Perimeter Metros

Hey guys, today I will be discussing another aspect of my WEBEO Transportation proposals: perimeter metros!

What exactly is a perimeter metro, you may ask? To answer that, we need to rewind the clock back to the 1950s, during the mass exodus of the inner cities into "suburbia," complete of its office complexes, big box stores, and lack of "interesting" activity outside our balconies. What was initially meant to be a safe haven from the concrete and carbon of inner-city traffic soon capsized itself into the largest traffic tangle in the country. Thousands of commuters roadblocked puppies and children from crossing the street to the planned neighborhood park, and a multitude of companies were left floundering in the face of frustrated workers.

So, the USA highway system started adopting the ring road principal. Think of a ring road as a doughnut that encircles a major city, filled with swiftly moving traffic. It is designed to connect, say, Hollywood to Irvine (which I discussed my last blog), or even further trips like Baltimore to Washington DC's Dulles Airport. Below is an example of the Interstate 495 ring road around DC:

The perimeter metro is a solution I am devising that performs the same trick, only by replacing the traditional asphalt doughnut with a set of rails and iron. Through my honestly excessive addiction to playing with Google Earth, I noticed that while highways encompass the whole city, most railway lines only connect via the city center. So, if one wanted to travel form Kent to the Airport in London by train, they would need three trips: to London by regional train, then to the western railway station by the Tube, and finally the airport link train. The perimeter metro solves this dilemma in urban planning, by connecting the parallel railway lines leading into the city. Below is an example I laid out in London:

The line starts out at Watford Junction, a mainline station for the West Coast Main line heading into London Euston (Central) Station. It deviates to the south west to serve the ring of suburbs of London around the M25 orbital motorway. I am not going to get into too much detail on the exact curves of the line, but what is important is that it connects to Uxbridge (the end of the Piccadilly metro ("tube") line and all terminals of London's Heathrow airport. Such a connection directly from the main north-south spine of England stretching all the way to Manchester. Not only does the outer-ring of hands, so to speak, lack contact with the grunt and smog of Central London, but hands are held with the many business travelers living up England's coast. A one stop ride to Europe's busiest airport can be had for 65% of England's population by the construction of such a railway line.

It doesn't even stop there; the line continues over the hills and through the woods, interchanging with even more lines, namely those of the Great Southwestern Railway, and finally to the southern suburbs and London's Gatwick leisure airport. I understand the struggles that persist in changing airports (I had to suffer a 2 hour bus ride between the airports on my way back fron India), so such a line can induce more efficient collaboration between the two airports. In fact, such collaboration can meld the two plane-fields together so much that a new airport (which I actually proposed in an earlier WEBEO), would be pointless!

The perimeter metro does have its disadvantages, namely that much of the route traverses non-existent track. Nevertheless, there is no denying the multitude of benefits gained for tourists and businessmen alike from the construction of such a connection.