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Heathrow’s Personal Rapid Transport Concept |
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Written by Eve Pearce
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Implications of the Breakthrough in Heathrow’s Personal Rapid Transport Concept
The debate as to whether or not the innovative Personal Rapid Transport (PRT) concept is gaining momentum has finally been put to rest. A successful trial of the system’s prototype was conducted at the Heathrow Airport in May 2011. The trial involved inspirational rides in low-energy and battery-powered four-sitter auto pods over a four-kilometer elevated and specialized track. The first phase of the Heathrow PRT remotely connected Terminal 5 to two different stations within the N3 Business Car Park.
Significantly, this was the second time in a row that an auto pod PRT prototype was rolled out successfully in a high traffic area. The Masdar City PRT, a rapid mass transit project that was similarly premised on the automated pods and dedicated tracks concept, was the first ever successful trial.
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Would More Drivers Use Mass Transit if It Mimicked Private Cars? |
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Written by Will Wilson
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Picture courtesy of http://www.theatlanticcities.com
Yes, a very good question.The question is posed in this Atlantic Cities article.
People like cars because they are indeed personal and have great flexibility. But of course you need a road to run on (mostly anyway). And we all know what that is like at peak hour! The notion of PRT mirroring car like convenience is very attractive. A non-stop, point-to-point on-demand pod-car running on public infrastructure - just like cars running on a road. The big difference of course is your pod-car has no driver and is automated.
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Changing the transit paradigm – flexing your routes |
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Written by Will Wilson
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Here is another example of the need to shift our current transit paradigm. More on Personal Rapid Transit, this time in Los Angeles. A consortium of design and transit people (Southern California Institute of Architecture [SCI-Arc], The Architect’s Newspaper and LA Metro in LA) have recently addressed the challenge.
"That's the crux of our idea: leveraging existing data streams to optimize the public transit system"
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You've seen Google tablet now Google PRT? |
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Written by Will Wilson
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Google are trying to get an 1,100 person housing complex into place at North Bayshore near their Mountain View headquarters. Mayor Mike Kasperzak is keen to support that move and has proposed a PRT solution to connect the housing complex to Google. Google founder Larry Page has previously expressed interest in PRT and there is a possibility that Google could fund this proposal
Read the article here
http://mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=5829
Image courtesy www.techfreep.com
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