Microsofts PRT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIOA6ExOq6c&feature=related
German version of PRT http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UO26lYB8CI
Another useful link with a video walk through http://www.taxi2000.com/
1. Safety: You drive with people who are drunk, reckless, or just plain dumb. This leads to over 40,000 deaths each year and millions in damages because the system isn't automated. PRT is automated and it will dramatically reduce pedestrian deaths as well since almost all of the system is elevated or buried.
2. Successful System: You just can't build enough parking garages to keep up with the auto and you can't build enough highways to keep up with congestion. PRT moves pods to empty stations costs a fraction of what roads cost to build and it pays for itself through fares and ads.
3. Affordability: What happens if you're not filthy rich and you go on a road trip and your car's transmission goes out? You're in a bind. That happened to me. With PRT thats not a problem. System workers fix it. No need for the BMV or auto insurance companies either. WVU's system works 98% of the time.
4. Faster: If you look at the Interstate Traveller Project http://www.interstatetraveler.us/ , you can go 300 mph for 5 cents an hour because the system is able to reap benefits off utility transportation too. I wouldn't want to be on the road with anyone going 300 mph. PRT can handle in one guideway what a three lane freeway can handle.
5. Cleaner: Runs off electricity. ( I know currently coal, but solar, wind, and tide will be available shortly) No oil and gas needed http://prtstrategies.com/solar.html
6. Shipping. An automated pod can move a palet of goods to a store by itself. http://prtstrategies.com/goodsmovement.html
7. Jobs: PRT can be built right here in the US inside of auto plants that are currently closing or failing.
8. Land use: It's no secret that U.S cities are running out of space and are resorting to urban sprawl. Part of the problem is the lack of skyscrapers in some cities, but another solution to the problem is to stop building massive highways that take up land that can be used for tall skyscrapers, amazing sports facilities, and beautiful parks. PRT is underground and above ground.
9. Good spin off to High Speed Rail: Tourists who will be coming by high speed rail can simple jump on a PRT at the station. Currently they would have to go through all that red tape at the car rental place or get on a subway that may not go to where they need to get.
10. Other uses. Guideways on the PRT system can also transport other utilities and even water the crops beneath it. See the Interstate Traveller Project link above. This could in the future be used for what I would like to see be an automated at home mail system (http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=177196). Auto can not do ANY of this.
The benefits to PRT are obvious yet only Morgantown, West Virginia has this system. If Evansville builds this system now, tourists will come from all over the globe to see it, and it will change Evansville's negative image as being a regressive town into a positive one as a city moving forward.
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