Personal Rapid Transit Implementation Hurdles
Inertia. Probably the biggest hurdle to be overcome is simply human reluctance to change.
While home buyers and builders may be quite highly motivated to accept the changes posited here
(once they understand them), city building and zoning departments may not. Some of the changes
proposed will run directly counter to current codes and could thus require considerable flexibility
from officials.
Technology hurdles. Some technology requirements discussed here have yet to be developed/optimized.
However, it is anticipated that these hurdles can be relatively easily overcome.
Lack of prior examples. While new city planning concepts, including automobile-free ones,
have been attempted before, none have been enabled by PRT. There is thus little prior experience
to learn from. Masdar City in the UAE is an exception. However, the approach at Masdar is very unique
with a subgrade PRT system heavily constrained by non-continuous alignments and subject to emergency
vehicle incursions.
Problems with PRT. PRT’s long history of unsuccessful startups will hopefully soon be overcome by
more than one successful deployment. However continuing delays suffered by systems about to be
deployed are playing into rumors of PRT still being subject to serious problems.
Small demonstration not feasible. In order for a demonstration community to be built implementing
most of the features described here, it would have to include a fairly large number of houses. Such a
demonstration would therefore cost a substantial amount and entail quite considerable risk.