ROBO-REALITIES

There is no doubt that the reality of robocars is upon us.

Google is but one of many deep-pocketed companies developing the necessary software and contingent hardware. World auto manufacturers are jockeying to keep up with and form corporate alliances. University classes and programs are engaging students at all robocars levels, using different names. The current “autonomous vehicle” moniker is hardly likely to stick in our ever-evolving techno-English.

The question isn’t whether robocars -- and robo-vans, robo-buses, robo-trucks and robo-SUVs -- will come into our future. Rather, it is how fast and with what trajectories as street vehicles will become smarter and safer. How should the public sector react?  Analysts and investors are eyeing road automation opportunities and high-growth startups. Are robo-roads a more cost-effective investment that the spaghetti of elevated PRT guidedways and stations?

ATN proponents argue that robocars don’t solve congestion and parking problems. They project visions of small vehicles confined to a guideway network (that has to be extensive to be useful). This fixed infrastructure is costly and perhaps offensive. In this way PRT service can be faster than street traffic, and inherently safer. Guideways and stations can easily incorporate solar power collectors. 

But letting those vehicles exit the guideway network to be by driven -- by people or IT -- over streets in what was termed "dual-mode transit" in the 1970s opens up new levels of coverage and even higher levels of service. DMT is the liaison between class PRT and road traffic (automated or not).

PRT vehicles stay at stations (blue dots), whereas DMT vehicles can exit the 'system' and circlulate on streets.
- maps courtesy of LogistikCentrum.

Dual Mode Bridges the Gap

The good thing about tensions between PRT and robocars is that it lifts our level of thinking to a long-range function. What are current and future modal options? What kind of transportation and community life do we want? 

In seeking answers to these questions, policy analysts and investment advisers in urban (land) infrastructure make trade-offs with many environmental and economic factors.

Since the ATN scenario is purely hypothetical, so too is dual-mode transit on a large scale. DMT is simply an open PRT system. Vehicles are designed to be able to exit the guideway and run on roads or other pathways powered by batteries. The speed and range limitations of batteries become irrelevant: the guideways recharge them. Like PRT, DMT can be pursued at metro, regional, mega-regional and national levels.