Funding

Who pays for Building the JPods Network

JPods LLC and the Maryland Mobility Company LLC pay to build our solar-powered mobility networks.

• We are investors, not vendors.
• We are taxpayers. We pay 5% of our gross revenues to use the public Rights of Way.
• We are investing in Maryland to provide solar-powered mobility networks that combine:
  • The 140 times greater efficiency of freight railroads ($0.01 per passenger-mile in graph below, link).
  • The on-demand service of a physcial version of the Internet, a network of Horizontal-Elevators™ (link).
  • The 50,000 times better safety of theme park thrill rides (link).
• JPods Networks are 10 time to 50 times less expensive per passenger-mile that cars and buses.

Capital Flow:

Because of a century of centrally plan infrastructure, it surprise Americans to think that infrastructure should be privately funded. But building of the Internet and Transcontinental Railroads provide case studies in why infrastructure should be privately funded.

The book Great by Choice, Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck - Why Some Thrive Depite Them All explains the processes required:

• "20-mile marching", incremental, steady, disciplined, step by step efforts.
• "Fire bullets, then cannon balls", tinkering by starting small and iterating relentlessly.

The book Nothing Like It in the World, is a case study on how private capital funded building the railroads. The following graphic illustrates three types of capital are used by two different types of companies:

1. Local Mobility Companies® (LMCs) mission is to own and operate the JPods networks to meet local needs. LMCs have two tasks:
   • Gain Rights of Way access (Solar Mobility Act and/or Franchise Contract with 5X5% Performance Standard)
   • Profit by serving the fare box payers with greater value than the cost to compete.
2. Master Mobility Companies® (MMCs) construct the networks defined by the LMCs. MMCs operate with very focused requirements:
   • Repay construction captial every 12 months by selling completed networks to LMCs to operate.
   • From survey to certification of rail should take no more than 9 months once the manufacturing base is ramped to scale.
   •  Complete 3 to 10 miles of networks per day per crew, matching the pace the Transcontinental Railroads were built in the 1860s.

Repeat the success of communications in power and transportation shift to standards-based regulations. Remove regulatory delays .

5X5 Standard:

The 5X5 Standard provides a simple and effective way to create a stable regulatory environment so $billions will be invested in sustainable infrastructure.

1. This standard applies to Networks 5 times more efficient than existing transport modes in a Right of Way.
2. Construction of the Networks must be privately funded.
3. Networks must operate without government subsidies.
4. Networks pay 5% of gross revenues for non-exclusive use of Rights of Way, or what existing laws require of other infrastructure networks using public Rights of Ways.
5. Aboveground Networks must gather at least 2 megawatt-hours of renewable energy per typical mile per typical day.
6. In collaboration with the State government, a Web-based Document System (WDS) will be provided with secure access to all jurisdictions. Each Network Plan will be posted to the WDS. Plans not rejected in writing within 14 days are approved.
   • The objective of this provision is to protect the interests of communities, remove bureaucratic delays, and remove problems coordinating with multiple agencies.
   • This only applies to Networks 5 times more efficient than existing networks.
7. Networks are regulated for safety by existing theme park regulations (typically ASTM F24).
   • This provides a 50,000-times better standard than Federal DOT:
     • 0.2 injuries per million using ASTM F24
     • 11,200 injuries per million using Federal DOT regulations.

Private capital has stated an interest to invest based on this 5X5 Standard.