ULTra PRT sustainable transit

ULTra is a battery-driven, 200-mpg-equivalent, elevated personal rapid transit system with many four-person vehicles. First deployment is scheduled for London Heathrow Airport in Spring 2010, to serve Heathrow's new Terminal 5. Working as circulator transit for office parks, airports, universities, and other major activity centers, ULTra is faster than a car. In these applications, ULTra makes carpooling and conventional transit more effective, by solving the "last mile problem." For more info: http://www.ultraprt.net/
Visualization by Nathan Koren, Tony Wooster, Matthew Cross. Music: Andrew Gorny. Voice: Mo McFeely. Higher resolution versions available at: http://www.ultraprt.net/cms/index.php?page=overview

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• PRT
• heathrow
• london
• transit
• sustainable
• ULTra
• personal
• rapid
• public

[jcng5]

cool, but what about the infrastructure cost?

[esbielab]

Based on actual Heathrow costs, ULTra customers will pay $10-15 million per mile of one-way track, depending on complexity of system, number of stations, quality of soil, etc.

[scstraus]

I say they wire up the whole city and we all ditch our cars. I'd be happy to use these every day.

[brucegalliver]

Amazing idea.

My current understanding however is that sustainability is inverse to profitability.

We need a new economic structure that encourages sustainability.

Check out a "Resource - Based Economy" and "The Venus Project"

Peace, Love and, most importantly, Sustainability ;)

X

[stasisnu18]

GREAT animation and SUPER good idea, love it!!

[dayati]

People will definitely be having sex in these things. But I still LOVE the idea ;)

[AimlessSky]

If one of the vehicles happen to break down, will it affect the system? I mean this isn't a train...During breakdowns, a train can push another train out of the area. Can this do the same as well?

Then again, this would only be useful to cater for small passenger flow right? I can think of it working perfectly within campus to campus vicinity.

[tgseason12]

As long as the seats are actually comfortable and is not allowed to be used by scum I'd love this to be implemented.

[tehatemachine]

@robertweinberg1993 you could do a thrid rail, which is a bit more cost effective, but the reason why i mentioned an overhead power line isbecause it eliminates the danger is someone steps on the track. Third rail could also work, There would have to be contact shoes on both sides. and at the station or platform the third rail would have to be on the opposite side of the platform to reduce this risk.

[robertweinberg1993]

How about put a piece of metal below the car on the track and electrify it and that will make the car run.

[tehatemachine]

@robertweinberg1993 it's far easier just to put a overhead powerline up top, that way you don't have to worry about maintaining expensive batteries, Plus it means the cars the system carries would be MUCH lighter, Batteries are simply not feasible in this type of system. They need to use basic logic upon things that make sense economically, Because when those things are in the shop, it's just extra and unnecessary time spent maintaining or replacing the batteries (unless it's dry cell) But still

[robertweinberg1993]

@tehatemachine The batteries can be charged when the car is running.

[tehatemachine]

that's stupid though to have it battery driven. That just makes it more expensive. And pus you have all those batteries to maintain. Best just to have a third rail.