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Systems papers Dr J Edward Anderson Articles DocumentsDate addedHigh-capacity personal rapid transit (Hi-Cap PRT) is a concept that has been evolving for over 50 years. Notwithstanding attempts to kill it, it has kept emerging because in optimum form it has the potential for contributing significantly to the solution of fundamental problems of modern society including congestion, global warming, dependence on a dwindling supply of cheap oil, and most recently terrorism.
The future of Hi-Cap PRT depends on careful design starting with carefully thought-through criteria for the design of the new system and of its major elements.
This paper documents 32 vehicle simulation programs that have been developed since 1969 to simulate the operation of automated vehicles operating in net-works of guideway under a variety of strategies
The Intelligent Transportation Network System (ITNS) is a totally new form of public transportation designed to provide a high level of service safely and reliably over an urban area of any extent in all reasonable weather conditions without the need for a driver’s license, and in a way that minimizes cost, energy use, material use, land use, and noise. Being electrically operated it does not emit carbon dioxide or any other air pollutant.
This remarkable set of attributes is achieved by operating vehicles automatically on a network of minimum weight, minimum size exclusive guideways, by stopping only at off-line stations, and by using light-weight, sub-compact-auto-sized vehicles.
With these physical characteristics and in-vehicle switching ITNS is much more closely comparable to an expressway on which automated automobiles would operate than to conventional buses or trains with their on-line stopping and large vehicles.We now call this new system ITNS rather than High-Capacity Personal Rapid Transit, which is a designation coined over 35 years ago.
The paper reviews the evolution of the PRT concept from its modern beginning in 1953. The early inventors, the projects, and the response of government are discussed. PRT activity diminished to almost nothing by 1980, but then revived strongly as a result of activity by the Northeastern Illinois Regional Transportation Authority. Their interest ignited enthusiastic activity on a growing front to the point that today one can truly say that the concept is coming of age
This paper compares the middle two options among the spectrum listed above. Alternative #3 will be referred to hereinafter as "Single Mode" or SM. Alternative #4 is called "Dual Mode" or DM. DM has the advantage over SM for auto drivers that the same vehicle may be taken for any trip, just as occurs now with one's own automobile. In many respects, DM is much like the system envisioned by advocates of alternative #5, an Intelligent Vehicle Highway System, except that special narrower guideways could be used for the automated guideway portion of the trip.
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