The Need for Change in Public Transportation

Publicly funded transportation in the North American urban environment has been losing ridership (proportionate to the population) to the automobile since the end of the Second World War, when post-War prosperity made the personal automobile available to the masses. With few exceptions, the personal auto has dominated the urban transportation market. The 2001 Census (Canada), for example, revealed that 81% of urban workers commute using personal automobiles, compared to only 13% that use public transit 1. In the United States, the federal average for urban public transportation (PT) ridership is even lower, at 4.7% 2. Clearly, the personal auto is PT’s primary competitor in the urban market.

The principle behind all operating PT systems is embodied by the term 'mass transit,' which entails moving many people at once by using few large vehicles. Buses, light rail transit (LRT) systems and subways all work on this premise. In areas of high population density, mass transit solutions have been proven. New York and London, for example, operate economically effective subway systems, as do many of the world’s other megalopolises. However, the development patterns of the vast majority of cities around the world are nowhere near as dense. In North America, especially, the predominant development pattern is suburbanization, which was born of the same post-War prosperity as the automobile. So far, the suburban lifestyle has commanded a near symbiosis with the personal auto, and mass transit systems have ultimately failed to be viable in this new market.

The recent failure of PT, though, is not the result of a lack of effort. Recent global initiatives, such as the Kyoto accord, and increasing concern about air, noise and ‘time’ pollution (that is, time wasted due to traffic jams, accidents, etc.) in the urban environment have brought new attention to the problems of the large-scale use of the personal automobile. Also, facilities dedicated to the personal automobile (parking lots, for example) preclude the development of large portions of valuable urban land from development for other purposes - "space pollution." For these reasons, governments have tried to encourage PT use by increasing subsidization for transit services, through advertising campaigns and through ‘pro-transit’ (that is, anti-car) legislation. London’s recently introduced a £5/day toll for access to downtown London via vehicle is an excellent example of this approach 3. These policies have been shown to ‘attract’ people to PT, but is this really a desirable, long-term solution? It would be far better to have a system that could compete with the automobile in the free market, without pervasive government intervention.

In order to compete effectively and directly with the personal auto, a PT system must match it in terms of convenience and quality of service. Other major selling points of the personal automobile such as privacy and flexibility must also be addressed. There is a promising new paradigm for public transportation that offers unique approaches to these challenges: Personal Rapid Transit.

Personal Rapid Transit

Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) works on some basic principles that make it different from other forms of public transportation. In general, PRT is the class of fixed-guide-way systems in which automated vehicles that are automobile-sized or smaller carry people and/or goods on-demand and nonstop between any pair of stations in a network of guide-ways 4. The vehicles are occupied by either individuals or small groups (2 - 4) traveling together by choice.

Figure 1: Images of PRT. [48KB]

An analogy that is useful for understanding PRT is a traditional taxi system. To travel via taxi, a passenger calls a taxi to his or her location and gives the driver a destination (on-demand service). The driver then takes the passenger directly to that location, without stopping to pick up other passengers (a nonstop trip). PRT moves the taxis from the road to a dedicated infrastructure of guide-ways, and replaces the driver with a computer (or network of computers). The aspect of personal, non-stop trips is retained.

Project Objectives

1. Design, build and apply a deterministic computer simulator for PRT networks. More specifically, the simulator must accomplish the following goals, broken down into Input, Processing and Output stages:
   
   
   Figure 2: Input, Processing, Output Model. [9KB]
2. Raise public awareness about PRT, so that this promising idea may be more thoroughly analyzed.

Further Resources

Component	Formats
PowerPoint Presentation Summary: A PowerPoint presentation (normally used as a presentation aid) is available that summarizes the concepts presented on this page, and elaborates / emphasizes several features.	PowerPoint Web Export (IE4+ required) PowerPoint Document [1MB]
Comparison of PRT with other Modes Summary: A table comparing PRT with other mass transit modes and the personal automobile.	Adobe PDF [19KB] Word Web Export [30KB]
(Note: If you have difficulty opening Adobe PDFs (Acrobat has been known to crash when it loads in a frame), press and hold the Shift key while you click on the link. This will open it it a new window, in Internet Explorer.)