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Personal Rapid Transit: Preempting the Need for Oil in Urban Transport

While I also agree that PRT should be "energy-source agnostic" (with the exception that the system itself should be electric), I do think the potential for solar-powered PRT is huge, and I agree with Bill in his bias towards distributed, localized generation. I'm not yet completely sold, however, on the idea of putting solar panels on the guideways themselves. My gut feeling is that we are still a fair distance from a sturdy, solar "awning" for PRT guideway purposes, which is resistant to weather (especially wind gusts) and vandalism. Even if this problem is solved tomorrow (or already HAS been solved and I'm just ignorant), among the most persuasive selling points of PRT are its low profile and small footprint. These qualities not only contribute to PRT's affordability, they enhance its flexibility and can win over NIMBYs who are concerned about ugly infrastructure intruding on "their" view or "their" natural environment or neighborhood ambiance. The more you overload the PRT infrastructure with additional functions, the bigger, sturdier, and potentially more intrusive it must be.

In Santa Cruz, many of us have the vision of a very unobtrusive PRT system that is quick, quiet, and blends in well with the surroundings, something that its critics can come to tolerate and ignore, and its fans will view as friendly and ideally "right-sized" for this area. Although I like the idea of a solar powered system, I'm not sure that one that "powered itself" through attached solar panels would remain that unobtrusive or unobjectionable to the many people we need to win over here. Perhaps a brilliant design that integrates solar into the guideway will address my fears and silence potential critics. But I think it might be more practical to have a solar farm feeding the grid near town; rather than run directly from the solar array, the PRT system could draw grid power, which would be offset by the solar array's contribution to the grid. I think this would solve a number of potential problems that might beset a PRT system with panel-attached guideways. Just a thought.

Personal Rapid Transit: Preempting the Need for Oil in Urban Transport

I agree that private enterprise is the preferred player to run with this particular ball, and now is the time, while municipalities are hurting for resources. Their infrastructures are falling apart because they have so badly set their spending priorities and structured their finances. Private projects to provide reliable infrastructure for and bring jobs to their regions seem more likely to be embraced now than in boom times past, when governments were eager to tax, spend, and regulate on the backs of business. Projects that can increase economic activity apart from any jobs involved in their construction will be especially welcome, I think. Perhaps localities can be motivated to co-operate more flexibly in terms of zoning, right-of-way, permit approvals, etc.

PRT's potential to connect and promote traffic between economic enclaves should be very attractive to local chambers of commerce, not to mention political organizations and non-profits that depend upon tax revenues generated by business. It would behoove areas with high tourist volume to provide PRT-based "horizontal elevator" service for their entire region, so that the cost in time and dollars for a tourist to visit any part of town from any other part would be minimized. It's also possible that a PRT car could run in "guided tour mode," taking the passenger around to various parts of town along with relevant narration. During the tour, passengers could disembark from one car, explore the local area for a while, and get on another PRT car later, which would resume the tour narration the previous pausing point.

Bill, I really appreciate that you collected all this interesting information and advice in one place. I especially like your "times better" chart. I was also glad to see so many thoughtful and insightful comments in reply. Good job, all!

James Anderson Merritt
Santa Cruz CA