The Campaign for Sustainable Transportation is open to
considering a variety of forms of transit that may be
appropriate for the corridor. On this page are two articles
on automated transit. Brett Garrett describes Personal Rapid
Transit, and Dana Bagshaw describes development on an
automated transit system using a 20-passenger vehicle.
If you want to share your thoughts, click
here to write to us.
Personal Rapid Transit: Watsonville to Santa Cruz
by Brett Garrett
Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) consists of an elevated guideway
with small electric podcars providing non-stop, automated,
on-demand service from any station to any other station.
Depending on the podcar technology, the guideway could be
lightweight monorail, a concrete path, or tracks resembling a
roller coaster.
PRT could be installed along any corridor such as Soquel
Avenue, Highway 1, or the rail corridor. The PRT system can
provide direct access to UCSC, Cabrillo College, and
hospitals while including loops to serve large areas of
Watsonville and Santa Cruz.
The PRT guideway is elevated, completely separate from
pedestrians, bicycles, and automobile traffic. This
separation provides profound benefits for improved safety
and reduced congestion. PRT would allow for a wide trail
along the rail corridor.
The PRT podcars are very lightweight and therefore
extremely efficient compared to a train, bus, or
conventional monorail. Furthermore, the system can be
completely powered by solar panels along the guideway
(along with batteries and/or grid).
The operating cost of PRT is extremely low. The established
PRT system in Morgantown has a 50-cent fare which pays more
than half of its operating expenses, even while providing
free service to West Virginia University students.
PRT is a high-capacity system. One guideway with a podcar
every few seconds could easily serve more people than a
freeway lane, and profoundly more than an hourly bus or
train.
PRT has aesthetic benefits including the possibility to move
power lines into the PRT guideway, and reduced need for
automobiles. Just imagine a new affordable housing
development built with a PRT stop instead of a parking lot.
The podcar size can be anywhere from two passengers (skyTran) to
around twenty passengers (CyberTran), or somewhere in between (Spartan Superway). Some systems allow
different podcar sizes within the same system. Larger podcars
are also known as Group Rapid Transit (GRT).
In conclusion, PRT has many benefits and we advocate that the
Regional Transportation Commission should formally study PRT
to serve Watsonville to Santa Cruz. In particular, PRT should
be considered as an alternative to highway widening.
A public transit visionary speaks out: An interview with the
CyberTran president
By Dana Bagshaw
Over the phone, Dexter Vizinau speaks gently, but with
passion. He has been champion of a new transit technology
since 2008. Now President of CyberTran International (CTI)
based in Richmond, CA, he and his colleagues are working to
commercialize the new technology.
CyberTran is an ultra light rail that floats on elevated
guideways, powered by solar energy directly supplied from
canopy panels.
“We can create one megawatt (one million watts) per
mile” Vizinau says. “That's eight times the
energy we need. What we don't use, we put back into the grid
for night-time use, and into battery storage in case of power
outages.”
Compared to Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), CyberTran would be
a full-scale public transit system. Its ADA-compliant pods
carry up to 20 passengers with 9-second headways (time
between dispatches) and capacity that would match BART at
rush hour.
“The pods could also carry goods—not heavy cargo,
but air-freight weight, Fed Ex and UPS packages.”
The automated pods would be driverless. But since the system
is elevated above traffic and intersections, they would be
removed from collisions and pedestrian run-ins.
CTI plans to launch building systems in three locations this
year, one of them in Davis. The Davis project will go from
ground breaking to demonstration in two years. Its test
tracks will run at 60 MPH, and include a 10% grade
which, according to Vizinau, could handle Altamont Pass, or
Highway 17.
Would the public get into a pod without a driver?
“People are happy to get on the monorail at the San
Francisco airport,” Vizinau says. “And think
about elevators. When I was a kid they had elevator
operators. Their union was opposed to automation. But now
we get into driverless elevators without a second
thought.”
“The real resistance to our model is because it's seen
as a disruptive technology.”
“Consider this. In the late 1800s the transportation
barons were the horse ranchers, whose products were the
prized possession. A robust industry thrived with suppliers
of hay, carriages, and horseshoes. Then along came the
automobile, which people wanted instead of horse and
carriage. The government saw the future and built an
infrastructure—paved roads for cars run on.”
“That was over a hundred years ago. Now drivers are
stuck in traffic going slower than horses and people globally
are suffering the effects of climate change from carbon
emissions. Electric cars don't ease traffic or road wear and
tear, and depending on the source of the electricity, like
coal, can cause more greenhouse emissions.”
CTI is currently financed through a combination of private
and public funds. The federal government has approved a
program of funding that offers a 80% match for 20% state,
local, or private funds. One of the goals of the program is
to support federal R&D projects, and since the CyberTran
prototype was developed by Dr. John Dearien, a senior
engineer with the United States Department of Energy (DOE),
it is a strong contender for the funding. But CTI has other
financial plans as well.
“Once launched here in California, our business model
for sustaining operations will be through licensing,”
Vizinau says. “For example, we might license the solar
energy system to electric power plant companies, such as
Monterey Bay Community Power. They could install the solar
panels, maintain them, collect the energy, and reap the
profits of the extra not used.”
Another licensing example might be for the system control
user interface, which passengers will use to book rides and
purchase tickets, whether with their smart phones or
at a station kiosk. Passengers can be taken directly to
their destination, and pay extra for a private car if
desired.
All Cybertran International pods would be manufactured in the
United States. Vizinau envisions manufacturing at three ports
in the USA, shipping out to other interested countries like
China, India, and Brazil, as well as African nations.
“Our technology is real, its engineering solid. In
2011 we applied for ten patents, and 8 of them have been
issued so far.” The patents cover not only the pod
vehicle, but the infrastructure that supports them, including
the control system operations.
With the increasing threat of sea-level risings and storm
surges, CyberTran seems a smart investment, especially along
the Coastal Trail.
“I can picture CyberTran running between Baton Rouge
and New Orleans,” Vizinau says. “In the event of
another hurricane, the system would lock down but quickly be
up and running again over the flood waters, transporting
people and emergency goods and food to the affected
areas.”
If you would like to support the CyberTran roll-out, here is
Vizinau's suggestion: “Write to the Metropolitan
Transportation Commission MTC) and request our technology be
included in the Bay Area 2040 plan. Copy the
Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) as well as your
local regional state and federal (Santa Cruz Monterey area)
officials.”
