MacBandit
It's the Incredibles!!!
Riaanh
"It sounds more like a fanciful sketchbook design than a serious solution crafted for reality."
- Huh!??
Please See:
http://www.gizmag.com/heathrow-ultra-prt-system/19493/
Richardf
An escape ramp is needed for when tracks and carriges fail,The passanger would not want to spend alll day traped in a hotbox.
The get out and send your carrige home or back would be needed
habakak
Totally silly. So we will get elevated roadways for every person up to their driveway or doorstep? Why do people keep on re-hashing the same senseless ideas and make it out to be a great new innovation. This is like personalized monorail. Really, we can afford that?
JeffHaring
Walt Disney designed and implemented this system 50+ years ago for Disneyland. This is not something so inventive. But I would agree that the time has come to think about different ways to get people from point A to point B in an efficient manner. With a smaller vehicle comes smaller track and this allows the implementation of this kind of system in more spaces that larger trains can't operate.
I hope it happens!
Scott in California
Why do they always want to carry FOUR passengers, or have seating for FOUR passengers??????? The average automobile trip carries 1.5 passengers. Why not just ONE passenger per car??? Then, the track doesn't have to be this massively expensive, $1000 per meter roadway.
That's why these things NEVER get built. The elevated trackways cost hundreds of millions of $$$$$ per project!! Think SMALL. Think LIGHTWEIGHT and it will at least be built.
reggys
As noted by a previous comment, the PRT concept has been around for more than 40 years. A true PRT system is not a linear system but is based on a grid with all vehicles routed for system efficiency by a central computer system. It is not "a city-full of vehicles traveling haphazardly in all directions." It would function best in a medium density urban area and require a comprehensive network grid. Initial system cost has been prohibitive.
Scott in California
@habakak: Can we really afford $500,000 for a set of traffic signals at an intersection? Or $50 per foot of sidewalk? No one suggests that these go to everyone's doorstep. How about placing it wherever there is a four-lane boulevard or roadway? If you pay property taxes, examine the bill: Over 50% goes to road construction and maintenance.
Everyone wants infrastructure upgrades for faster driving. This is so you can leave for work at 7:15AM instead of 7:00AM. You'll still arrive at 8:00AM, but it means you can stay up and watch Leno or Kimmel or Letterman longer!!!
Currently, our automobile-centric society is on a path to a disaster.
jerryd
Can we afford that? The real question in most cities, can we afford not to.
Change out the CF for medium tech composites and it's unlikely you could find a cheaper system for transporting people. The cost/mile comparing standard gas cars/$.50/mile and these at $.02/mile.
I drive a similar composite EV on the road now at those prices.
Nor does it have to be a raised roadway as works fine at ground level though a number of bridges over regular roads, etc would be called for. Since these weigh little the bridges would be cheap.
The vehicle itself should only cost $5k or so and last 50 yrs.
Most forget the cost of making more roads, parking this would eliminate especially door to door. I'd settle for just standard routes to start.
So again if done right, light and flexable, we can't afford to not have something like this in most cities.
vtburton
There are 5 or 6 in operation in the US right now. The first, from the '70's:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgantown_Personal_Rapid_Transit