Introducing PRT to the Sustainable City

The zero carbon, zero emission city of the future will require a high-level-of-service passenger transit system to accommodate the trips that in cities are typically performed by automobile. Mass transit, or group transit, is badly suited for this purpose as it can’t replicate the service as supplied by the automobile. Also from the energy use point of view, with the exception of peak hours, mass transit is extremely inefficient as it requires that large vehicles travel nearly empty to respect a schedule. The sustainable city requires an on-demand, door-to-door, personal, zero emissions, energy efficient transport service that can be obtained by means of automated, electric powered taxis. The sustainable city will employ Personal Rapid Transit, the solution that provides on-demand, private transit directly from origin to destination. The city will feature a network of guide-ways with a large station density ensuring short walking distances (maximum 150 meters). The stations are off-line, since the vehicles will make no intermediate stops, the guide-ways are located at grade, while the pedestrian level is elevated to create a new street level (the podium). The guide-way allows for multiple lanes, incorporating acceleration and deceleration lanes to allow vehicles to speed up and slow down for stations away from the main through-lane. The entire network has been modeled using both static (macro-scale) and dynamic (micro-scale) simulation software. The simulation has been extended to pedestrian traffic and the interaction and mode split between walking and use of PRT has been modeled as well. The extensive use of simulation models is a fundamental step to the assessment of a novel transport system such as the PRT. The modeling allowed a precise assessment of the traffic volume in all branches and nodes, and the determination of parameters of exercise such as headway, trip time, wait time, energy use etc.