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The initial system to be developed is called
SmartSkyways. This is a transit
system of computer automated vehicles traveling on-demand between stations
on a network of elevated guideways. It is being offered as a "privatization
concept" for the business community to build and own at a profit.
SmartSkyways is planning a $15 million one mile joint venture from this test
track to the west end of the Airpark Village site to develop a Automated
Guideway Transport (AGT) demonstration model for commercialization. The
image below illustrates a finished SmartSkyways.
Multi-station systems intended for mass transit in a city are known as
Automated Guideway Transport (AGT)
systems. This term is generally limited to rubber-tired vehicles led by a
guiding track; fully automated, electric rapid transit and capable of
carrying cargo.
It can be used for driverless transit services and potentially for
'dual-mode' automobiles where the vehicle can be driven off the
guideway. A Rapid Urban Flexible (RUF) test track was opened
at Ballerup, near Copenhagen in 2000. The track is very short (25 meters)
and has one test vehicle. Tests have shown that practical personal vehicles
can be developed with dual mode qualities.
Complex APMs (automated people movers) deploy fleets of small vehicles over a network of guideways
with off-line stations in a dynamic configuration that supplies non-stop
service to passengers. These systems are deployed at airports.
The term was coined by Walt Disney when he and his Imagineers were working
on the new 1967 Tomorrowland at Disneyland as a working title for a new
attraction, the PeopleMover. According to Imagineer
Bob Gurr,
"the name got stuck," and it was no longer a working title.
The world's first airport people mover was installed in 1971 at Tampa
International Airport in the United States. The VAL (Véhicule Automatique
Léger) system in Lille, France, opened in 1983, is often cited as the
world's first mass transit AGT, but the title is disputed by Kobe's Port
Liner, which opened two years earlier in 1981. Lille's VAL is, however,
acknowledged to be the first AGT installed to serve an existing urban area.
Driverless metros have become common in Europe and parts of Asia. The
economics of automated trains tend to reduce the scale so tied to "mass"
transit, so that small-scale installations are feasible. Thus cities
normally thought of as too small to build a metro (e.g. Rennes, Lausanne,
Brescia, etc.) are now doing so. In the U.S. APMs have become common at
large airports and progressive hospitals. |
