PRT Consulting, Inc.
Efficient Transit Solutions                                                        October 2013
 
  
  
Peter Muller
PodcarCity 7 was a great success last month. The conference was well attended and both the speakers and audience were high-quality. It helped to have potential clients and government officials in attendance, but it was a pity that the three vendors with commercially-available systems did not attend (although they provided slides of their systems that I was happy to present on their behalf and on behalf of ATRA IG). Modutram (Autotr�n) from Mexico are likely to be the next system to enter public service and were planning a short public demonstration October 25-26 at the Convention Center WTC-Morelos in Cuernavaca.
 
This month I will be presenting at the ASCE's 3rd International Conference on Urban Public Transportation Systems along with a number of other ATRA and ATRA IG members. This conference will likely have far fewer audience members familiar with PRT/ATN. In the meantime we are in the middle of three consulting procurement processes that will hopefully lead to interesting work in the New Year or before.
 
Enjoy reading!
 
Best regards,
 

 

Peter J. Muller, P.E. 

President 

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October 2013 News Updates 

 

Elon Musk's Hyperloop Concept Becomes A Company

Ground may already have been broken for California's high speed rail network, but Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk's competing Hyperloop transport system has moved a step closer to reality. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) is the new company aimed at turning Musk's pneumatic pod system into rapid-transit reality. Read more...

 

WIRED IN WASHINGTON

Over a hundred global podcar warriors were buzzing strong at the 7th Podcar City conference last week in Arlington VA, hardly a cannon shot from the Pentagon. PCC7was mostly a US-Swedish affair pollinated with welcome news and views from Mexico, Singapore, Bolivia, Italy, Poland and France. Ultra, Vectus and 2getthere were quietly absent. Ingmar Andreasson - respected Swedish academic, innovative PRT simulator and ATRA VP - and Peter Muller, Colorado-based PRT expert - echoed views of the ATRA Industry Group. Read more...

 

Battery-powered driverless cars will run on the pavements of Britain within TWO YEARS

Driverless cars that can hit speeds of 12mph will be gliding along pavements and using sensors to avoid hitting pedestrians by 2015. GPS technology will enable the battery-driven two-person "pods" to steer round objects, people and each other. Read more...

 

New Patterns in Urban Planning for Car-Free Development

Cities everywhere face a number of transportation-related challenges including traffic jams, crashes, poor air quality, and inadequate parking. Automated Transit Networks (ATNs) have been developed as a means of addressing these and other problems. An ATN uses small vehicles that are routed over a network of overhead guideways by computer control. Read more...

 

Podcars - Embracing a Lean Production Culture

More than two decades ago I mused that it would be great if I could drive a couple of miles to the highway intersection, park and board a small vehicle that would whisk me the twenty-six miles to my downtown San Diego office. The 'practical' side of me quickly dismissed the idea of a transit system of small automated vehicles as financially prohibitive. Read more...

 

SWEDEN Finds Conventional Transit NOT Worthwhile to Reduce GHG

A new official Swedish report concludes that as a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, even significant expansions of mass transit have little payback. Report #793 -The Role of public transport for carbon emission reductions - was issued last summer... Read more...

 

UK Minister Lord Green Visits the Heathrow pod

Ultra Global were recently delighted to host Lord Green, Minister of State for Trade and Investment as he visited the company's Heathrow pod personal rapid transit (PRT) system. In addition to a visit to the control room the Minister was able to take a return trip on the pods which have provided close to a million passengers with a link between Terminal 5 and the terminals designated Business Car Park. Read more...

 

Polish PRT System Announced

Warsaw University of Technology displayed its new PRT technology at the recent Eco - Mobility conference in Rzesz�w. The three year development was within 1 million €, mostly funded by the EU. Read more...

 

Swift Tram Wins NASA Transportation Contest

NASA TechBriefs has announced its 2013 Create the Future contest winners. Boulder-based Swift Tram has won the top honor in the Transportation and Automotive category. "Swift is a provider of automated people movers, or APMs," said CEO Carl Lawrence. "Our first product, the SwiftAPM 100, will be available in 2016. Read more...

 

City of Rzesz�w PRT Project

The City of Rzeszow in South East Poland has announced that it is to seek funding from the EU for an advanced transportation project including both a monorail and PRT system. The city has a population of 163,000 and is close to the borders of Ukraine and Slovakia making it an important communications centre. Read more...

 

Himachal Pradesh moots proposal for Urban Mobility Transport Authority

SHIMLA: To streamline the transport network in urban areas of Himachal Pradesh, the urban development department has mooted a proposal to set up Urban Mobility Transport Authority (UMTA) in the hill state, which would not only suggest ways and means to decongest towns but would also implement new projects like ropeways, mass rapid transit systems and personal rapid transit (PRT) systems in a better manner. Read more...

 

The Future of Roads: No Driving, No Emissions, Nature Reconnected

Suppose we could move gloriously and quietly along in our own comfortable car compartment some 20 feet high between the trees, yet with no engine running, no fossil fuel use, no greenhouse gas emissions, and no need to watch the road. Read more...

 

Personal rapid transit

Transportation costs billions of dollars per year for infrastructure construction and maintenance, plus the annual operating costs of the systems. This is a serious burden on the taxpayer. The majority of transportation systems are simply modern versions of old technology - and people prefer to drive a car. Isn't it time for a completely new look at personal transportation using modern technology? Read more...

Urban Monorail Systems
The rise of Personal Rapid Transit

Urban Monorail Systems, The rise of Personal Rapid Transit
 
...A while back, a reader suggested I check out an innovative urban transportation system called SkyTran. Later, another reader wrote to tell me about a different urban mass-transit solution called the RUF (Rapid Urban Flexible) system... Clearly, this was a meme worth investigating. Read more...

 

Heathrow Pod part of UKTI GREAT Campaign

Images from Ultra Global's Heathrow pod personal rapid transit have been included within UK Trade and Investments (UKTI) 'Britain is GREAT' campaign. The promotion which is designed to showcase the very best of what Britain can offer was originally launched in September 2011 by Prime Minister David Cameron. Read more...

 

Note: More recent as well as archived news can be found here under the category Personal Rapid Transit News.

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