A Review of the Major Characteristics of Our Urban Transportation System Quickly Reveals that Historic Trends are Leading Towards Ever-Worsening Traffic Problems and are Likely Difficult to Change.
Most transportation solutions currently gaining traction will do little to solve the most pressing problems. The present focus is on improving existing systems. This article argues for a promising solution involving the introduction of a new transportation system into the present mix.
The problem
Table 1 lists major transportation characteristics and their growth over a 20 year period. The horizontal red line shows the U.S. population growth over that time (about 24%), and the discussion below compares the growth of each characteristic to the population growth, in order to put things in perspective (if nothing changed, these characteristics could all be expected to grow at the same rate as the population has grown).
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In the news
Personal Rapid Transit can move Napervillians. It is simply the most efficient form of public transportation ever devised. Individual computer-controlled cars, or pods, run on a simple, often elevated track, or guideway, leaving and re-entering the guideway at stations spaced wherever they're needed. More...
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Invasion of the pod car. When we decide how to get around - how to commute to work, how to schlep to the movie theater across town - most of us (save the intrepid bicyclists) face an imperfect choice. If we drive, we run the risk of accidents and traffic jams, not to mention the environmental and geopolitical downsides of using gas. More...
Pod Life! San Jose dreams big with a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system. The city of San Jose is planning to build a PRT system that will run between the airport and a Bay Area Rapid Transit station as well as a nearby light rail station. They say it will include up to five stations, but this and other details are still being worked out. More...
Posco will help realize new rapid transit plan. A consortium started by Posco, Korea's leading steelmaker, has signed a memorandum of understanding to produce eco-friendly "personal rapid transit" units for Suncheon, South Jeolla, Korea's leading steelmaker announced yesterday. More...
Swedish Government Report: Pioneer Tracks for PodCars - Analysis of Recent Conditions, August 2009. This is a summary of a Report from an Inquiry conducted in 2009 in Sweden that was focused on an assessment of the feasibility and desirability of applying PodCar transport systems in several Swedish cities. More...
City considers bold new transit system. Personal rapid transit hailed as solution to Bayshore traffic woes. Someday in Mountain View's not-too-distant future, driverless electric vehicles could whisk passengers between the downtown train station, NASA Ames and Shoreline businesses such as Google. More...
Heathrow first for battery technology. The latest battery technology is being used to power the world's first personal rapid transit system which has just started operational testing at Heathrow. ULTra (Urban Light Transport) will use a fleet of 21 low power driverless electric vehicles on a dedicated guideway.
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