Podcars? Whats this all about o ye transport gods?

[stephendare]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/13/ithaca-aims-to-be-america_n_134352.html

ITHACA, N.Y. â€" The thought of a driverless, computer-guided car transporting people where they want to go on demand is a futuristic notion to some.

To Jacob Roberts, podcars _ or PRTs, for personal rapid transit _ represent an important component in the here-and-now of transportation.

"It's time we design cities for the human, not for the automobile," said Roberts, president of Connect Ithaca, a group of planning and building professionals, activists and students committed to making this upstate New York college town the first podcar community in the United States.

"In the podcar ... it creates the perfect blend between the privacy and autonomy of the automobile with the public transportation aspect and, of course, it uses clean energy," Roberts said.

With the oil crisis reaching a zenith and federal lawmakers ready to begin fashioning a new national transportation bill for 2010, Roberts and his colleagues think the future is now for podcars _ electric, automated, lightweight vehicles that ride on their own network separate from other traffic.

Unlike mass transit, podcars carry two to 10 passengers, giving travelers the freedom and privacy of their own car while reducing the use of fossil fuels, reducing traffic congestion and freeing up space now monopolized by parking.

At stations located every block or every half-mile, depending on the need, a rider enters a destination on a computerized pad, and a car would take the person nonstop to the location. Stations would have slanted pull-in bays so that some cars could stop for passengers, while others could continue unimpeded on the main course.

"It works almost like an elevator, but horizontally," said Roberts, adding podcar travel would be safer than automobile travel.

[Jason]

There was a thread on these a while back.  I'll see if I can dig it up.

[hooplady]

Blech.  Just another way to keep people from actually interacting with the urban environment - and each other.  Reminds me of the PUMA:
http://www.segway.com/puma/

[CrysG]

I love the idea of the PUMA. And if they ever get around to making them (doubtful now with GM) I'm going to get one. They are perfect for the area I live and it's better than taking a car.

[Deuce]

[Ocklawaha]

It's been fun watching y'all freak out on this. I give it about a .000001% chance of really catching on. Bottom line it's a smaller, faster, smarter form of people mover just like the Skyway.

Google has a system planned for the whole campus and Heathrow airport has just opened one to the outter parking facilities. Each pod or "car" holds 4-8 persons, it's fully automated, and has no driver. Something like an oncall elevator system, as planned, it will have a standby supply of pods waiting at each station, you simply walk up, punch in your destination and the car shows up, and opens. Hop in and shut the door, then your off to your destination. Each car reads it's destination "instructions" from a computer system. Susposedly the little rubber tired vehicles can have a complex network and still find their way around the pathway...

I'm not sold, just a "BRT style repackage of what we have downtown".

OCKLAWAHA

[Charles Hunter]

Sounds similar to the system that's been at Morgantown University in West Virginia since the early 1970s.
http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/morg.htm

[Ocklawaha]

Pretty much the same, but Morgantown started off as DPM while the "pod" is PRT from the start... Not that big a leap as far as I'm concerned. DPM=Downtown People Mover, PRT= Personal Rapid Transit. Morgantown ran on something like 45 second headways, then they rebuilt it to on call, while PRT doesn't run at all unless there is a car called. All of these systems are "gimick transit" as they are far too complex or expensive (at least at this point) to be considered for anything real. Bottom line is Morgantown gave me all the ammo I needed to give the original Skyway all the hell they could handle. Maybe too much, they quit in the middle of the game.

http://www.youtube.com/v/Di5acGAmcm0&hl=en&fs=1&
MORGANTOWN DPM TURNED PRT


http://www.youtube.com/v/epiiPy9kAho&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x402061&color2=0x9461ca&border=1
NEW PRT PROMOTIONAL VIDEO


OCKLAWAHA "VALLEY?" Yup! My Baby...