Personal Rapid Transit - The Physical Internet - A.K.A. Pod Cars
(Bringing PRT Resources Together)
This website is dedicated to the goal of finding alternative transport solutions with PRT.
PRT, public private transport that waits for you! Learn more here...
What is PRT? Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is an ultra light elevated rail system that carries 1-6 passengers at a time and is fully automated. The stations are offline and the "cars" wait for you. Once you get on board, you select a destination and the system will take you there non-stop.
Please Note: We are in no way affiliated with any PRT company. We will take an objective view of any PRT system based on their merits and the opinion of the author, Edgar Walkowsky.
In the 90's India rapidly took up mobile phone technology. As a result, most of their communication is done via the mobile phone. They did not have much cable infrastructure compared to more developed countries so the made the leap to mobile technology. It offered lower price and more convenience for customers and operators.
Currently, there is tremendous interest in PRT in India. This is an opportunity to make the leap to the more advanced transport method, just like they did with mobile technology.
Is PRT only for Short Distances?
Most proponents of PRT argue that it is only suitable for transport between urban centres and mass transit. A.K.A. "The last mile solution". This would be the case for the battery powered systems such as Ultra and 2GetThere, given the limitations of batteries.
However, for a system powered from the outside, you could run it between rural centers. The large distance between rural centers and cities would be ideal for the lower cost system. It would be unfeasible to put a train line in, so why not PRT. Also there would be less need to build many stations, just a slender pair of lines running alongside existing roads.
Other Words for PRT
Here are some alternative words for Personal Rapid Transit (PRT). Some exist while others were made up by me:
Pod Cars.
The Physical Internet.
Roller-coaster Transportation (without the sick).
Horizontal Elevator.
Turbo-lift.
Micro Rail.
Auto Taxi.
Any more suggestions? Please comment...
Personal rapid transit in Masdar City
A demonstration Track In Masdar City.
ULTra PRT sustainable transit 2
ULTra is a battery-driven, 200-mpg-equivalent, elevated personal rapid transit system with many four-person vehicles. First deployment is scheduled for London Heathrow Airport in Spring 2010, to serve Heathrow's new Terminal 5. Working as circulator transit for airports, office parks, universities, and other major activity centers, ULTra is faster than a car. In these applications, ULTra solves the "last mile problem."
The roads have small cars carrying 1-6 people, they move many people.
PRT can move more people per hour than roads. Why? Because they are automated, you can put less distance between each car. Some designs even propose linking up cars for certain segments of the journey. It has been estimated that one PRT lane has the capacity of a 4 lane highway.
A single train or tram can move more people at a time, but the problem is that not everyone want to go from or to the same place. The result, always having to stop, inconvenient timing and overfilling during peak times.
What if the first available vehicle has rubbish smells, or has been vandalised?
This is the first in the new segment, question of the week.
Good PRT designs offer a "Reject" option, a button which will send the vehicle to the central maintenance center and at the same time summon a fresh vehicle for you. Current technology to deter other forms of mischief, have been incorporated into most PRT designs. For instance, video cameras in vehicles and stations, and two-way voice intercoms. Moreover, if a "smartcard" fare system is used, reported acts of vandalism can be traced back to the perpetrators. Note also that critical vehicle systems would be inaccessible to the public, and monitored. A car would not be dispatched which is mechanically unsafe.
Dual Mode PRT
I am not fully convinced about dual mode PRT, but there are some proposals that seem to be a good idea.
For example, a system called TriTrack. What makes this one stand out is that it does not try to use conventional road cars (too heavy). The website can be viewed here:
What do you get when you combine a vacuum tube with PRT, you get ETT (Evacuated Tube Transit). This is a form of transport suited to very long distances such as interstate, international and intercontinental. It can go up to 8 times faster than a jumbo jet and 4 times faster than concorde at a fraction of the energy use. It's no wonder they call it space travel on earth. The trip from New York to London would take just 1 hour!
In 2008, Google initiated a program to fund innovative ideas. Among the concepts was Schweeb. In September 2010, Google announced US$1 million in funding to the company that is developing Schweeb. They hope to roll out their first system soon.
Schweeb is a human powered PRT system for small scale use. It incorporated a recumbent style cycling with PRT principles.
I like the system, but there are some improvements that I would make: - Don't make them transparent. Could you imagine the privacy concerns and hot weather.
- Use some electric assistance.
- Install solar panels above the pods.
I was going to show the promotional video, but this one is better:
Future Transport (a short film from the 1950s)
The 1950's was an era of great optimism. The world had just come out of WWII and the U.S. was a very powerful nation. This video demonstrates many ideas of what transport would be like in their future. Some of the ideas look ludicrous by today's standards (like using a nuclear reactor to drill holes with the heat produced). But some of the ideas have become a reality today while others will be used in the future. They even talk about concepts that are similar to PRT.
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Below is a video demonstrating the first trial run with employees of Heathrow Airport. Look at the smiles on their faces! It is currently open only to employees, but when it's open to the public, it will be free to use.
Mister PRT
Mister is a Polish PRT concept that has been approved for installation in the city of Opole Poland. Mister is a suspended PRT system.
Some of the key features benefits:
- Suspended system, allows solar panels to be installed in the top of the guide-ways.
- Powered from the outside.
- Inexpensive to build.
- The cars are at ground level (on of my favourite features), this reduces cost and increases accessibility.
Below is a video demonstration of the system.
For more information on Mis-ter, here is the English version of the website:
