PRT for Perimeter Center

It is with some delight I found this link  (here), it looks like the people at GRTA finally got the idea. I was a big proponent ( read PRT bore ) while I worked at GRTA and it looks like now Ultra have a working system they managed to get more cities interested.

I always believed this,

once we have a successful modern working system other cites will see the advantages and have a track record they can get funds against.

Once one city has a succesful PRT system then we will see other PRT systems begin to compete.

I believe the logic for PRT is in escapable.

Shweeb Cycle monorail

Finally someone has built a cycle monorail, except in Newzeland, but there is a UK company promoting it.

Very cool. Forget the fairground ride. Imagine what would happen if this was in a city. The supporting posts are very narrow not much bigger than lamposts.

Light vehicles means that you get small thin support rails and so you shouldn't get huge numbers of people objecting to the 'visual intrusion' of the overhead rails.

The vehicles are both enclosed so good for rain, wind, vital for a 365 days a year usage. Its important for safety (falling out) and it means you can easily carry stuff with you

The recumbent position means less less wind position and a much better cycling position ( more speed)

I'm very excited by this. Basically you don't get any lighter or more reliable than a bike. Its very quite too.

More importantly you can sail over junctions and traffic lights and you can change the heights of the posts to keep the system on the level. I love the idea that everywhere becomes Holland or Cambridge. On big hills they could put an assist ( like the chains they have for roller coaster rides).

I do wonder about the wheels are they rubber tyres or steel ? Steel is louder but more energy efficient ( less rolling resistance)

Best of luck to the UK company I think they are thinking of it in a transport context.

Canadian flattery

Some nice images from Canadian website - should work really well so far north.

internet of things

I posted this on the new scientist website. 

Fifty years ago who would have thought that we would take the ability to send any digital document from a office desk around the world as common place? Yet when you buy something on Amazon or Ebay it still takes days to arrive. Work is often more than information its about things. The internet-of-things would make sending a book, a blood sample or a pizza as simple as sending an email. Autonomous mini robots running on special tracks, moving like packets over the internet could move things from one place to another.  

Why stop with things? Next year Heathrow will see the world’s first autonomous taxi system (Ultra) that is faster door-to-door than a car but uses less energy than a bus. Even Microsoft is considering using it for their headquarters. Can work be the same when the trip to work will be cheap, quick, quite, green and chaffer driven?

Vectus PRT

Vectus PRT

lovely lovely lovely.

BBC NEWS | UK | Are driverless pods the future?

BBC NEWS | UK | Are driverless pods the future?

nice write up over Heathrow travel pod/PRT system.

VECTUS PRT

VECTUS PRT Well I should be bloging more rapidly (sorry). I'm always quite astonished by teh speed of developement. This stuff looks quite cool Asian money supporting European Engineering - what next ?

MISTER Polish suspended PRT system.

MISTER

Recently a suspended system (one that hanges down) has appeared from a proposer from Poland. Quite an cools sight one could hardly waste time in recommending.

Naturally I'm all over the technical details. MISTER appears to be well versed in the positive and negative attributes of the various alternative PRT systems out there(good). They have gone for simplicity and using available technology (gets my vote).

They have decided that the vertical "truss mono rail", (hanging down) is simpler lighter and safer. Personally I've always like suspended systems. If you look a skii lift you can have a number of gondolas hanging from a wire. This would make the wire the low visual intrusion option but introduces the problem of how to move from track to track ( switch in the technical parlance).

MISTER appears to have come up with some solution "Finally, use of a "static rail switches" (crossovers), where rails do not move, but gondola suspension-propulsion caddy is switching from one rail onto a parallel section of the other rail, provides for fail safe and non-wearing mechanism of diverging and merging from/onto the main transport rails. It is similar to a freeway exit/entry, except that lines do not join but run in parallel for a while, for a sufficient distance to "jump across". "

I didn't find anything showing how but this switch works, generally this is the core of the system and the thing most PRT systems hold back for a patent. I noticed that one of the links is to Wendell Cox the notorious anti-public transit, anti-smart growth pro sprawl activist. What strange bedfellows MISTER makes.

Well it looks like this system is getting a far amount of interest in Poland (yeah!). Perhaps PRT might have a simpler time emerging from a country where total reform is in the air than a more staid/conventional/formal country like the US. Well definitely a project which could do with more work and a good working prototype to sort out the problems so I wish them my hearty best.