Collective transportation system and process

• US 8,306,833 B2
• Filed: 03/02/2007
• Issued: 11/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/02/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Patrick Hurpin
• Original Assignee: Patrick Hurpin
• Inventors: Hurpin, Patrick
• Primary Examiner(s): Campbell, Shannon
• Application Number:
  US12/281,016
• Publication Number:
  US 20090313095A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,076 Days
• Field of Search: 705/5, 705/13
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: E04H 6/14 with endless conveyor chains having load-carrying parts moving vertically, e.g. paternoster lifts also similar transport in which cells are continuously mechanically linked together
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/127 Shopping or accessing services according to a time-limitation
• CPC Class Codes: G07B 15/04 comprising devices to free a barrier, turnstile, or the like turnstiles with registering means G07C9/10; coin-freed aspects G07F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0014 for vending, access and use of specific services not covered anywhere else in G07F17/00 meter-controlled dispensing of liquid, gas or electricity G07F15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/0057 for the hiring or rent of vehicles, e.g. cars, bicycles or wheelchairs car rental G07B15/00
• CPC Class Codes: G07F 17/24 for parking meters
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/205 Indicating the location of the monitored vehicles as destination, e.g. accidents, stolen, rental

Abstract

A system is provided for the collective transport of people using a plurality of vehicles within a urban territory equipped with parking structures near transfer stations. Each parking structure comprises boxes for parking available vehicles in rows that provide a handling platform comprising a return area in front of a first row and a pick-up area in front of a second row. A mechanism displaces the boxes and brings, at the level of the handling platform, an empty box and an occupied box. The vehicle is thereafter advanced from the occupied box onto the pick-up area and taken therefrom. The vehicle is thereafter brought to the return area of a second parking structure, advanced and introduced in the empty box thereof. The empty box thereafter containing the vehicle is raised by the mechanism and replaced by a second empty box ready to receive a further vehicle.

Claims

1. A system for the collective transport of people using a plurality of available individual vehicles without using private vehicles, within a urban territory comprising:

a public transportation network having multiple lines along which are located a plurality of station stops and a plurality of transfer stations at at least some intersections of said multiple lines,

wherein said territory is equipped with a plurality of parking structures, at least some of which are located at a distance from at least one of the plurality of transfer stations, said distance corresponding to a displacement by foot in a time of a same order as a transfer time required between two intersecting lines of the multiple lines,

wherein each parking structure comprises a plurality of boxes for parking at least two of the plurality of available individual vehicles, said plurality of boxes forming at least two rows that provide a handling platform comprising a return area in front of a first row of the at least two rows and a pick-up area in front of a second row of the at least two rows, and wherein each parking structure further comprises a mechanism for an incremental displacement of said boxes in the at least two rows, said mechanism bringing at a level of the handling platform an empty box from the plurality of boxes in the first row and an occupied box from the plurality of boxes containing one of the plurality of available individual vehicles in the second row, wherein the one available individual vehicle is thereafter advanced on the pick-up area, and

wherein, when the one individual vehicle is taken from a pick-up area of a first one of the plurality of parking structures, a second of the plurality of available individual vehicles is brought to the handling platform, and

wherein, when the one individual vehicle is brought to a return area of a second one of the plurality of parking structures, said one individual vehicle is advanced and introduced in the empty box of the second parking structure at the level of the handling platform, wherein said empty box thereafter containing the one individual vehicle is raised by the mechanism and replaced by a second empty box ready to receive a further vehicle from the plurality of available individual vehicles,

wherein each of the plurality of available vehicles is propelled by electricity given by batteries and each of the plurality of boxes is equipped with a means to recharge the vehicle batteries, the number of vehicles stored in each of the plurality of parking structures being based on the necessary time needed to recharge the batteries.

2. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of available vehicles stored in the plurality parking structures are available to a population of users of the public transportation network, each having their own personalized transportation title allowing to lock-unlock and start-up any one of the available vehicles and constituting an authorization to access any one of the parking structures.

3. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 2, wherein each personalized transportation title constitutes a means of payment, by its holder, for the use of a vehicle according to the distance travelled or the elapsed time.

4. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 3, wherein each transportation title comprises a smart card with a personal access code programmed to allow the holder, after code authorization, to perform operations necessary for taking charge of and returning a vehicle and for its payment of use.

5. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 4, wherein the transportation titles are smart cards serving as authorization to access the public transportation network, serving as authorization to access the parking structures and the available vehicles and serving as payment means for the use thereof.

6. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 2, wherein the access to a parking structure from the plurality of parking structures and the use of a vehicle therein is authorized by a system of central control accessible by cell phone or by internet service in order to obtain authorizations for its use.

7. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 1, wherein each parking structure is placed inside a building in the form of a tower having a lower section which is sunk into the ground to a variable depth which is determined so that the upper section that is above the ground extends to a height compatible with the site in which the parking structure is placed.

8. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 1, wherein the number of parking structures and the number of available vehicles contained in the boxes of each parking structure are determined according to an expected frequency of utilization.

9. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 1, wherein the territory is a urban district comprising a center surrounded by peripheral suburbs served by regional public transportation lines comprising a plurality of transit station stops each having one of the plurality of parking structures.

10. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 1, wherein those parts of the territory not served by the public transportation network are equipped with some of the plurality of parking structures distributed therethrough.

11. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 1, wherein the territory consists of at least two urban zones each equipped by a public transportation network with parking structures, the two zones being spaced apart at a distance compatible with the use of an autonomous vehicle in such a way as to permit transport by an autonomous vehicle either within one zone, or from one zone to another.

12. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 1, wherein the territory is equipped, around its center, with parking lots able to hold a large capacity of private vehicles, each placed in proximity to one of the plurality of stations of the public transportation network equipped with one of the plurality of parking structures, wherein after having parked ones vehicle in one of the parking lots, a user is able to take a public transportation line and is also alternatively able to take one of the plurality of available vehicles from the proximate one of the plurality of parking structures.

13. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 1, wherein the at least two rows are vertical parallel rows.

14. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that each of the plurality of parking structures is of the Noria type and comprise the plurality of boxes stacked over one another, each serving as a storage space for one of the plurality of available vehicles and being suspended from a chain drive, wherein each of the storage box is secured to the chain drive by a means of fixation allowing for the box to be suspended on a vertical axis, said chain drive being stretched between two spaced wheels, turning about two parallel horizontal axes in such a way as to control the displacement of the boxes vertically in the at least two rows passing respectively before the return area and the pick up area located on the handling platform placed at an intermediate level between the two rotating wheels, the rotation of the chain stopping at the moment the empty box of the first row or an occupied box of the second row containing the one available vehicle arrives at the level of the handling platform.

15. A system for collective transport of people according to claim 1, wherein a further available vehicle taken from any one of the plurality of parking structures can be returned to any other one of the plurality of parking structures.