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124-428: Cabinentaxi systems could be operated in a variety of fashions depending on the need. It is most widely known as the first true personal rapid transit (PRT) system, where customers call up a small "car" on demand which then takes them directly to their destination without any stops along the way. The system could also be used in a group rapid transit (GRT) fashion, using larger cars with up to 18 passengers. In this case

248-436: A "virtual train", but control software issues caused cars to bump unacceptably. The project ultimately failed. Between 1970 and 1978, Japan operated a project called "Computer-controlled Vehicle System" (CVS). In a full-scale test facility, 84 vehicles operated at speeds up to 60 kilometres per hour (37.3 mph) on a 4.8 km (3.0 mi) guideway; one-second headways were achieved during tests. Another version of CVS

372-540: A 1/12 operational scale model. This was further developed and became the Modutram system and a full-scale test track was built in Guadalajara , which was operational by 2014. In 2018 it was announced that a PRT system would be installed at the new Chengdu Tianfu International Airport . The system will include 6 miles of guideway, 4 stations, 22 pods and will connect airport parking to two terminal buildings. It

496-641: A 10-vehicle 2getthere system has operated at Masdar City , UAE, and since 2011 a 21-vehicle Ultra PRT system has run at London Heathrow Airport . A 40-vehicle Vectus system with in-line stations officially opened in Suncheon , South Korea, in April 2014. A PRT system connecting the terminals and parking has been built at the new Chengdu Tianfu International Airport , which opened in 2021. Most mass transit systems move people in groups over scheduled routes. This has inherent inefficiencies. For passengers, time

620-630: A 400 m (1,312 ft) test track in Uppsala , Sweden. This test system was presented at the 2007 PodCar City conference in Uppsala. A 40-vehicle, 2-station, 4.46 km (2.8 mi) system called "SkyCube" was opened in Suncheon , South Korea, in April 2014. In the 2010s the Mexican Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education began research into project LINT ("Lean Intelligent Network Transportation") and built

744-575: A PRT system could provide. Several other urban and transit planners also wrote on the topic and some early experimentation followed, but PRT remained relatively unknown. Around the same time, Edward Haltom was studying monorail systems. Haltom noticed that the time to start and stop a conventional large monorail train, like those of the Wuppertal Schwebebahn , meant that a single line could only support between 20 and 40 vehicles an hour. In order to get reasonable passenger movements on such

868-613: A book that would eventually emerge in 1964 as Individualized Automatic Transit and the City . Fitcher argued that the only way to solve the gridlock problems in cities being caused by increased car ownership was to use mass transit systems. Fichter argued that unless the systems operated more like a taxi service, arriving when called for and taking the passenger directly to their destination, people would not leave their cars to use it. Busses and metro systems are not personalized, they run on pre-planned routes and schedules, making stops along

992-490: A centralized system for traffic information or instructions. PRTs generally worked on headways of less than 10 seconds, which greatly increased the passenger density of the system as a whole. This allowed the vehicles to be much smaller and still retain the same system capacity as the larger GRTs, while offering the sort of personalized car-like operations that Individualized Automatic Transit envisioned. In 1969 Demag and MBB independently started projects studying PRT systems as

1116-510: A city transportation planner, began research on PRT and alternative transportation methods. In 1964, Fichter published a book which proposed an automated public transit system for areas of medium to low population density. One of the key points made in the book was Fichter's belief that people would not leave their cars in favor of public transit unless the system offered flexibility and end-to-end transit times that were much better than existing systems – flexibility and performance he felt only

1240-542: A citywide deployment with many lines and closely spaced stations, as envisioned by proponents, has yet to be constructed. Past projects have failed because of financing, cost overruns, regulatory conflicts, political issues, misapplied technology, and flaws in design, engineering or review. However, the theory remains active. For example, from 2002 to 2005, the EDICT project, sponsored by the European Union , conducted

1364-416: A closed-loop track, adding two additional vehicles for a total of five. By 1975 it had three stations and nine vehicles. The first 12-person vehicle was introduced that October. The final expansion was completed in 1976, bringing the total track to 1.9 km with six stations and twenty-four vehicles. In 1975, Raytheon Missile Systems examined the prototype system and decided to license it for deployment in

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1488-840: A deployment in Hamburg while their U.S. counterpart, the Urban Mass Transit Authority (UMTA), selected it as a front-runner for a deployment in Detroit . Cabinentaxi's corporate partners decided to pull out of the Detroit competition to focus on the Hamburg development. When unrelated budget cuts drained the BMFT's coffers, the Hamburg project was also canceled, and the Cabintaxi Joint Venture gave up on

1612-507: A group which advocates the use of technological solutions to transit problems, compiled a definition in 1988 that can be seen here. Currently, five advanced transit networks (ATN) systems are operational, and several more are in the planning stage. [REDACTED] Morgantown, West Virginia , US (1975) The following list summarizes several well-known automated transit networks (ATN) suppliers as of 2014, with subsequent amendments. Modern PRT concepts began around 1953 when Donn Fichter,

1736-431: A junction, for example. Several types of guideways have been proposed or implemented, including beams similar to monorails, bridge-like trusses supporting internal tracks, and cables embedded in a roadway. Most designs put the vehicle on top of the track, which reduces visual intrusion and cost, as well as easing ground-level installation. An overhead track is necessarily higher, but may also be narrower. Most designs use

1860-440: A major area of research since the 1960s when they were first introduced in the U.K. by Eric Laithwaite . As they have no moving parts, a LIM-powered vehicle would be more reliable than one using a conventional motor. Another advantage is that there is no contact between the motor and the track, so snow or rain will not affect its performance, which means a LIM vehicle does not require additional headspace in bad weather. Also, because

1984-631: A market opportunity in Europe or the United States, and withdrew from the public transit field. Interest in the system in the U.S. lived on, and in 1985 a consortium was arranged to take over the design rights under Cabintaxi Corporation. No installations followed, however. The final primary vehicle designs for the Cabinentaxi system were the "KK 3"(Klein Kabine 3), a three-passenger vehicle, and

2108-600: A metro (e.g. Rennes , Lausanne , Brescia , etc.) are now doing so. On September 30, 2006, the Peachliner in Komaki , Aichi Prefecture , Japan, became that nation's first people mover to cease operations. Many large international airports around the world feature people mover systems to transport passengers between terminals or within a terminal itself. Some people mover systems at airports connect with other public transportation systems to allow passengers to travel into

2232-521: A network of specially built guideways on which ride small automated vehicles that carry few (generally less than 6) passengers per vehicle. PRT is a type of automated guideway transit (AGT), a class of system which also includes larger vehicles all the way to small subway systems. In terms of routing, it tends towards personal public transport systems. PRT vehicles are sized for individual or small group travel, typically carrying no more than three to six passengers per vehicle . Guideways are arranged in

2356-636: A network topology, with all stations located on sidings , and with frequent merge/diverge points. This allows for nonstop, point-to-point travel, bypassing all intermediate stations. The point-to-point service has been compared to a taxi or a horizontal lift (elevator). Numerous PRT systems have been proposed but most have not been implemented. As of November 2016 , only a handful of PRT systems are operational: Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit (the oldest and most extensive), in Morgantown, West Virginia , has been in continuous operation since 1975. Since 2010

2480-452: A pod immediately upon arriving at a station, and can – with a sufficiently extensive network of tracks – take relatively direct routes to their destination without stops. The low weight of PRT's small vehicles allows smaller guideways and support structures than mass transit systems like light rail. The smaller structures translate into lower construction costs, smaller easements , and less visually obtrusive infrastructure. As it stands,

2604-424: A point-to-point fashion, instead of running like an automated people mover from one end of the line to the other. During periods of low usage all cars make a full circuit stopping at every station in both directions. Morgantown PRT is still in continuous operation at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia , with about 15,000 riders per day (as of 2003 ). The steam-heated track has proven expensive and

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2728-539: A pre-defined route, which allowed them to be directed to an optimal path in a network of any complexity. Studies suggested a three-passenger car for the basic system, although in order to increase capacity they also had cars with seating for 6, 12 and 18 passengers. These larger cars would normally be planned to operate in GRT fashion in order to increase the overall capacity of the network in the early development stages, where small networks in dense areas would not be meaningful in

2852-538: A result of the HUD reports. At the time, the Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie (BMFT) was involved in a wide variety of transport research, including a variety of maglev trains for high-speed service, several automated railway systems, as well as more mundane research in railway safety and signalling. Significant within the transportation development programs of the BMFT was the direct involvement of

2976-477: A row of parking spots on the side of a city street. Testing of the motor and control systems started in 1972 on a 13-meter closed-loop track, running for 18 months. This was followed in August 1973 by a 150 meter test track and three 3-passenger vehicles installed near Hagen , Germany. The test track was expanded several times. By October 1974 it was 1136 meters long and featured two passenger stations with

3100-501: A scheme to use the PRT system to connect terminal 2 and terminal 3 to their respective business car parks. The proposal was not included in the final plan due to spending priority given to other capital projects and has been deferred. If a third runway is constructed at Heathrow will destroy the existing system, which will be built over, will be replaced by another PRT. In June 2006, a Korean/Swedish consortium, Vectus Ltd, started constructing

3224-462: A single passenger per vehicle is optimum. Other designs use a car for a model, and choose larger vehicles, making it possible to accommodate families with small children, riders with bicycles, disabled passengers with wheelchairs, or a pallet or two of freight. All current designs (except for the human-powered Shweeb ) are powered by electricity . In order to reduce vehicle weight, power is generally transmitted via lineside conductors although two of

3348-427: A small on-board battery to reach the next stop after a power failure. CabinTaxi uses a LIM and was able to demonstrate 0.5 second headways on its test track. The Vectus prototype system used continuous track mounted LIMs with the reaction plate on the vehicle, eliminating the active propulsion system (and power required) on the vehicle. ULTra and 2getthere use on-board batteries, recharged at stations. This increases

3472-449: A small vehicle PRT mode. The larger cars could also be connected front-to-back to form two-car trains, further increasing capacity for some simple applications. One problem with all elevated transportation system structures in general, is that the guideways (highways or transit) are widely considered to be an eyesore. In order to reduce the size of the guideways, Cabinentaxi took the uncommon approach of optionally allowing its cars to run on

3596-532: A special de-icing vehicle. Masdar's system has been limited because the exclusive right-of-way for the PRT was gained by running the vehicles in an undercroft at ground-level while building an elevated "street level" between all the buildings. This led to unrealistically expensive buildings and roads. Proposals usually have stations close together, and located on side tracks so that through traffic can bypass vehicles picking up or dropping off passengers. Each station might have multiple berths, with perhaps one-third of

3720-437: A study on the feasibility of PRT in four European cities. The study involved 12 research organizations, and concluded that PRT: The report also concluded that, despite these advantages, public authorities will not commit to building PRT because of the risks associated with being the first public implementation. The PRT acronym was introduced formally in 1978 by J. Edward Anderson . The Advanced Transit Association (ATRA),

3844-415: A system known as Cabinentaxi during the 1970s. Cabinentaxi featured small cars with from four to eight seats that were called to pick up passengers on-demand and drove directly to their destination. The stations were "offline", allowing the cabs to stop by moving off the main lines while other cars continued to their destinations. The system was designed so the cars could be adapted to run on top or bottom of

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3968-401: A system, the trains had to be large enough to carry hundreds of passengers (see headway for a general discussion). This, in turn, demanded large guideways that could support the weight of these large vehicles, driving up capital costs to the point where he considered them unattractive. Haltom turned his attention to developing a system that could operate with shorter timings, thereby allowing

4092-439: A track spiraling up to the summit of Big Spotters Hill. The track was approximately 600-metre (1,969 ft) long (one-way) and featured only two stations. The six-month operation was intended to research the public acceptance of PRT-like systems. In 2010 a 10-vehicle (four seats each), two station 2getthere system was opened to connect a parking lot to the main area at Masdar City , UAE. The systems runs in an undercroft beneath

4216-409: A vehicle was loaded, the station computer watched the traffic on the adjacent mainline and looked for gaps in the vehicles passing by the station. When a suitable gap was seen, the station would calculate the time needed for the car to accelerate up to mainline speed, and then give it the go command at the right time so it would reach the switch onto the mainline right as the gap was reaching it. Key to

4340-513: A working title for a new attraction, the PeopleMover . According to Imagineer Bob Gurr , "the name got stuck," and it was no longer a working title. Starting in the late 1960s and into the 1970s, people movers were the topic of intense development around the world. Worried about the growing congestion and pollution in downtown areas due to the spread of cars, many countries started studying mass transit systems that would lower capital costs to

4464-455: Is "automated guideway transit", which encompasses any automated system regardless of size. Some complex APMs deploy fleets of small vehicles over a track network with off-line stations, and supply near non-stop service to passengers. These taxi-like systems are more usually referred to as personal rapid transit (PRT). Larger systems, with vehicles with 20 to 40 passengers, are sometimes referred to as "group rapid transit" (GRT), although this term

4588-543: Is a type of small scale automated guideway transit system. The term is generally used only to describe systems serving relatively small areas such as airports, downtown districts or theme parks. The term was originally applied to three different systems, developed roughly at the same time. One was Skybus , an automated mass transit system prototyped by the Westinghouse Electric Corporation beginning in 1964. The second, alternately called

4712-462: Is lucky enough to find a seat. The bus will be caught up in street congestion and move slowly, and it will make many stops completely unrelated to his trip objective. The bus may then let him off at a terminal to a suburban train. Again he must wait, and, after boarding the train, again experience a number of stops on the way to the CBD, and possibly again he may have to stand in the aisle. He will get off at

4836-419: Is not particularly common. Other complex APMs have similar characteristics to rapid transit systems, and there is no clear cut distinction between a complex APM of this type and an automated mass transit system. Another term " light metro " is also applied to describe the system worldwide. One of the first automated systems for human transportation was the screw-driven 'Never-Stop-Railway', constructed for

4960-421: Is not required; GRT systems are quite common at airports today. On the other end of the scale were the personal rapid transit systems, or PRTs. These systems abandoned centralized control for a simpler distributed solution based on set timings, speeds, or flocking behaviour. By placing the headway logic on the vehicles the reaction timing was dramatically improved, because they no longer had to communicate with

5084-707: Is supplied by Ultra MTS. The airport is due to open in 2021. Among the handful of prototype systems (and the larger number that exist on paper) there is a substantial diversity of design approaches, some of which are controversial. Vehicle weight influences the size and cost of a system's guideways, which are in turn a major part of the capital cost of the system. Larger vehicles are more expensive to produce, require larger and more expensive guideways, and use more energy to start and stop. If vehicles are too large, point-to-point routing also becomes more expensive. Against this, smaller vehicles have more surface area per passenger (thus have higher total air resistance which dominates

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5208-481: Is wasted by waiting for the next vehicle to arrive, indirect routes to their destination, stopping for passengers with other destinations, and often confusing or inconsistent schedules. Slowing and accelerating large weights can undermine public transport's benefit to the environment while slowing other traffic. Personal rapid transit systems attempt to eliminate these wastes by moving small groups nonstop in automated vehicles on fixed tracks. Passengers can ideally board

5332-514: The British Empire Exhibition at Wembley , London in 1924. This railway consisted of 88 unmanned carriages, on a continuous double track along the northern and eastern sides of the exhibition, with reversing loops at either end. The carriages ran on two parallel concrete beams and were guided by pulleys running on the inner side of these concrete beams, and were propelled by gripping a revolving screw thread running between

5456-526: The Erie Railroad to the Hudson and Manhattan Tubes . This unit was 227 feet (69 m) long with a rise of 22 feet (6.7 m) on a 15 degree grade , and only cost $ 75,000. A Carveyor consisted of many small cubicles or cars carrying ten people riding on a flat conveyor belt from point A to point B. The belt rode on a series of motorized rollers. The purpose of the motorized rollers was to facilitate

5580-493: The Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit project was completed. It has five off-line stations that enable non-stop, individually programmed trips along an 8.7-mile (14.0 km) track serviced by a fleet of 71 cars. This is a crucial characteristic of PRT. However, it is not considered a PRT system because its vehicles are too heavy and carry too many people. When it carries many people, it operates in

5704-479: The New York City Board of Transportation , had several meetings with a group of architects who were trying to revamp the whole New York City Subway system in the heart of town to connect Pennsylvania Station, Madison Square Garden , Times Square, Grand Central and several new office complexes together. Several of these architects were involved in other programs, and in later years many variations of

5828-605: The University of Minnesota . Raytheon failed to install a contracted system in Rosemont, Illinois , near Chicago , when estimated costs escalated to US$ 50 million per mile, allegedly due to design changes that increased the weight and cost of the system relative to Anderson's original design. In 2000, rights to the technology reverted to the University of Minnesota, and were subsequently purchased by Taxi2000. In 1999

5952-657: The Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964 into law, thereby forming the Urban Mass Transportation Administration . UMTA was set up to fund mass transit developments in the same fashion that the earlier Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 had helped create the Interstate Highways. That is, UMTA would help cover the capital costs of building out new infrastructure. However, planners who were aware of

6076-419: The "KK 12" (Klein Kabine 12), a twelve-passenger vehicle, both with a semi-automatic doors. They were designed with enough room between the seats for wheelchairs, prams or bicycles. The doors were semi-automatic, locking and unlocking under vehicle control, but slid open by the passengers. The vehicle bodies were made of aluminum over a steel chassis, riding on solid rubber wheels that engaged the guidance rails in

6200-570: The 2010s and there are plans to replace the vehicles. From 1969 to 1980, Mannesmann Demag and MBB cooperated to build the Cabinentaxi urban transportation system in Germany . Together the firms formed the Cabintaxi Joint Venture. They created an extensive PRT technology, including a test track, that was considered fully developed by the German government and its safety authorities. The system

6324-604: The 2getthere designed ParkShuttle system was opened in the Kralingen neighbourhood of eastern Rotterdam using 12-seater driverless buses. The system was extended in 2005 and new second-generation vehicles introduced to serve five stations over 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) with five grade crossings over ordinary roads. Operation is scheduled in peak periods and on demand at other times. In 2002, 2getthere operated twenty five 4-passenger "CyberCabs" at Holland's 2002 Floriade horticultural exhibition. These transported passengers along

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6448-650: The Carveyor people movers were developed. In November 1954 the New York City Transit Authority issued an order to Goodyear and Stephens-Adamson to build a complete Carveyor system between Times Square and Grand Central. A brief summary and confirmation can be found in Time magazine on November 15, 1954. under the heading "Subway of the Future". The cost was to be under $ 4 million, but the order

6572-661: The Detroit People Mover Program and the Hamburg application appeared to conflict, so the consortium chose to withdraw from the US competition and concentrate on Hamburg. J. Edward Anderson , the well-known U.S. proponent of PRT systems, also selected Cabinentaxi for a proposed deployment in Indianapolis . After the initial $ 300,000 for the study ran out, no further money was forthcoming and the plans fell through. The developing firms found themselves without

6696-512: The Downtown People Mover Program. Four systems were developed, Rohr 's ROMAG , LTV 's AirTrans , Ford 's APT and Otis Elevator 's hovercraft design. A major presentation of the systems was organized as TRANSPO'72 at Dulles International Airport , where the various systems were presented to delegations from numerous cities in the US. Prototype systems and test tracks were built during the 1970s. One notable example

6820-541: The Industrial Products Division of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. , if Goodyear had ever considered working on People Movers. He felt that with Goodyear's ability to move materials in large quantities on conveyor belts they should consider moving batches of people. Four years of engineering design, development and testing led to a joint patent being issued for three types of people movers, named Speedwalk, Speedramp, and Carveyor. Goodyear would sell

6944-475: The KK 3 and KK 12 were developed), were all of the same cross sectional area with only the length of the vehicle changed. With the same construction style in the body and undercarriages, these vehicle could share the same small vehicle guideway. In order to provide fine control over vehicle spacing and reduce maintenance costs, the companies selected a linear motor (LIM) for the Cabinentaxi project. Linear motors were

7068-601: The PRT concept were worried that building more systems based on existing technologies would not help the problem, as Fitcher had earlier noted. Proponents suggested that systems would have to offer the flexibility of a car: The reason for the sad state of public transit is a very basic one – the transit systems just do not offer a service which will attract people away from their automobiles . Consequently, their patronage comes very largely from those who cannot drive, either because they are too young, too old, or because they are too poor to own and operate an automobile. Look at it from

7192-674: The People Mover and Minirail , opened in Montreal at Expo 67. Finally the last, called PeopleMover or WEDway PeopleMover, was an attraction that was originally presented by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and that opened at Disneyland in 1967. Now, however, the term "people mover" is generic, and may use technologies such as monorail , rail tracks or maglev . Propulsion may involve conventional on-board electric motors, linear motors or cable traction . Generally speaking, larger APMs are referred to by other names. The most generic

7316-453: The U.S., a similar number in Europe and Japan, and two in Canada. The systems differed considerably in operating concept. On the "simple end" of the scale were vehicles that used a guideway to steer, and left most other operations to a centralized control centre with some form of automatic train control . These systems had fairly slow reaction times that demanded fairly long headways between

7440-479: The U.S., but a final agreement was never reached. Cabinentaxi technology logged over 400,000 vehicle-miles between 1975 and 1978 on the Hagen test track. In 1977 the system completed fleet operation endurance testing of 7500 continuous vehicle hours, extending that in 1978 to 10,000 continuous vehicle hours. These are the only PRT fleet endurance test of these magnitudes ever carried out. Headways were reduced throughout

7564-409: The United States. Driverless metros have become common in Europe and parts of Asia. The economics of automated trains tend to reduce the scale so tied to "mass" transit (the largest operating expense is the driver's salary, which is only affordable if very large numbers of passengers are paying fares), so that small-scale installations are feasible . Thus cities normally thought of as too small to build

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7688-593: The VOV (German Association of Public Transit Operators), the Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railway) and their safety experts. This assured that when development was completed, the systems would meet German (and by extension international) public transit standards. When the BMFT learned of the separate efforts at Demag and MBB, they urged both companies to combine their efforts under a new joint operating company, which became Cabinentaxi. BMFT provided 80% of

7812-538: The air, and in a manner that will contribute to sound city planning." The resulting report was published in 1968 and proposed the development of PRT, as well as other systems such as dial-a-bus and high-speed interurban links. In the late 1960s, the Aerospace Corporation , an independent non-profit corporation set up by the US Congress, spent substantial time and money on PRT, and performed much of

7936-412: The basic Cabinentaxi continued, a modified version known as Cabinlift was also developed. Originally designed for installations in healthcare facilities, Cabinlift was based on substantially similar technology as the basic Cabinentaxi. The Cabinlift cars were larger and taller, allowing easy walk-on access for passengers and bulky loads, notably wheeled hospital beds and gurneys. The cars could be built with

8060-499: The basic concepts. A follow-on bill later in the decade provided additional funding for development of several experimental systems, and created the Urban Mass Transit Administration (UMTA). Other companies and government organizations soon joined these efforts, as it appeared PRT systems would soon be being deployed around the world. By the early 1970s there were at least a dozen development efforts in

8184-456: The city and was supposed to be a pilot project for a much larger network, which would also have included transport of freight. Expansion of the system was cancelled just after the pilot scheme opened due to the cost of constructing the undercroft and since then other electric vehicles have been proposed. In January 2003, the prototype ULTra ("Urban Light Transport") system in Cardiff , Wales,

8308-444: The city cores, and people moved out of the downtown areas. Lacking pollution control systems, the rapid rise in car ownership and the longer trips to and from work were causing significant air quality problems. Additionally, movement to the suburbs led to a flight of capital from the downtown areas, one cause of the rapid urban decay seen in the US. Mass transit systems were one way to combat these problems. Yet during this period,

8432-577: The concept and Stephens-Adamson would manufacture and install the components. A Speedwalk consisted of a flat conveyor belt riding on a series of rollers, or a flat slippery surface, moving at 1.5 mph (2.4 km/h) (approximately half the speed of walking). The passengers would walk onto the belt and could stand or walk to the exit point. They were supported by a moving handrail . Customers were expected to include airport terminals , ballparks , train stations , etc. Today, several manufacturers produce similar units called moving walkways . A Speedramp

8556-517: The development of a short, one-half to one-second headway, high-capacity PRT (HCPRT) system will be initiated in fiscal year 1974." According to PRT supporter J. Edward Anderson , this was "because of heavy lobbying from interests fearful of becoming irrelevant if a genuine PRT program became visible." From that time forward people interested in HCPRT were unable to obtain UMTA research funding. In 1975,

8680-581: The doors on the side, or on the ends. Unlike Cabinentaxi, passengers in Cabinlift could stand with some fold-down seats available. One Cabinlift system with two stations was installed at the Schwalmstadt -Ziegenhain hospital in 1975 and operative until 2002. A larger and more complex network was planned for the central hospital in Bremen, but funding fell through. When the safety studies were completed

8804-502: The downtown core. Additional lines would then be added until it was fully expanded with 138 km of track and 182 stations covering the majority of the city and several surrounding suburbs and towns. The outlying tracks would primarily use the smaller cars. Funding for this deployment was not forthcoming. A system was proposed for Hamburg , initially consisting of approximately 7.5 miles of over and under guideway with 11 stations and 50 vehicles. In 1977 Hamburger Hochbahn estimated

8928-487: The early theoretical and systems analysis. However, this corporation is not allowed to sell to non-federal government customers. In 1969, members of the study team published the first widely publicized description of PRT in Scientific American . In 1978 the team also published a book. These publications sparked off a sort of "transit race" in the same sort of fashion as the space race , with countries around

9052-423: The efficient operation of any PRT system is the queuing of free vehicles throughout the stations on the system. Increasing the number of idle vehicles reduces the passenger wait times, as well as reducing the need to move empty vehicles through the system in order to pick up passengers. However, this also requires additional vehicles, thereby increasing capital costs. Communications between the centralized computer and

9176-525: The energy cost of keeping vehicles moving at speed), and larger motors are generally more efficient than smaller ones. The number of riders who will share a vehicle is a key unknown. In the U.S., the average car carries 1.16 persons, and most industrialized countries commonly average below two people; not having to share a vehicle with strangers is a key advantage of private transport . Based on these figures, some have suggested that two passengers per vehicle (such as with skyTran , EcoPRT and Glydways), or even

9300-501: The federal government was feeding the problems by funding the development of the Interstate Highway System , while at the same time funding for mass transit was being rapidly scaled back. Public transit ridership in most cities plummeted. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy charged Congress with the task of addressing these problems. These plans came to fruition in 1964, when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed

9424-468: The gradual acceleration and deceleration speeds on the conveyor belt and overcome the tendency of all belts to stretch at start up and during shutdown. At point "A" passengers would enter a Speedwalk running parallel to the belts and cars of the Carveyor. The cars would be moving at the same speed as the Speedwalk; the passengers would enter the cars and be seated, while the motorized rollers would increase

9548-431: The guideway to distribute power and data communications, including to the vehicles. The Morgantown PRT failed its cost targets because of the steam-heated track required to keep the large channel guideway free of frequent snow and ice. Heating uses up to four times as much as energy as that used to propel the vehicles. Most proposals plan to resist snow and ice in ways that should be less expensive. The Heathrow system has

9672-741: The immaturity of the technology and other factors, led the Port Authority to abandon the project and pursue alternatives. By the start of the 1980s most politicians had lost interest in the concept and the project was repeatedly de-funded in the early 1980s. Only two APMs were developed as a part of the People Mover Program in the U.S., the Metromover in Miami , and the Detroit People Mover . The Jacksonville Skyway

9796-532: The individual cars to be smaller while preserving the same overall route capacity. Smaller cars would mean less weight at any given point, which meant smaller and less expensive guideways. To eliminate the backup at stations, the system used "offline" stations that allowed the mainline traffic to bypass the stopped vehicles. He designed the Monocab system using six-passenger cars suspended on wheels from an overhead guideway. Like most suspended systems, it suffered from

9920-434: The junctions) or conventional steering. Advocates say that vehicle-switching permits faster routing so vehicles can run closer together which increases capacity. It also simplifies the guideway, makes junctions less visually obtrusive and reduces the impact of malfunctions, because a failed switch on one vehicle is less likely to affect other vehicles. Track switching greatly increases headway distance. A vehicle must wait for

10044-499: The line, at which point the reader uploaded the route to the car's onboard computer. Once calculated the route was static, although the customer did have the option to stop at the very next station if they pressed a button in the car. A third system handled operations within the stations, which were "offline" from the main guideways. Stations had multiple berths for loading and unloading, as well as longer areas for acceleration and deceleration to collect vehicles as they switched on or off

10168-401: The main guideways. When a vehicle entered the station's off-ramp, it automatically slowed to a stop where the passengers would exit the car. The station computer would then direct it to a position in a storage ring to wait for the next customer. When it was called for the station would switch it back onto the main platform where the passengers would use their fare card to enter the vehicle. When

10292-415: The minimum distances between consecutive junctions. A mechanically switching vehicle, maneuvering between two adjacent junctions with different switch settings, cannot proceed from one junction to the next. The vehicle must adopt a new switch position, and then wait for the in-vehicle switch's locking mechanism to be verified. If the vehicle switching is faulty, that vehicle must be able to stop before reaching

10416-417: The next switch, and all vehicles approaching the failed vehicle would be affected. Conventional steering allows a simpler 'track' consisting only of a road surface with some form of reference for the vehicle's steering sensors. Switching would be accomplished by the vehicle following the appropriate reference line – maintaining a set distance from the left roadway edge would cause the vehicle to diverge left at

10540-434: The operating systems use on-board batteries. According to the designer of Skyweb/Taxi2000, J. Edward Anderson , the lightest system uses linear induction motor (LIM) on the vehicle for both propulsion and braking, which also makes manoeuvres consistent regardless of the weather, especially rain or snow. LIMs are used in a small number of rapid transit applications, but most designs use rotary motors . Most such systems retain

10664-435: The period, vehicle separations started at under 3 seconds, reaching 1.9 seconds in later tests, about the same as cars on a highway. The basic operating speed was also increased during testing, from the original 30 km/h to 36 in the later tests, with options for even higher speeds in production versions. Late in the program a number of safety studies were carried out. Fire was a major concern of safety officials, but due to

10788-572: The point where any city could afford to deploy them. Most of these systems used elevated guideways, which were much less expensive to deploy than tunnels. However, elevating the track causes problems with noise, so traditional steel-wheel-on-rail solutions were rare as they squealed when rounding bends in the rails. Rubber tired solutions were common, but some systems used hovercraft techniques or various magnetic levitation systems. Two major government funded APM projects are notable. In Germany, Mannesmann Demag and Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm developed

10912-473: The previous vehicle to clear the junction, for the track to switch and for the switch to be verified. Communication between the vehicle and wayside controllers adds both delays and more points of failure. If the track switching is faulty, vehicles must be able to stop before reaching the switch, and all vehicles approaching the failed junction would be affected. Mechanical vehicle switching minimizes inter-vehicle spacing or headway distance, but it also increases

11036-408: The problem of difficult switching arrangements. Since the car rode on a rail, switching from one path to another required the rail to be moved, a slow process that limited the possible headways. By the late 1950s the problems with urban sprawl were becoming evident in the United States. When cities improved roads and the transit times were lowered, suburbs developed at ever increasing distances from

11160-445: The provision of good urban transportation, with the properly balanced use of private vehicles and modern mass transport to help shape as well as serve urban growth." Funding provided through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) led to a series of reports by a variety of aerospace firms (notably Aerospace Corporation ), today known as the " HUD reports ", that explored various concepts and provided strong support for

11284-699: The public transit field and withdrew the Cabintaxi technology from the market. The rights were purchased in 1985 by a small U.S. consortium, Cabintaxi Corporation , but no developments have followed. The only commercial use was a modified system, the Cabinlift , which operated as a horizontal elevator between buildings at the Schwalmstadt-Ziegenhain hospital in Germany until 2002. In the early 1950s, urban planner Donn Fichter started work on

11408-582: The safety, and reduces the complexity, cost and maintenance of the guideway. As a result, the ULTRa guideway resembles a sidewalk with curbs and is inexpensive to construct. ULTRa and 2getthere vehicles resembles small automated electric cars, and use similar components. (The ULTRa POD chassis and cabin have been used as the basis of a shared autonomous vehicle for running in mixed traffic. ) Almost all designs avoid track switching , instead advocating vehicle-mounted switches (which engage with special guiderails at

11532-499: The simplicity of the vehicles, and a fire safety risk-reduction program it was demonstrated the possibility of fire was reduced to a non-issue. Other problems, like broken motors or a widespread power failure that demanded evacuation, were the primary areas of concern, but the solutions were found to lie in ground-based equipment and in specially equipped rescue cars that could operate on the guideway and access both levels. The final system plans required no external walkways. While work on

11656-432: The speed of the cars up to the traveling speed (which would be preset depending on the distance to be covered). At point B Passengers could disembark and by means of a series of flat slower belts (Speedwalks) go to other Carveyors to other destinations or out to the street. The cars at point B would continue on rollers around a semicircle and then reverse the process carrying passengers back to point A. The initial installation

11780-437: The standpoint of a commuter who lives in a suburb and is trying to get to work in the central business district (CBD). If he is going to go by transit, a typical scenario might be the following: he must first walk to the closest bus stop, let us say a five or ten minute walk, and then he may have to wait up to another ten minutes, possibly in inclement weather, for the bus to arrive. When it arrives, he may have to stand unless he

11904-420: The station computers allowed cars to be switched from station to station in order to keep the stations supplied with free vehicles. 51°22′31.19″N 7°24′54.87″E  /  51.3753306°N 7.4152417°E  / 51.3753306; 7.4152417 Personal rapid transit Personal rapid transit ( PRT ), also referred to as podcars or guided/railed taxis , is a public transport mode featuring

12028-539: The station most convenient to his destination and possibly have to transfer again onto a distribution system. It is no wonder that in those cities where ample inexpensive parking is available, most of those who can drive do drive. In 1966, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development was asked to "undertake a project to study ... new systems of urban transportation that will carry people and goods ... speedily, safely, without polluting

12152-408: The system requires an operation and maintenance budget of $ 5 million annually. Although it successfully demonstrated automated control and it is still operating it was not sold to other sites. A 2010 report concluded replacing the system with buses on roads would provide unsatisfactory service and create congestion. Subsequently, the forty year old computer and vehicle control systems were replaced in

12276-418: The system's overall operation. The vehicle itself was responsible for maintaining separation from the vehicle in front of it, and automatically switching from guideway to guideway. Since the measurement and control of separation did not require communications with external systems, reaction times were greatly reduced and headways were much shorter than systems using a central computer to control spacing. There

12400-422: The three station Duke University Medical Center Patient Rapid Transit system was commissioned. Uniquely, the cars could move sideways, as well as backwards and forwards and it was described as a "horizontal elevator". The system was closed in 2009 to allow for expansion of the hospital. In the 1990s, Raytheon invested heavily in a system called PRT 2000, based on technology developed by J. Edward Anderson at

12524-487: The top or bottom of a single track. The cars could not be switched from top to bottom, however. If this option was used, the guideways were supported on pillars that attached to the track from the side, rather than directly below. Cabinentaxi's guideway is noticeably smaller and thinner than conventional elevated systems, like the Vancouver SkyTrain . The track is approximately six feet wide, slightly smaller than

12648-433: The total costs for this initial installation to be $ 56,568,000, or $ 7.5 million per double lane mile (compare with a Canadian estimate from 1980 at $ 75 to $ 80 million per mile for underground subway lines). These were not the final system costs which would have only been determined after construction, and cost increases were already being experienced as the project neared the start of construction. Cabinentaxi, as Cabintaxi,

12772-418: The total funding, considerably less than their counterparts in the U.S., which completely funded by the UMTA. By this time the system had been well-defined, and was committed to true PRT point-to-point service. In order to avoid stops along the way, stations were "off-line", on separate guideways placed beside the main routes, allowing en-route cars to pass them by. The cars themselves would handle switching along

12896-428: The track (but not easily converted from one to the other), allowing dual-track movements from a single elevated guideway only slightly wider than the cars. A test track was completed in 1975 and ran until development was completed in 1979, but no deployments followed and the companies abandoned the system shortly thereafter. In the U.S., a 1966 federal bill provided funding that led to the development of APM systems under

13020-418: The track needed to decelerate to and accelerate from stations. In at least one system, Aramis, this nearly doubled the width and cost of the required right-of-way and caused the nonstop passenger delivery concept to be abandoned. Other designs have schemes to reduce this cost, for example merging vertically to reduce the footprint. Group rapid transit A people mover or automated people mover ( APM )

13144-540: The track. Cabinentaxi offered very high capacity utilization of its lines, up to 80% full before congestion would occur. Cabinentaxi also had a number of different car sizes, seating 6, 12 and 18 passengers. The larger cars could be formed into two-unit trains which could increase system capacity in small loop or shuttle operations, but the two-unit train had limited advantage in large network applications where short headways are effectively an electronic coupling. The "KK" series of vehicles, "KK 3, 6,12,18(all designed, but only

13268-550: The tracks in a pit; by adjusting the pitch of this thread at different points, the carriages could be sped up, or slowed down to a walking pace at stations, to allow passengers to join and leave. The railway ran reliably for the two years of the exhibition, and was then dismantled. In late 1949, Mike Kendall, chief engineer and Chairman of the Board of Stephens-Adamson Manufacturing Company, an Illinois-based manufacturer of conveyor belts and systems , asked Al Neilson, an engineer in

13392-413: The traction does not rely on friction, LIMs can climb much steeper grades. On the downside, LIMs require a "reaction rail" for the motor to push against, which increases capital costs slightly. Cabinentaxi was designed to allow top or bottom running of the vehicles, or both on one track. Cabinentaxi's control system was decentralized, with three different control systems, each in command of one portion of

13516-424: The trains. Most conventional metros have headways around two minutes or more, these new systems were generally on the order of 30 seconds. To make these systems efficient at high demand levels they had to have fairly large capacities, on the order of 25 to 100 passengers, which places them in the group rapid transit , or GRT, end of the people mover spectrum. These sorts of systems can be simplified if high performance

13640-418: The various levels of government signed off on the system and released it for commercial development. Several developments were already being studied by that point. One was an expansion of the original Hagen system, done as much as an example of the planning process as a serious proposal. This deployment envisioned a staged development starting with the 12-passenger cars in a network of about 40 stations covering

13764-469: The vehicles in a system being stored at stations waiting for passengers. Stations are envisioned to be minimalistic, without facilities such as rest rooms. For elevated stations, an elevator may be required for accessibility. At least one system, Metrino, provides wheelchair and freight access by using a cogway in the track, so that the vehicle itself can go from a street-level stop to an overhead track. Some designs have included substantial extra expense for

13888-419: The vehicles would travel along a fixed route, stopping at any station that a passenger requested. Cabinentaxi could also mix the two modes on a single line, which allowed direct routing to high-density areas when traffic loads were low, saving the larger van-like vehicles for the high-demand periods. Cabinentaxi was in serious consideration for two deployments in the late 1970s; BMFT was in the process of funding

14012-475: The way that do not serve each individual, only the group of riders as a whole. Fichter and other planners tapped into a zeitgeist that was being fuelled by rapid urban decay in the U.S. President Kennedy addressed congress in 1962 and stated that "To conserve and enhance values in existing urban areas is essential. But at least as important are steps to promote economic efficiency and livability in areas of future development. Our national welfare therefore requires

14136-611: The world rushing to join what appeared to be a future market of immense size. The oil crisis of 1973 made vehicle fuels more expensive, which naturally interested people in alternative transportation. In 1967, aerospace giant Matra started the Aramis project in Paris . After spending about 500 million francs , the project was canceled when it failed its qualification trials in November 1987. The designers tried to make Aramis work like

14260-548: Was Pittsburgh 's Skybus, which was proposed by the Port Authority of Allegheny County to replace its streetcar system, which, having large stretches of private right of way, was not suited for bus conversion. A short demonstration line was set up in South Park and large tracts of land were secured for its facilities. However, opposition arose to the notion that it would replace the streetcar system. This, combined with

14384-408: Was a centralized control system used in Cabinentaxi, but it did not have direct control over the vehicles. This system was used to plan the most efficient route when a customer selected a destination and paid for it. The calculated route was then uploaded onto a magnetic stripe on the customer's fare card. The card was then inserted into a reader to call a car from the storage area or one passing by on

14508-472: Was also one of the systems approved to contend for the UMTA's Downtown People Mover Program . It was recognized as the favorite system to win the Detroit People Mover project. For the Detroit project, the system's over-and-under beam was a major advantage as the city specified a single-beam system, and the over-and-under beam would provide bi-directional operation which the city wanted but could not otherwise get with its single beam restriction. The schedules for

14632-629: Was built in the late 1980s. Although many systems were generally considered failures, several APM systems developed by other groups have been much more successful. Lighter systems with shorter tracks are widely deployed at airports; the world's first airport people movers, the Tampa International Airport People Movers , were installed in 1971 at Tampa International Airport in the United States . APMs have now become common at large airports and hospitals in

14756-696: Was certified to carry passengers by the UK Railway Inspectorate on a 1 km (0.6 mi) test track. ULTra was selected in October 2005 by BAA plc for London's Heathrow Airport . Since May 2011 a three-station system has been open to the public, transporting passengers from a remote parking lot to terminal 5. During the deployment of the system the owners of Heathrow became owners of the UltrPRT design. In May 2013 Heathrow Airport Limited included in its draft five-year (2014–2019) master plan

14880-582: Was in public operation for six months from 1975 to 1976. This system had 12 single-mode vehicles and four dual-mode vehicles on a 1.6 km (1.0 mi) track with five stations. This version carried over 800,000 passengers. CVS was cancelled when Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport declared it unsafe under existing rail safety regulations, specifically in respect of braking and headway distances. On March 23, 1973, U.S. Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) administrator Frank Herringer testified before Congress: "A DOT program leading to

15004-569: Was never fulfilled due to political difficulties. Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania , Disneyland in California, and Walt Disney World in Florida are among many locations that have used variations of the Carveyor concept. The term 'people mover' was used by Walt Disney , when he and his Imagineers were working on the new 1967 Tomorrowland at Disneyland . The name was used as

15128-644: Was to be the 42nd Street Shuttle in New York City between Times Square and Grand Central station. The first mention of the Carveyor in a hardback book was in There's Adventure in Civil Engineering by Neil P. Ruzic (1958), one of a series of books published by Popular Mechanics in the 1950s in their "Career" series. In the book the Carveyor was already installed and operational in downtown Los Angeles. Colonel Sydney H. Bingham, Chairman of

15252-462: Was to have been installed in Hamburg , but budget cuts stopped the proposed project before the start of construction. With no other potential projects on the horizon, the joint venture disbanded, and the fully developed PRT technology was never installed. Cabintaxi Corporation, a US-based company, obtained the technology in 1985, and remains active in the private-sector market trying to sell the system but so far there have been no installations. In 1979

15376-594: Was very similar to a Speedwalk but it was used to change elevations; up or down a floor level. This could have been accomplished by an escalator, but the Speedramp would allow wheeled luggage, small handcarts etc. to ride the belt at an operating cost predicted to be much lower than escalators or elevators . The first successful installation of a Speedramp was in the spring of 1954 at the Hudson and Manhattan Railroad Station in Jersey City, New Jersey , to connect

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