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...

• Category

  Autos & Vehicles

[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.

[sctriplefox]

Yeah, there's a momentum/early-adopter issue where the more competing proposals and companies there are, the more attractive a PRT system becomes - not just on cost but performance too.

Just look at how far it's come in the last five years - back then there were only a few startups with zero media attention, and they were struggling even to get a test track. Now we are seeing cities willing to consider some serious use-cases, even fairly large ones. Hopefully the 2010's will be the PRT decade.

[muffingirl1606]

This would be a cleaner alternative to cars in low to moderate population densities.

[Ed Harrell]

This is a great idea. As a fan of Walt Disney World, I think these would be perfect for use at the non-monorail resorts and parks. You guys should try marketing this to them!!!!

[rml695]

How much battery power does one of these vehicles have (range wise?) I was thinking this could be great for cross-town journeys on our public transit system which currently take several hours by bus (approximately 20-30 miles). 

[Stas Fiestas]

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.

[robertweinberg1993]

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

[robertweinberg1993]

The batteries can be charged when the car is running.