Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Personal Rapid Transit


I decided to write about Personal Rapid Transit.  Couple of reasons behind this decision…firstly BRTs (bus rapid transit) has been getting lately a lot of public, media and government attention in India.  Secondly, I have fascinated with these modes of transport for a long time and lastly, my personal experience of having experienced a one-of-a-kind personal rapid transit system – the West Virginia University PRT. 

Morgantown has a mountainous terrain…sharp vertical curves on the roadways make for very difficult sight distance at intersections.  This coupled with a disjointed campus spread throughout the town seem to make the perfect case for such a system. 

Supposedly, the oldest of its kind (built in the mid-70s) the system would not impress present-day planners and engineers.  Many would be tempted to call it a single-route people-mover system.  The system does have an old-school feel about it… the ride itself felt like something in an amusement park.  But it goes about doing its job everyday…transporting hundreds of students and faculty to their respective destinations in the campus and back.  Folks in WVU complain about the frequent breakdowns..this could be due to the outdated computer system still in use.  Nevertheless, the cumulative 40 odd years gives it an incredible record of ridership (injury free ridership as one of the comments in the one of the links below mentions correctly).  

Here are some links. I plan to add more as I get more time:


Here are some photos I took during the ride




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