
Using Helicopters for Nashville Mass Transit Alternative - crunchyave
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/using-helicopters-nashville-mass-transit-alternative-john-maddox/?trackingId=sH%2B6xzLkG%2F2%2F%2FuJUPXEfWA%3D%3D
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eesmith
Please don't include a tracking id in the URL.

Regarding the concept, helicopters don't provide mass transit.

This is yet another example of "rich people think everyone should travel like
they want to travel."

While it's true that "These helicopters have proven history", part of that
history includes
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetLife_Building#Helicopter_se...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MetLife_Building#Helicopter_service)
. Note the "inadequate passenger loads", even for NYC.

You don't want your mass transit system to halt in somewhat bad weather.

"given their speed it would take no more than 10 minutes to fly from Franklin
to downtown". That's about 20 miles, so average speed of 120 mph. Sounds like
the goal is to push the helicopter as fast as it can, then slow down. Probably
not good for longevity.

During the commute times, those helicopters won't be carrying much when going
in the other direction.

Even if it's a 10 minute flight, It's going to take time to load/unload those
people. With light rail there are a lot of doors to help out. Not on a
helicopter.

Good luck too on bringing a stroller or wheelchair on that helicopter.

"MI-26 Halo ... which can transport between 150-200 people". There's a
discrepancy with
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-26](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mil_Mi-26)
. That says "Capacity: * 90 troops or 60 stretchers; * 20,000 kg cargo (44,090
lb)." while
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Khankala_Mi-26_crash](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_Khankala_Mi-26_crash)
says "The Mi-26 helicopter was designed to carry 80 troops, while the one that
was destroyed was loaded with at least 140 people"

We can figure out the capacity. Assuming 3 trips per hour for 4 hours of
commute time, all carrying 150 people, and with 50 helicopters, that's 84,000
people who could commute.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_440_(Tennessee)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_440_\(Tennessee\))
says "I-440 was built to carry 60,000 vehicles a day. By 2008, the average
annual daily traffic (AADT) was 106,219 vehicles." Assuming only one person in
each car, going each way, that's 53,000 commuters.

In other words, this helicopter service is _at the impossible best_ about
equivalent to building a new 6-lane highway.

FWIW,
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_rail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_rail)
points out that "a well-designed two-track system can handle up to 30 trains
per hour per track, achieving peak rates of over 20,000 passengers per hour in
each direction." That's 4x the capacity of this hypothetical helicopter
service, using proven technology which can handle bad weather and is ADA
compliant.

