
Personal Rapid Transit Startup - jaydub
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22083/
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electromagnetic
All these plans are doomed to failure. These are mass transit systems designed
to be more convenient to people. However, I don't think people were spending
$40,000 on an SUV out of needing convenience.

People will want their own vehicle, not many people will be willing to give up
their sports cars or their trucks and SUV's to switch to a smart car look-a-
like that you don't even own.

The other problem with these systems, even if they do develop a way to beat
the whole 'wanting your own car' problem. What happens when you want to go to
a different country? I mean quite honestly, this system will _never_ work in
Europe as anything more than an alternative to buses. The systems need to be
universally accessible, I need to be able to move from England to France to
Spain and into Portugal without my vehicle losing control and driving me off
the side of a bridge because Spain has a different system.

There's the whole doorstep to station problem in PRT's, however thats only the
first problem they've got. Allowing people to have their own vehicles
(something that has to happen, there's too many vehicle companies that would
need take out a PRT system to stay in business) would solve the doorstep to
station, because the station is in your garage and thus negates the doorstep.
However, then there's recognition between cities, I'm sure users and car
manufacturers don't want vehicles doing a game of chicken when you drive onto
another cities system, and the same happens between states and countries. What
happens if California drove on the right and Nevada drove on the left? Someone
would have to change their system. It's happened in lots of countries around
the world, that one changed the side of the road they drove on because it just
made it safer than trying to teach the 'stupid foreigners' they're in a
different country with different rules.

~~~
agotterer
I think you are overlooking the main purpose. It's not meant to eliminate
cars. Its meant to be a faster, more accurate means of public transportation.
For example I live in Manhattan; walking, subways, taxis and buses are the
main means of transportation. Having a car is not affordable and ends up being
an inconvenience.

Walking obviously isnt practical all the time. Cabs are expensive. So for
people who need to get around are left with buses and the subway. Both run on
specific schedules (which arent always great) and often times you need to take
multiple variations to get to the final destination (or remotely close).

If a pod system existed here it would allow me to travel faster and more
accurately. I can run on my own schedule and go direct. Lets also not forget
the green factors from eliminating hundreds of buses and subways.

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Arubis
That's pretty nifty, but the holy grail remains solving the last-mile problem.
Once you've solved the doorstep-to-station issue, existing public transit
solutions are fairly competent.

Does anyone know of current startups in this space? The last high-profile
development was the Segway, and that clearly didn't catch on for its intended
purpose.

That said, it sounds like you wouldn't have to worry about line changes and
transfers with PRTs. Which would be nice.

~~~
TetOn
>solving the last-mile problem.

I think the only way you can hope to achieve this is through zoning and long-
term alteration of how cities are built. Sprawly cities like Houston et al.
can't possibly hope to build out any right-of-way based system such that
everyone is within a mile of a station...thus you build the center and let
density rise. Combine this with a suitable number of edge-sitting mega
stations that outlying folks drive (or, even better: ride a bus) a shorter
distance to (relative to a full commute) and you've solved a large portion of
the problem, anyway.

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lsb
The same problems of people being able to move fast without exertion or
neighborly interaction seem as true for this PRT as for cars.

What's the problem that they're trying to solve? People want to talk on their
cellphones and read a book as they drive? Cabbies aren't everywhere? Even if
it solves these problems on the cheap, it's going to be pretty unsatisfying if
you just zip around in your lonely pod. This sounds like an enormous capital
expense, compared to (say) self-driving 15mph cars, and it doesn't seem like
it's a big benefit holistically to a city.

