Can share the same road. Podcars are the safest of all the new transportation technologies, rarely going faster than 30 MPH, and they are very good at avoiding humans.
The problem are the companies like Ultra, makers of the current fad in PRT. Ultra is really selling concrete skyways which can be very restricting to transportation innovation. What we want from Ultr are the PodCars, skip the concrete. Podcars work well around the towns major loop, they work well along the center of Broadway, up and down marked lanes. They work will with a half meter curb or a green line to mark the lane.
City adminstrators need to look for traffic innovations they can buy a little at a time, try it out, and expand with more returns to scale. Do not buy a transit system that requires billions in up front infrastructure.
1 comment:
ULTra (or any other podcar/PRT system) does not require billions up front. As reflected in the two current startup projects, Heathrow and Masdar, the initial segments are relatively small and in the range of millions of dollars/GBP.
Note however the costs of the 2 projects are not the same, as Heathrow is elevated/surface, while Masdar is underground.
Elevated podcar guideway simplifies automated-navigation and safety issues, as it separates the pods from all other vehicle traffic and pedestrians. It is much simpler (and therefore less expensive) than creating the sort of go-everywhere podcar system you propose.
Post a Comment