How Personal Rapid Transport Works

Personal rapid transport combines the best traits of subways and taxis, and costs less to build than light rail. Could this be the future of transportation? Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast and learn more about personal rapid transport.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
from how Stuff Works dot Com? Brought to you by
consumer guy at Automotive we make carbine easier. I'm welcome
to the podcast on Josh Clark, a staff writer here
at how Stuff Works dot Com with me is uh

(00:21):
the writer's editor extraordinary. Mr Chris Pallette, how's it going, Chris?
It's going great, Josh, thanks for asking. So, Chris, I
notice you shaved your goatee. It's startlingly different. Yeah. Yeah,
I'm not used to the air conditioning on my chain,
but I'll get used to it. Well, we're not used
to it around the office. We're actually lamenting the loss
of it. We're sitting shiva over chris is goatee. We've
got the mirrors covered. But we have to soldier on,

(00:43):
don't we, Chris? Yeah? So I'm thinking we could soldier
on by talking about whether or not there's going to
be a new kind of taxi cab in the future.
What do you know about this? Well, I do know
that gas prices are going up and people are looking
at all kinds of alternatives, even something that might seem
like it's right out of one of those uh nineties

(01:04):
nine fifties art deco. Uh, this is the wave of
the future, like the wed Way people move her. So
what we're talking about is personal rapid transit or PRT.
And it's actually not a new idea. It does find
its roots in the fifties um an American urban designers
started toying with the idea. What it does is it

(01:27):
takes the the um the best of both worlds of
subways and taxis and put them together. Uh. It's personal
rapid transit because there's so many cars on this rail
line that you don't have to share with anybody. So
people who are unsettled by the homeless or are xenophobic
to a clinical degree can rest easy on this ride. Uh.

(01:47):
And it also takes you pretty much exactly where you
want to go. Surprisingly, it's less less to build than
light rail by a long shot. There doing one at
Heathrow Airport in the infamous Terminal five UM and it's
costs about sixteen million for a mile of track. Total costs.

(02:10):
Most light rail costs about forty million, which is amazing
that it's got it beat by that. Why don't we
have this installed everywhere? Now, Well, I would guess that
even though uh they're claiming that it is less expensive
than light rail, um, that there's just so much more
infrastructure involved in building a light rail system. You know,

(02:33):
from from what I've read and researching for the podcast,
the the cars we're talking about here for these PRT
systems are are small. They're they're like a you know,
a personal automobile rather than a big honking train, which
I'm sure you know costs a lot to build. Um. Plus,
the track would probably need to be considerably wider for

(02:55):
a light rail train, so you know, it sort of
makes sense that it would be a little bit more
cost efficient even with the number of stops going up.
But even with hard numbers, there's a lot of people
who aren't swayed. Um. Personal rapid transit systems have found
vocal opponents everywhere that they've been proposed. You watched The Simpsons, right,
oh yeah, okay, you've seen the mono rail episode. It's

(03:17):
it's one of my favorites. It is a great so
it has it all, has Leonard di moy apossums, it's
a from the music man. But really, when I was
researching personal rapid transit, I realized that the mono rail
episode of The Simpsons is a subtle indictment of PRT systems.
Um and while in the episode, Homer Simpson is the
conductor of the mono rail, Uh, what better metaphor for

(03:40):
a failing computer system than Homer himself? Right, that's true? Yeah,
and uh, that's one of the big criticisms of the
PRT system is is that you know what happens if
one of the cars fails, if you're on the same
track as everyone else, and especially if they're moving as
in a close proximity as it suggests that we will

(04:01):
be if we use these systems, it will be essentially
bumper to bumper. And they are in man they are computerized,
their computer driven, which is good because they can run
twenty four hours a day. But if they're unmanned, then
what happens when they stop? Uh, like you said, you've
got all the cars behind you stopped behind you. Uh,
it's it could be just a complete nightmare. It's like

(04:21):
being stuck on a roller coaster. But you know, you're
not at an amusement park. You're trying to get home
or get to work. Maybe they'll install horns in them,
so at least we can you know, have the satisfaction
of honking if you Yeah, that would be awesome actually,
But I was intrigued that they're being installed in some places, uh,
I think Sweden and Abu Dhabi, which is sort of
ironic considering that's they would have gotten the money from

(04:43):
that from oil. Yeah, yeah, that is ironic. But they
are starting to uh they're actually the the United Arab
Emirates and and do buying some of these other areas
are really starting to lead the charge on going green.
And the city called Masdar City, it's the development outside
of Abu Dat. They're they're aiming to become the first
zero carbon footprint city ever. And part of that is

(05:05):
the personal rapid transit system they're implementing. And this is
not a test. I mean, they're putting in a whole
stop uh system. So it's it's a huge deal and
there's going to be a lot of eyes on Abu
Dhabi to find out, you know, if this can really
work and if it will fail like people expect, or
if it could be the wave of the future for
taxis that's fascinating. It'll be it'll be exciting to see

(05:29):
you know that this may be a real solution. Yeah,
I hope so, because we're drowning here. If you want
to learn more about personal rapid transit, read will there
be a new kind of Taxicab? On how stuff works
dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
Does it how stuff works dot com. Let us know
what you think. Send an email to podcast at how

(05:50):
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