How Does it Work?

The Interstate Traveler is a self-sustaining, modular, elevated public transit and municipal infrastructure system invented by Justin Eric Sutton under development by the Interstate Traveler Company, LLC of Whitmore Lake Michigan commonly known as “The Interstate Traveler” and “The Hydrogen Superhighway” and “The Interstate Traveler Rail”. 

With the intent to upgrade the existing United States Interstate Highway System to provide a quieter, cleaner, safer, faster and more efficient transportation network, this modular system, in its final design, will form a transportation and municipal infrastructure web across the State of Michigan, the United States, and eventually every nation in the world as a de facto standard.   

1.     Commensurate of the Interstate Traveler design is the use of solar energy as the primary motive force to drive all subsystems and the integration of conduit in the central support of the rail to connect and interconnect all systems as the rail network is installed section by section.  

2.     Solar energy will be the primary force yet the integration of other ‘green’ systems such as wind power and wave power will be expected in immediate future.

3.     The top surface of the central support is laminated with solar panel materials yielding calculations based on 84,480 square feet of solar panel per mile of rail as a basis to provide a self-sustaining system.  A system connecting Detroit to Lansing of about 90 miles will therefore create a solar grid of 7,603,200 square feet of solar panel; the equivalent of 174.54 acres of solar panel.

4.     The solar energy from these panels is harvested by conversion with such technologies as photo-voltaic (PV) and photo-catalytic (PC) processes.

5.     Energy harvested from the PV and PC systems is used to energize or otherwise directly enable the electrolysis process, which is the electrolytic decomposition of water (of any source or quality) into its constituent components.

6.     The gases and solids harvested from the electrolytic decomposition of water are then stored for immediate and future use. 

7.     The primary gases collected during the decomposition of water will be hydrogen and oxygen which will be used as the primary energy source to power all subsequent systems.

8.     A multitude of energy storage systems will be employed such as the storage of hydrogen and oxygen for use in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, gas turbine generators and internal combustion engines, along with metal hydride battery materials and water towers which not only pressurize the water distribution systems but also act as hydro-electric storage batteries, and others as may seem expedient.

9.     The central support of the rail system houses a conduit cluster connected together, section by section, at sixty six foot intervals, or as needed, by connector plates which enable the modular assembly, interconnection and reconfiguration of the system at any time.

10.            The conduit cluster is comprised of a multitude of conduits dedicated to the flow of water, sewer, electricity, fiber optics, hydrogen, oxygen, and other liquids, vapors and gases to be used as a fuel or otherwise.

11.            The connector plates provide sensors, valves, switches and repeaters for each of the conduits in the cluster, and have the ability to interact with adjacent connector plates to detect damage to individual conduits automatically adjusting valves and switches as needed or on demand.

12.            The conduit cluster provides a load balancing and distribution system for the utility substations.

13.            The utility substations are setup every three mile to house the electrolysis systems, gas storage systems, clean and sanitary water systems, fuel cells, turbines, internal combustion engines, compressors, generators, computers, wireless and fiber optic network connections, etc., providing local taps to local existing municipal systems, local energy distribution grids, and fueling stations.  The Utility Substations have the ability to shunt between the various energy systems on demand or as required.

14.            For the transit system, each transport platform (Transporter) will employ four or more independent electromagnetic levitation, propulsion and position control motors that wrap around large diameter rail tubes mounted upon and above the central support in parallel making derailment impossible.  The motors connect to the transport platform via a large ball joint articulated linear suspension system leveraged from inside the transport platform enabling the transporter to roll, pitch and yaw in the same manner of an air craft enabling the transporter to take advantage of aerodynamic lift at high speeds to maximize efficiency.

15.            Each transporter is equipped with a pendulum censor, or other device or set of devices, that enable the roll, pitch and yaw suspension system to dynamically position the vehicle in such a manner as to adjust to g-forces (other than those perpendicular to the floor) due to acceleration, deceleration and banking so that the forces experienced by Travelers are always perpendicular to the floor to maximize a smooth ride for Travelers.

16.            The transportation system will serve ridership accessing the system from Traveler Stations built along the rail network at every entrance and exit to the US Highway System, and from other buildings that may be adaptable to and be in a suitable location to act as a Traveler Station for the Interstate Traveler Rail.

17.            The Traveler Stations are to be built within the existing US Highway Rights of Way such as within the land-locked real estate within the clover leaf on/off ramps, built over the existing roadway and on or adjacent to existing Park-and-Ride lots.

18.            The entire system will be operated by a software program and electronic communications system similar to the Internet (TCP/IP) which will enable real-time communications with all subsystems.

19.            Each rail section, rail switch, connector plate, utility substation and transporter will have its own computer network designed to interact with the other subsystems to enable security, reliability, accuracy, redundancy and safety. 

20.            The Internet uses a subsystem called DNS, or Domain Name System which resolves a numerical address to a “user friendly” address; much like a phone book lists a name with a phone number, but specifically as in resolving an IP address with a website. The Interstate Traveler Rail will make use of a nested domain addressing system similar to DNS to allow a Traveler using the Interstate Traveler Rail to go from place to place, which is accomplished by giving a country, state, county, city and station an ordinal number in a standardized order so that a computer can easily resolve an address and facilitate optimal routing according to existing network topology and changing network traffic and conditions.

21.            The following example shows how the Traveler will get from Traveler Station #8 in Ann Arbor to Traveler Station #3 at the Detroit Institute of Arts.  Notice the numerical nested domain naming system in this example goes 5 levels deep in resolving the address. 

22.            In the aggregate, the Interstate Traveler creates a reconfigurable and interconnectable public transit and municipal infrastructure system AND a growing network of solar powered energy storage batteries that will help ensure energy stability for the growing economies of the world where ever the Interstate Traveler Rail is installed, AND create the distribution infrastructure so desperately needed for the growing US economy with the ability to produce, distribute and store large amounts of hydrogen AND provide the ability to store and distribute compressed natural gas, agricultural methane, and other fuels the economy may demand.  

Operational Summary