear Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico, which was developed by IPERT's team in conjunction with the Army Corp of Engineers. IPERT has 5 patents for this technology.

More bad news for would-be US coal exporters

Demand for your dirty product keeps falling.

Shanghai to ban coal burning by 2017 (Think Progress)

Smartphone-Dependent Transit - No thank you

To all those working to design automated transit and improve conventional transit: If you're trying to gear scheduling and/or fare payment to smartphones, please stop.

A number of years ago, well before smartphones were a thing, I spoke with a PRT designer who was planning to make smartcards the preferred means for users to access the system. At the time I counseled him that a public system required anyone be able to pay a fare in cash -- what if the smartcard was lost, or damaged, or forgotten at home or office? What about members of the public who don't have a smartcard, for whatever reason? Tourists for example.