Personal Rapid Transport - Possible for Dublin?

p

PRT is personal Rapid Rapid Transport.

Usually an elevated system with a small fdootprint that moves along Cabs which fit about the same number as a car at high-speed.

I wonder could this be a viable solution for dublin, instead of a metro. Costs seems comparable, yet advantages seem much greater.



http://faculty.washington.edu/~jbs/itrans/PRT/
http://www.electric-bikes.com/prt.htm
http://www.skywebexpress.com/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/1765120.stm

antoinolachtnai

one problem i've heard mentioned about monorail systems in general is the problem of evacuation. There's no easy way to evacuate the vehicle if it stops, because there is no walkway beside the track, and if you walk along the track, there's no easy way to get past vehicles that may be in front of you.

I believe I saw this problem mentioned in an answer given by Ken Livingstone in London. I don't know whether it's fair or not, but they seemed to have evaluated it fairly well.

sceptre

When I saw the thread title I thought of those long transport tubes they have at the start of Futurama:D

Winters

The idea reminds me too much of Logans run, a film I am constantly trying to forget. One problem with the things is expansion, they would have the same problem as roads expierance would they not?
As population grows they would need a larger and larger capicity. And due to the fact that they only contain a small amount of people [in comparison to a metro] and run along one single lane then after a few years that lane will begin to expierance traffic jams of some sort?

It would be cool to have the Futurama tubes.

Capt'n Midnight

Evacuation - just keep the lines low
BTW it's electric so no fuel to burn.
Also lifts don't have escape hatches anymore - 'cos you are safer staying where you are..

Borzoi

Assuming that if it was ever built the lines would run in both directions, this would allow for evacuation. Personally I'd be more worried about scumbags ruing the cabs with their stanley knifes, markers and puke.

As the cabs are automated you should in theory get a much higher flow rate compared to car traffic.

But overall I'm reminded of the Simpson's Monorail episode

antoinolachtnai

Well, if you were evacuating over the other track, and you had to evacuate a car (because the motor burnt out, say) you'd have to shut down a whole segment of the system. Not very pleasant during rush-hour.

I don't know about the comparison with a lift in a building. The distances are a lot shorter in a lift, and you are usually within 3 or 4 meters of a set of doors or a hatch where you can be rescued.

I don't think you could have it running at a low level, at least not in Dublin. If it was any lower than 4 or 5 meters, buses and lorries couldn't get under it.

One of the attractive things about the idea is that you could solve the 'scumbag' problem by having a camera in every vehicle. If there's any sign of messing round, you just lock the passengers in the car and have them dropped them off at the transport police station.

The construction costs do appear to be dirt cheap. The civil engineering on the system would be pretty straightforward.

All-in-all, it looks like a very early-stage concept. They haven't even done any outdoor trials yet. It would make sense to try it out in a smaller city of maybe 100,000 people rather than in Dublin - maybe Galway, Waterford, Derry or Cork. Alternatively you could try it in a specific area of Dublin, such as the Docklands, Ballinteer/Dundrum or Tallaght.

p

You're always going to have problems with things scaling, no solution can avoid it.

The advantage of this over cars is that, it's more manegeable & far mor efficient because it's automated.

I can see how the evacuation might be a problem, but i'm sure you could have custom made 'emergency cars' & also a fire engine could easily help out in emergency too.

Capt'n Midnight

Well the simple solution to evacuation and scumbags is CCTV and ye olde ejector seats.

Seriously you make the track out of precast reenforced concrete - maintainance costs drop to near zero - could put a walk way along it too - escape hatch at front / back rather than at the sides.

Or a rope ladder, or the whole carrige is attached to it's base with a bungi.

Or a little hook so you can lift them off with cranes / helicopters - eg: westland lynx can do almost 200mph so if there was one doing traffic reports (value added service) it could be there in minutes (unlike the current ambulance service)

Fire suppression systems - eg: just have a pipe running along the track..