Personal Rapid Transit – Coming to a city near you?
By Leah Bamberger
Climate Fellow,
Clean Air-Cool Planet
I would like to introduce you to the future of public transportation, Personal Rapid Transit (PRT). No more rubbing up against strangers, or waiting for that bus or train. PRT is the future of public transportation.
PRT is an automated system of very light and small personal vehicles (pods) on elevated tracks that take passengers anywhere within a network of stations. The tracks can be built underground, over the streets and sidewalks (posts could replace utility poles) or even over rooftops. The stations are located off the main lines of other transit or transportation systems so as to not interrupt the flow of traffic, which is computer controlled. This, coupled with the fact that the number of vehicles is limited, make traffic jams impossible. Even better, the pods wait at the station for you, not the other way around. There is no human driver, the infrastructure is cheap and it has zero emissions.
Okay – I tried, but words can’t describe it. Here, check out this video:
Cool concept but it’ll never happen, right? Never say never. In 2008, London’s Heathrow International Airport completed 3.8 km of steel and concrete PRT guideways, linking one terminal to the business car park north of the airport. The system developed by Ultra, should open this year and will consist of 21 vehicles and 2 stations.
Construction at Heathrow International Airport
So now you are thinking, fine but it will never happen in the U.S., or at least not in my lifetime! Well, you may be wrong again. In September of 2008, the City of San Jose issued a Request for Interest for an Automated Guideway (PRT) system for San Jose Airport and in April of 2010, the Valley Transportation Authority set aside $4 million to begin a feasibility study of a PRT system. PRT systems are also being pursued in Santa Cruz, Alameda Point and Virginia. There is even interest in Boston!
Learn more about PRT at http://www.personalrapidtransit.com/.
Do you see PRT coming to a city (or even a small town) near you?
ULTra pod on development track
Tags: Boston, Carbon Management, Climate action, climate change solutions, CO2, emission reduction, Energy Efficiency, Fuel Efficiency, Heathrow International Airport, PRT, Public Rapid Transportation, sustainability, transportation, ULTra
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July 10, 2010 at 9:29 am
cool project idea. reminds me of the monorail in my other home town, seattle. good for tourists and generating dollars.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/35/SeattleMonorailChokePoint.jpg/794px-SeattleMonorailChokePoint.jpg
you might like this live project in budapest, http://www.woehr.de/en/projekte/budapest_m730/index.htm
July 14, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Thanks Michael for the post, and thank you for the links and other information. I had a friend that spent a lot of time in Budapest, and I remember telling me how much of the city is developed underground. Seems like this would be the right place for this new high-tech underground parking lot; we can only hope it will promote more cycling and walking. Our only question is how much power does it take to run such an operation, and if the benefits of it will outweigh the effort used to create it?
July 10, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Visit http://www.prtconsulting.com for pictures, videos and papers about PRT as well as links toother PRT websites.
July 14, 2010 at 12:22 pm
Thank you Peter for the added data and resources. We appreciate the support in getting this information out to a larger crowd. If you would like to comment again in the future about any upcoming projects feel more than welcome, or if you know anything about the development in Boston in particular, we would be interested in writing further about that as well. Also, feel free to keep up with us at: CA-CP Facebook Page.