2. Rethinking Transportation All of the major forms of metropolitan transportation that we use today – automobiles, busses, trains, subways, and light rail – have been with us for over a century, with only superficial changes during that time. We now have the ability to build new kinds of transportation systems that are cleaner, faster, safer, quieter, and more enjoyable to use than anything in use today.
3. Personal Automated Transportation: Status and Potential of Personal Rapid Transit by the Personal Rapid Transit Technical Committee of the Advanced Transit Association. January 2003. Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is defined as direct origin-to-destination service with no stops, using small fully automatic vehicles on a dedicated guideway. It promises a low cost way to provide service that is widely dispersed throughout a region. The Advanced Transit Association (ATRA) produced this report to encourage better understanding of PRT. The advantages in service and cost of PRT over mass transit are discussed. Design details and tradeoffs of PRT are enumerated. Fourteen of the PRT systems now under development are examined. At least $60M has been spent on engineering on these systems, including prototypes. Many evaluation points were considered for each system, including visual and geometric factors, market readiness, propulsion, switching, capacity, control, and cost. Nothing was found in the evaluations that would suggest that PRT is not viable in revenue operation. Approximate costs of a PRT system of $3.4 M/km ($5 M/mile) (one way) can be projected, based on a combination of actual prototype costs, bids, and several comprehensive costing studies. It is proposed that local governments update permitting requirements to legalize PRT, and follow rigorous planning and evaluation practices so that PRT systems are compared fairly with other systems on the basis of their ability to meet well-defined public goals. 224 pages in 5 volumes.