[sustran] Following the Yellow Brick Road to PRT (And hoping that we can now make it a yellow brick wall)

[EcoPlan, Paris]

Oh dear. I was hoping that by now there was a strong consensus that the PRT
was, as Alan Howes so rightly puts it: "so perhaps it's off-topic here".  No
doubt.

 

Otherwise, and in the hope that we can now put this behind us once and for
all, here I snip from his two last messages on this clear off-topic:

 

1.      PRT has to be at very least few to many, and ideally many to many.
Most APMs that I know of - including, I guess, all the ones that have
actually been implemented - are few to few, if not one to one (e.g. APMs at
airports). Can anyone prove me wrong?

The PRT et al topology is so very well charted in the literature that there
is little left to argue about. Basically the clue is size of cabin, level of
targeted service (direct O/D without changes, they hope) and density of the
service grid.  PRT going back to when we first began to investigate it
seriously, back in the late sixties - and indeed we were in a position to
spend a couple of hundred thousand dollars on an off over a period of some
twenty years in traveling around to the main sites and sources, talking to
these guys, riding their systems and various prototypes as available,
kicking their tires (that's a joke), and then talking it over with their
eventual customers and financial base on the other end - was always the high
ambition end of the spectrum, and as the various systems either bit the dust
for whatever reasons or remained on the drawing board or in the minds of
their beholder.  Thus when it became clear by the early-mid seventies that
this was not going to go anywhere, there was a general move "down market",
call it GRT, APM or what have you - and it was these simpler systems that
began to see the light of day.  But always in special places and in very
limited numbers.

If you want an enthusiast version of how this worked out check out the
indomitable Edward Anderson who has been around in this even longer (and
deeper) that I have, who provides a summary of his views at
<http://advancedtransit.org/doc.aspx?id=1025>
http://advancedtransit.org/doc.aspx?id=1025 - "Some Lessons from the History
of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT)". And caveat emptor.

Not enough for you yet.  Well then I invite you to hop over to
http://faculty.washington.edu/~jbs/itrans/PRT/ and Professor Schneider will
give you his in depth views.

Still hungry for more.  Well you will surely want to check out the PRT
Ongoing Debate Page  at http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/debate.htm

And now if you are getting hot and want some cold water, check out what the
admirable Vukan Vuchic has to say in his article "PRT: An Unrealistic
System" at http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/vuchic1.htm>


(Can I go home now Mom?)

2.      . . . a rich city in the Middle East, where PRT would substitute for
. . .

Oh dear. Let them have it. Wonderful idea. I wish I had thought of it. I am
sure that the environment movement is very strong in this unnamed candidate
city, and they will be delighted with the results.  Duh.

 

May we get back to work now?  But if anyone needs more background and links
on this, please get to me privately so as not to take our time with this, as
Alan has told us, off-topic topic. 

 

;-)

 

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