Mobility Blockers: Solving the 1st/Last Mile Problem
Part 4 of 4
While transit authorities are still thinking, centralized, linear, high cost stations and in two dimensions, the ride-sharing companies are attacking by applying peer-to-peer networking strategy to the mobility problem. What the ride sharing companies are not doing yet is thinking three-dimensionally.
What’s disruptive about personal rapid transit (PRT) is that it is an on-demand service means that your two-to-twelve person podcars depart when you’re ready, then you simply select your destination and travel direct to your one and only stop.
You don’t wait like lemmings at the PRT station to board as a heard or go on a milk-run past a half dozen stops, waiting for people to embark or disembark.
PRT podcars conceivably would also be able to autonomously attach and detach from the elevated guideway and take you direct to your final destination. This feature effectively eliminates the single biggest problem with public transit−last (and first) mile.
The parking at transit hub lots are always packed during daytime hours and new multi-level parking structures are very costly to build, so a PRT system which can complete the leg from home to the station or vice versa really reduces car dependency and parking related problems. At office towers the PRT station can be right at the second floor of your building. No need to even go outside.
Like the energy network, the nature of the most advanced PRT design is a decentralized physical neural network that employs both active, autonomous, connected, electric, and shared (AACES) and mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) feature sets. The ultimate architecture for this ultimate mobility future will be comprised of an assortment of multi-modal e-vehicles, with a clear focus around PRT that autonomously moves people like packets for one monthly fee.
This is the true holy grail of sustainable transportation, smart cities and a more hassle-free lifestyle rolled into one. It is already possible with today’s technology.
When I speak publicly about PRT most people get that deer in the headlights look in their eyes or temporarily glaze over while reminiscing of their Jetson’s cartoon watching childhood. There is no need to reinvent the wheel to bring PRT to market en masse. Yes, the matter of municipal air rights to locate guideways over roads, rivers, parking lots or through buildings is a real challenge from a legislative perspective. But in places like, Tel Aviv, Israel , Lagos, Nigeria, Mountainview, CA and Austin, TX and Ottawa, ON, PRT advocates are chipping away at city council naysayers and public policy hurdles.
Leading the way today in the PRT space is skyTran which is located at the NASA Ames Research lab in Mountain View, CA the heart of Silicon Valley. SkyTran is designed to work on a learning neural network that continually in real time optimizes the placement of podcars at stations to make sure there are always enough podcars at the right time of day. Other PRT leaders include UltraPRT. UltraPRT is based in the UK and has been operational at Heathrow Airport with their system since May 2011. At Heathrow Airport 21 autonomous PRT vehicles operate on top of a 3.9-kilometre (2.4 mi) elevated guideway connecting terminal 5 to its business passenger car park.
So the future is closer than we think. The technologies are either here now or will be available in the next few years to make radically improved mobility possible. What is really needed are courageous people to challenge public administrators and politicians to seek options outside of the old transportation paradigm not just because they are sexy, but because they make practical economic sense.
This new 3D with MaaS and AACES approach to mobility will be one that will dramatically reduce carbon emissions, free up common areas by eliminating the need for most parking spaces, save people and governments money on transportation related costs and make travel safer for cyclists and pedestrians.
We need to get over the chicken or the egg problem by encouraging post-secondary institutions to add PRT engineering research programs. San Jose State University has led the way on this front.
Hope to see you at the PodCar City Conference one day.
Missed parts 1–3 of Mobility Blockers? Here are the back links.
Mobility Blockers (part 2 of 4): Total Cost of Mobility, Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) and the sharing economy https://medium.com/@EVPVStevie/mobility-blockers-part-2-total-cost-of-mobility-mobility-as-a-service-maas-and-the-sharing-ac9ef9e69dca#.5p0zzkngw
Mobility Blockers (part 3 of 4): Don’t be an ICEhole, IoT parking sensors and 3D PRT https://medium.com/@EVPVStevie/mobility-blockers-part-3-of-4-dont-be-an-icehole-iot-parking-sensors-and-3d-prt-7e69c0ac3aa4#.8sm0p3lk8
Mobility Blockers (part 4 of 4): Solving the 1st/Last Mile Problem https://medium.com/self-driving-cars/mobility-blockers-part-4-of-4-combining-active-transport-and-prt-to-solve-the-1st-mile-last-3b95dc4c8a8a
