Personal rapid transit

Personal rapid transit (PRT) is a transport method that offers on-demand non-stop transportation between any two points on a network of specially built guideways. PRT has been reinvented many times because it optimizes standard mathematical models used by transit-planners.

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Because it is mathematically optimal, PRT developers and advocates claim that it will provide more convenient service than cars, with the social advantages of public transport, and low (excellent) environmental impact. Advocates estimate PRT's per-mile costs as between a moped ($0.10/mile) and a bicycle ($0.03/mile). Several PRT systems are in development, and several PRT designs have been safety-certified by government authorities. Transit using similar automated technologies is in regular operation, with some systems dating back to 1974. Some authorities claim that these developments prove feasibility.

Related Topics:
Cars - Public transport

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PRT's theoretical advantages are diluted, perhaps to nonexistence, when it is operated as part of a network of scheduled public transit systems. This makes it difficult to produce credible small-scale demonstration projects. Several PRT proposals have failed dramatically and publicly when their projected costs exceeded their budgets. Other PRT projects have failed technically, some with large monetary losses, often when political needs, schedules or budgets interfered with a technical requirement. As of 2005, there are no true PRT systems in operation, which some believe implies infeasibility.

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