The Future of Transportation

What will our transportation systems look like in the future? Recent developments at Heathrow Airport in London may offer us a hint. As reported by the Guardian, the inauguration of the new Terminal 5 next year will also see the launch of a system of pod cars to ferry customers from the parking space to the main building, a distance of approximately 2.2 miles. This development is more remarkable than it may sound: small, driverless, and private, these vehicles will run less like the current shuttle systems that we are used to and more like small taxis. Unlike conventional rail, the pods do not follow a schedule or particular route. Personal rapid transport (PRT), as the system is called, is being presented as “a feasible technological solution to the chronic problem of traffic congestion, offering public transport with the privacy of a car.”
Although the idea of PRT was introduced in the 19th century, the recent revival has been spurred by environmental concerns: with its near-zero exhaust emissions and potential to operate on renewable energy in the future, the PRT has emerged as a very attractive transportation alternative. There may be implications for transportation in general if the test run at Heathrow is successful. If this is the case, the new invention is expected to make its way out of the relatively small and closed airport network and into towns and cities. Obstacles may arise in the shape of costs – not of the vehicles per se, but of the network infrastructure that must be built in order for them to run effectively. It will be interesting to see what the public reaction to the PRT system is. Read the entire story, as well as a summary of the history of PRT, here.