PBS Series -American Revealed - Movie Review Example

10/14 PBS Series: American Revealed Episode 2: Nation on the Move America is constantly on the move daily through all of its transportation systems, transporting 310 million people. Yet, these systems have one big problem – it is barely keeping up with the population growth and now we are looking for solutions to keep these infrastructures appropriately developed to absorb this growth. The infrastructures most affected are the highway, railroad and airline systems. Episode 2, America on the Move, reviews these infrastructures through interviews with people who managed these systems in different parts of the country. Based on the location, one system is more important than another because of access to these systems and the problems people encounter when utilizing these systems. Three most important revelations taken away from viewing this episode were: The railroad hub is in Chicago and all train systems moving across the U.S. must pass through this hub in order to move onwards to the needed destination; The GPS system being used by pilots in areas where radar cannot track pathway points because of high mountains; Los Angeles can no longer build more freeways and there is now a plan to develop a mass transit system to help with the vehicle congestion. America has developed into one of the most complicated series of transportation systems in the world. Basically, there are three ways to get around the country: by plane, car or by train. Admittedly, trains tend to be more involved in the transport of goods and products rather than the transport of people, except for subway systems in major cities such as New York City and the metro in Washington, D.C. There is also a train system running from Fort Worth to Dallas in Texas, yet for those in Arlington, which sits between the two cities, it is not easy to get to a station to catch a train. You still need a car to get there. Oddly enough, there is no bus transportation system in Arlington, TX which means a car is still needed to get around. 1. The Train System in America As noted above, the hub for the rail system for all trains in the United States is in Chicago, Illinois. The hub services all trains such as commuter trains going across country, Amtrak trains and the largest system of freight trains. Over a year, 1.75 million freight trains go through Chicago and the Double Hump, where trains coming in, are taken apart by removing the pin. The car is then moved to another train linkup, and that car goes on to its destination. “Jack,” who controls the removal and resets of these carts, says he can evaluate the U.S. economy by what cars are coming through and what they are carrying as well. The economy is heavily reliant on these freight trains as the system is the easiest and cheapest way to move products and goods across the country. The rail route system is, however, lacking in its ability to service many U.S. citizens because routes are so convoluted. For instance, to take an Amtrak train to Washington, D.C. from Dallas, TX, you would have to go from Dallas to Chicago first, and then transfer to a train going to Washington, D.C. This makes it very difficult for the majority of people who might prefer to travel by train rather than by plane. In fact, the only way to travel this route would be by plane which takes three hours, or by car which will take four days. The solution is to develop hubs all over the country for main train lines, with offshoot lines to smaller cities. This would relieve the congestion on the roads and hopefully, there would be far less automobile accidents on the highways. For a change, people could sit back and enjoy the countryside from the train windows instead of concentrating on the road from behind a steering wheel of their car. While it does take longer, there is far less stress and maybe even a chance to make new friends along the way. 2. The Airline Infrastructure Many people still will fly planes and there are even still business ‘road warriors’ such as Dean Burry, an international insurance salesman, who spends most of his time flying from one meeting to another. These meetings can be anywhere in the United States or somewhere in Europe. He has refined how he travels in that he packs one bag that he takes on board the plane, and makes sure he knows how to easily get through all the security lines without trouble. He is also very adept at planning reservations to get him where he is going, using multiple reservations so if one conks out, he can grab another plane. Planes are also part of the transportation system of goods and products although there are specific planes that handle these transports. There is even a special transportation system by air for dead bodies, mainly those of retirees out of Florida who, once they have passed, are now on their final journey to their designated place of internment. One of the most interesting parts of this section on airplanes was the use of a global positioning system (GPS) which help Alaskan pilots get through areas where radar is disrupted because of high mountains. Ordinarily, planes had to rely on set beacons to monitor where they were at any given point along their route while passing through this disturbance. With GPS, this allows planes to not have to zigzag from one beacon to the next, wasting extra fuel and airspace. Instead, planes can now travel in a straight path, leaving more airspace for more planes to travel through the same area. It is not clear if this is currently in use through major airlines right now, but it is in use in remote areas where high mountains exist, thus eliminating some of the airline crashes that have occurred in the past. This is also the possible new frontier for all airlines to move to GPS that may prove to be more reliable than the older radar system. As a last thought on airspace in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides all airlines with updates on weather around the country. Many groups have access to this report, including the Secret Service, which must be ready to move the President and his family at a moment’s notice if they need to go somewhere. The FAA Command Center is located in northern Virginia and “Deborah” manages the report broadcast every two hours. 3. The American Highway System The construction of cross-country highways has opened up the whole United States to all people who like to travel by car. It has also allowed for communities to be built close to these highways and has opened up new possibilities for taking jobs in neighboring cities such as Fort Worth and Dallas, TX, now joined by I-30. Depending on traffic, one can travel from Fort Worth to Dallas in about 30 to 45 minutes, if the job requires it. What is not so good are the traffic jams that occur quite often and the occasional expansion construction projects that back everybody up to one lane. As noted in the episode, American highways are hardly able to catch up to the booming population, particularly in dense cities such as Los Angeles. The possible solution in L.A. is to build metro systems that will take up a portion of people driving cars who would prefer to take the metro system instead to get to and from work. In another city, Los Vegas, Nevada, road manager “Chuck” has a different idea about how to control traffic, especially when there are events that bring a lot of road traffic into town. He monitors the traffic lights and calls in to reset the green lights, stealing time from one directional set and adds it to the roads that need to pass traffic through for longer periods of time. The center of command for resetting traffic lights is called the Fish Bowel. So far, the procedure has assisted greatly in routing traffic through so there are no large backups when big groups of people are coming in for an event. Ultimately, it is up to us to think creatively about how to solve our problems with the resources we have at hand, especially if funding is not available to create expansion in railroad systems and in creating more roadways for us to travel on. This episode gave a very interesting overview of our transportation systems as they are today and how some people are using innovative methods of solving problems with what’s at hand. Kwon, Yul. Nation on the Move. Episode 2. PBS Series: America Revealed. 2012. http://www.pbs.org/america-revealed/episode/2/ Read More