Innovative Solutions
Value Pricing/Congestion Pricing -- "... value pricing, congestion pricing, peak-period pricing, variable pricing, or variable tolling, are all terms used to refer to direct point/time-of-travel charges for road use, possibly varying by location, time of day, severity of congestion, vehicle occupancy, or type of facility. By shifting some trips to off-peak periods, to mass transit or other higher-occupancy vehicles, or to routes away from congested facilities, or by encouraging consolidation of trips, value pricing charges are intended to promote economic efficiency both generally and within the commercial freight sector, and to achieve congestion reduction, air quality, energy conservation, and transit productivity goals." (ITE)
Congestion pricing generally refers to a pricing scheme applied to all lanes of a roadway, perhaps with reduced fare for selected (high-occupancy, low-emission, ...) vehicles. Value pricing is applied to selected, premium service lanes. (See HOT Lanes = High-Occupancy/Toll Lanes, below)
A key source and good starting point is the Congestion Pricing Homepage, from the U of MN Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs State and Local Policy Program (SLPP). Selections include, among others:
- A Brief Description of Congestion Pricing
- A More Detailed Analysis of Congestion Pricing
- The Congestion Pricing Pilot Program as established by ISTEA
- Value Pricing Helps Reduce Congestion, from FHWA's "Public Roads".
- Regional Value Pricing Workshop, 9/9/98: project briefs and a discussion of issues and concerns
- Pilot Program Reports -- Note: The FHWA has changed the name of their pilot project program from "congestion pricing" to "value pricing". See the Value Pricing Pilot Program Overview and Details for information on this TEA-21 (Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century) program.
- Pilot Project Sites: links to information on efforts in Boulder, Colorado | Houston, Texas | Lee County, Florida | Maine Turnpike | Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota | Portland, Oregon | San Diego I-15, California | San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge | Seattle, Washington | Sonoma County, California | Southern California Association of Governments | SR-91 in Orange County, California | Westchester County, New York
- Pilot Project Contacts
- Portland's Traffic Studies covering a variety of pricing mechanisms:
- Spot - priced at a single point, such as a bridge or a tunnel, across all lanes of a road or highway.
- Facility - part or all of a roadway is priced. A fee may be charged for one express lane (HOT Lane) or for all lanes.
- Corridor - charge for using a major highway and all major parallel routes between two well-used endpoints.
- Area - fee to drive or park in a specified area, usually a major activity center or destination.
- Congestion Pricing in the Media including among others: How to Solve Our Highway Problems from Gabriel Roth, noted transportation economist; Principles of Efficient Congestion Pricing, William Vickrey, Columbia Univ; and Variable pricing for truck parking on NY streets
- Mn DOT congestion pricing study
- Access to the Congestion Pricing Listserv Discussions -- attended largely by transportation and planning economists.
- An extensive Congestion Pricing Bibliography of relevant papers (from pre-'96); Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting reports through '99 and a list of relevant papers
- SLPP papers on congestion pricing:
- Buying Time: Guidebook -- "for those considering congestion relief tolls in their communities". November, 1996. Free of Charge.
- Land Use and Equity Issues in Congestion Pricing
- Citizens Jury on Traffic Congestion Pricing --- Saint Paul, Minnesota. June
- Proceedings from the Humphrey Institute's Symposium on Land Use and and Equity Impacts of Congestion Pricing
- Institutional and Political Issues in Congestion Pricing: New Models for Federal, State, and Local Cooperation in Infrastructure Investment
- Federal Links for value pricing
- California Links for value pricing
Other general value pricing/congestion pricing links include:
- Toll Roads: The Newsletter of Tolling Turnpikes, Bridges, & Tunnels -- a key news source, tracking developments in related areas.
- Urban Transportation, Kenneth A. Small (UC Irvine) & Jose A. Gomez-Ibanez (Harvard) -- focuses on urban transportation, congestion, pollution, safety, public transit. See discussion of value pricing and HOT lanes under "Demand-Side Measures for Congestion Relief".
- The Road Ahead: The Economic and Environmental Benefits of Congestion Pricing, PRI (Erin Schiller), 2/98
- Commission outlines measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from transport, EU -- "The 1995 Green Paper on Fair and Efficient Pricing showed that transport taxes and charges are currently not only set in many different ways across modes of transport but that they do not fully recover external costs in general. This leads to distortion of competition between modes and creates obstacles for the development of an integrated transport system. Differentiating transport charges in line with costs at the level of the individual transport user (eg. through road pricing) would contribute significantly to reducing transport costs. A Union-wide policy of fair and efficient pricing could reduce CO2 emissions by 11.5 per cent, people would waste less time in traffic jams, and there would be fewer accidents."
- Kinnock endorses 'user pays' principle for Europe-wide approach to transport pricing, EU -- "'Paying for what you use' is to be the key principle in the White Paper on transport charging due for publication this summer. It is the Commission's view that until users know how much it costs (in hidden infrastructure or environmental damage as well as fuel costs or driver's wages) to travel a particular route at a particular time and are fairly charged, transport behaviour is unlikely to change and congestion will continue to increase, putting additional strains on the environment, on the quality of life and the efficiency of business."
- The future of transport in the EU -- "... in light of the reactions to its White Paper on Fair Payment for Infrastructure Use, the Commission will take the necessary steps to launch the first phase of the programme to apply progressively the principle of charging for marginal social costs."
- Congestion Pricing, PATH.
- Congestion Variable Pricing, Cape Cod Commission Transportation Staff.
- A guest column from the S.F. Chronicle stressing the need for financial incentives to change transportation behavior.
HOT Lanes (High Occupancy or Toll Lanes) -- one form of Value Pricing:
(For info on the Santa Cruz HOT Lanes project, see the SCCRTC, our Focus on Santa Cruz section, and our HOT-Bus discussion list)
- HOV Lanes in California: Are They Achieving Their Goals?, California Legislative Analyst's report -- includes a favorable analysis of the benefits of HOT lanes.
- HOT Lanes and Value Pricing: A Preliminary Assessment, ITE's Transportation Demand Management Council (112 kb, requires Adobe Acrobat)
- Study Unveils HOT Remedies For Roadway Congestion: According to study, HOT lanes offer choice, flexibility, and guaranteed travel speed, RPPI
- HOT Idea to Ease Gridlock in the San Francisco Bay Area, EDF
- Commentary on Clinton's NEXTEA ("... Better ISTEA Bills Have Been Introduced"), EDF -- would remove Federal restrictions that bar wider adoption of successful market-based strategies, such as the HOT lanes that are cutting traffic congestion in southern California.
- Strategies to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Transportation Sources, FHWA -- includes a brief description of HOT lanes (276 kb, requires Adobe Acrobat)
- The HOT Alternative recommended in MTIS deserves consideration, a summary compiled from the MTIS Final Report and some of these Library sources
- HOT Lanes: A Better Way to Attack Urban Highway Congestion, Robert W. Poole Jr. and C. Kenneth Orski
- SR-91 in Orange County
- TRB's Tolling Practices for Highway Facilities, TRB -- comments on SR-91.
- Study overview & results or full report & the data set, Cal Poly's Applied Research and Development Facilities and Activities (ARFDA) -- conducted to understand the traffic and travel behavior consequences of Express Lanes
- New Highway Uses Economic Incentives To Stem Air Pollution -- zero-emission, disabled plates go free, occupancy 1.5 v 1.2 to 1.5
- San Diego’s I-15 -- Report from the ITE Task Force
- Hwy 101 in Sonoma
- Escape from Gridlock, Express Carpool Lanes: A Better Solution to Congestion on Hwy 101, EDF. (See the conclusion to EDF's Strategic Plan for the principles that guide their approach to environmental problems)
- Sonoma County US 101 Variable Pricing Study (Draft final Report), Parsons Brinckerhoff
- Toronto 407 Express Toll Route -- Tolling Solutions, Canadian Highways International Corp.
- I-93 near Boston -- HOV lanes for 2-person carpools with permit, Caravan for Commuters
- San Fernando Valley -- Improving Transportation in the San Fernando Valley, RPPI
- Let Those Who Receive the Benefits Pay the Costs, Stephen R. Mueller, P.E. and Dennis Polhill, P.E. -- analyzes several possible HOT lane configurations for I-25.
- High-Occupancy Vehicle/Toll Lanes: How Do They Operate and Where Do They Make Sense? -- in California PATH's Quarterly Newsletter
- Other similar applications:
- Trondheim toll ring -- a congestion pricing/electronic tolling program to reduce inbound auto and increase weekday bus travel.
- Electronic Toll Collection -- complete and up-to-date information on Electronic Toll and Traffic Management (ETTM): "An automatic vehicle classification may need to determine vehicle height, number of axles, presence of dual tires, and vehicle weight to distinguish between vehicles and assign the correct class... When a vehicle’s class is dependent on the number of occupants of a vehicle, there is no practical way to determine the class by automated means. Similarly, there is no way to automatically determine the purpose for which a vehicle is being used (e.g. a taxi cab cannot be distinguished from a private passenger car).
- Electronic Payment Systems, CAATS -- introduces the notion of GPS-based tolling systems.
- Car-Pooling and Express Bus Travel: Are Diamond Lanes Coming to an Expressway Near You?, Chicago RTA, addresses conditions and that "Make HOV Strategies More Likely to Work", and includes mention of innovative enforcement technologies, "including video surveillance and driver reporting of violators via car phones, to assure that HOV facilities are appropriately utilized."
- Video enforcement -- HOV & HOT Lane Enforcement & Review System (HOVER) from Transfomation Systems, Inc.
- HOV Lanes in California: Are They Achieving Their Goals?, California Legislative Analyst's report -- found that "performance of HOV lanes is mixed:
and recommended that:- On average, California's HOV lanes carry ... substantially more people than a congested mixed-flow lane and roughly the same number of people as a typical mixed-flow lane operating at maximum capacity.
- In terms of vehicles carried, however, California's HOV lanes are operating at only two-thirds of their capacity.
- Regional data indicate that HOV lanes do induce people to carpool, but the statewide impact on carpooling is unknown due to lack of data.
- The exact impact of HOV lanes on air quality is unknown." [see below]
- "Caltrans should improve its HOV data collection efforts, conduct periodic statewide surveys to determine the impact of HOV lanes on carpooling, and report on lanes that fail Caltrans' minimum criteria of carrying 800 vehicles per hour.
- Caltrans and regional transportation planning agencies (RTPAs) should be more flexible in adjusting the hours of operation of HOV lanes.
- The Legislature should create more High Occupancy Toll lanes on HOV lanes that have unused capacity and are adjacent to congested mixed-flow lanes.
- Caltrans should work with RTPAs to:
- Develop a statewide plan to promote carpool lane usage.
- Compile a set of performance measures and most cost-effective practices to increase carpool lane usage.
- Consider converting underutilized HOV lanes to mixed flow where congestion is not present in mixed-flow lanes."
The LAO also notes that:
- The "California Transportation Commission (CTC) and FHWA require that whenever Caltrans and RTPAs consider adding capacity (that is, adding a new lane) to an urban freeway, they consider an HOV lane as an option. ... Finally, CTC requires that Caltrans work with RTPAs to develop region-wide HOV lane systems to be included in the regional transportation plan (RTP), which forms the basis for all future transportation investment in the region. Thus, federal and state policies ensure that HOV lanes play a central role in all transportation decisions related to freeway capacity enhancements."
- "HOV lanes do appear to have a positive impact on carpooling, although the statewide impact is unknown due to a lack of data. Finally, we found that the exact impact of HOV lanes on air quality, though widely believed to be positive, is unknown due to lack of actual emission data."
- HOV Lanes Relieve Congestion on Texas Roadways -- TTI: "the average number of people per vehicle increased by more than 15 percent; depending on conditions and length of the HOV lanes, travel time reductions have ranged from five to 18 minutes; ... the HOV lanes have generated more transit use; 70 percent of main freeway lane users viewed the HOV facilities as effective transportation improvements, and this support has grown over time; simulations indicated that the HOV lanes produced a 16 percent reduction in fuel consumed and a 31 percent reduction in carbon monoxide emissions."
- Unlocking Florida's Gridlock -- an overview of the implementations in Curitiba, Eugene, Cleveland, and Orlando.
- BRT: An Innovative Transit Strategy for Medium-Sized Cities, Lane Transit District (Portland, OR).
- The Benefits of BRT, APTA, 5/26/98.
- Alternatives To Rail -- Rubber-Tire Transit, the Cal-Tax Digest, 10/97.
- Competitively Tendered Bus Services -- Superior Rapid Transport For The U.S. & Other Low Density Nations, Wendell Cox, former Los Angeles County Transportation Commissioner.
- At-Grade Busway Planning Guide, CUTR, 12/98.
- BRT Demonstration Program, FTA
- FTA's Issues in BRT -- includes a description of the Curitiba Experience
- Curitiba Brazil BRT
- Pittsburgh Busway Features
- Charlotte, NC BRT, part of Charlotte, NC's preliminary assessment.
- Auckland, NZ BRT, Auckland, NZ.
- Eugene-Springfield, OR BRT
- Brief description, Lane Transit District, 2/26/99
- Description & general applicability part 1 and part 2, Lane Transit District and JHR Transportation Engineering
- These BRT resources are cited as resources by Richard Shultz in his citizen's proposal for a mass transit system for Austin, TX — the system would combine bus and taxi-van service under the heading of Cellular Mass Transit, and is based significantly on BRT. (link provided by Richard Shultz)
- In Defense of Buses, Planning Magazine, 10/94, mentions a few BRT concepts
Rails-with-Trails (See also this section for Santa Cruz rail-trail project-specific info )
- The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy offers the following items concerning rails and trails sharing a right-of-way:
- A Fact Sheet on the Rails-with-Trail movement.
- See the section on Building Trails Next to Active Rail Lines, at the bottom of this page
- A description of the York County Heritage Trail — where there is only a 8 to 12' separation between tracks and trail. This appeared in Rails-With-Trails: Sharing Corridors for Recreation and Transportation, 1993, a study that "illustrated 16 pedestrian and bicycle trail corridors operating alongside active railroad tracks with little conflict. These trails have been operating safely next to trains traveling at speeds from 15 to 80 miles-per-hour. 15 of the paths experienced no trail user/train accidents. One, the Illinois Prairie Path, had a bicyclist injured when she rode around a lowered crossing gate. This was the only accident in that trails 27 year history."
- National Transportation Enhancements Clearinghouse — an information service sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration and the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. See, in particular, the Resources section.
- Trails and Greenways Clearinghouse — a joint project of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and the Conservation Fund's American Greenways Program. See, in particular the Technical Assistance section.
- TransTech -- designers of the San Diego to Oceanside - Coastal Rail/Bicycle Trail, 42 Miles
- "Don't let anyone get away with telling you that this has never been done before (using a narrow corridor for rail and trail)" Josh Hart of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy — see these photos of the Heritage Rail-Trail in PA.
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS)
- ITS Joint Program Office, DOT -- comprehensive listing of links and a library (in progress)
- International Symposium on Certified Wide Area Road Use Monitoring (CWARUM-1), 9/21-22/99 -- addressing the application of ITS technologies to increase the productivity of the transport sector for both roads and vehicles, through more responsive and evasion-free road pricing, the distribution of customized travel information and services, and the tighter command and control of commercial vehicle fleets.
- CWARUM -- Certified Wide Area Road Use Monitoring applications around the world. "Vehicles with CWARUM subscriptions are able to have their road use monitored for a wide variety of private and public, mandatory and voluntary, purposes. The marketing to road users of their own independently authenticated data on road use and vehicle characteristics has, and will continue to dramatically increase the productivity of the transport sector for both roads and vehicles, through more responsive and evasion-free road pricing, the distribution of customized travel information and services, and the tighter command and control of commercial vehicle fleets." Subscribe to the CWARUM Newsletter here.
- Automatic Vehicle Location, Traffic Supervision Systems -- for buses, emergency, utility & other vehicles; battery-less tags embedded at strategic locations throughout the infrastructure, e.g. at traffic intersections, bus stops, limited access areas and entry and exit to terminals, depots or other areas. An antenna mounted underneath the vehicles powers up the tags and read the unique ID codes stored in the tag memory, when passing a tag location. The unique tag ID codes refer to position information stored in a database, giving the position and direction of the vehicle with accuracy better than 1 meter.
- Cellular Mass Transit for Austin, Richard Shultz -- a proposal for "bus service that would connect all neighborhoods to all suburban employers, as well as the central city. The working poor of the city would have reliable access to suburban jobs. Part of the service would be demand responsive. A computer-aided dispatcher would evaluate 100 or more ride requests made by riders waiting at a transit center within a 10 minute period. Ride requests are made at terminals with 4 character codes. The dispatcher would then create full bus and van loads leaving the transit center and headed for major employment centers in the suburbs. All riders leave the transit center within 10 minutes of making a ride request."
- Casual Carpool Report, from the Bay Area's Commuter corner.
- What are casual carpools? -- established pick-up points.
- Driver & Slug (i.e., passenger) Etiquette
- CarLink: A Smart Carsharing System -- in California PATH's Quarterly Newsletter
- Automotive Alternative In German Port City, Cheap, Efficient Car Rentals Catch On -- news from Bremen
- ELTIS (European Local Transport Information Service) provides these links:
- The European Car Sharing Association, National Mobil Cards, Telebuses and other Innovations
- Special report on carsharing -- J. of World Transport Policy & Practice (available via @World CarSharing on the Web); includes this graphic from a study by the Urban Institute via the Bremen Web site:
- Car Sharing's library of carsharing resources (link to Car Sharing provided by David Brook's Carsharing US blog)
Vehicle Infrastructure Innovations (other than pricing) -- for vehicle mobility and safety (Methods to Reduce Transportation's Social & Environmental Effects are addressed in the Environmental Impacts & Mitigation Technologies section)
- Science may have Answers for Traffic Jams from Reuters, 12/11/98.
- Effective Utilization of Street Width on Urban Arterials from the National Cooperative Highway Research Program, 8/90. (can be found at SC Traffic Engineering Dept.)
- Planning Design Criteria by Joseph De Chiarra, ‘86. A textbook at the SC Library.
- Speed Limits - A Case of "Majority Rule" from the Arizona DOT Traffic Group
Pedestrian & Bicycle Infrastructure Innovations -- on roadways, sidewalks, crosswalks, and separate paths
- International Pedestrian Lexicon -- a work-in-progress from the UK Jersey Pedestrian's Assn., compiled with input from members of the Pednet list.
- A Short Survey of Crosswalk Studies (767 kb) and these Selected Results of Crosswalk Studies by Kari Asmus and Santa Cruz's Mission Pedestrian.
- The Dangers of Mission Street by Kari Asmus and Santa Cruz's Mission Pedestrian. See also:
- Traffic Calming -- the ITE's extensive pages include a library, links, descriptions of various calming measures, and selected reports such as
- City of Santa Cruz Pace Car Program -- "modelled on similar programs which have been successful in Australia and in Boulder, CO, among other U.S. cities" ... Santa Cruz is embarking on a program where "Residents sign a pledge to drive within the speed limit, stop for pedestrians, drive courteously, and display an official Pace Car Sticker on their vehicles. Once there are enough Pace Car vehicles on the road, the need for traffic calming is reduced. The Pace Car vehicles become 'mobile speed bumps.' There can be other rewards as businesses offer discounts to those with Pace Car ID cards."
- Mission St. Widening Task Force Circulation Subcommittee members have cited the following articles in their discussions:
- Safety Effects of Marked vs. Unmarked Crosswalks at Uncontrolled Crossing Locations, UNC
- Marked Crosswalks, San Antonio, TX Public Works
- Marked Crosswalks, San Buenaventura, CA Traffic Dept.
- Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (under development by the UNC Highway Safety Research Center) -- see their collections of publications at their new site and their old site (I haven't checked for duplication) until the new site is fully built. See also the companion sites walkinginfo.org and bicyclinginfo.org. More generally, "HSRC researchers are exploring ways of making roads safer for pedestrians and bicyclists, researching the effects of aging on driver performance, conducting a project to identify strategies to reduce traffic-related injuries and deaths among members of the Hispanic population in North Carolina, studying how driver distractions such as cell phone use affect transportation safety, researching how fatigue and sleep-deprivation affect driver performance, and examining ways that 'Intelligent Transportation Systems' can reduce road congestion and make travel safer." (link provided by David Eselius)
- Kevin Karplus' links re: 1) Bicycle and traffic laws (and bike plans), 2) Design of bike facilities, and 3) Bike on transit
- Speed Sensitive Signals, a demonstration program in Boulder
- Calming Cascadia: Synopsis of a Symposium on Traffic Calming -- "Traffic calming without a commitment to transit, cycling, pedestrianisation and traffic management, is largely cosmetic."
- In a roundabout way: The European concept of intersections is catching on in the Bay Area from S.F. Commuter Chronicles, 11/30/98. News item about roundabouts (as being tested on King St.).
- Are Traffic Signals Really a Cure-all? from the Arizona DOT Traffic Group
- City of Santa Ana Pedestrian Safety Study, 01/18/94. A consultant's report.
- Flashing Lights - Do they Really Slow Traffic? from the Arizona DOT Traffic Group
- Pedestrian Crosswalks How Safe are They? from City of Mesa, AZ Dept. of Transportation, 02/18/98.
- Pedestrian Signals - Are They Guarantees of Safety? from the Arizona DOT Traffic Group
- Surviving Carless in A World Of Wheels Getting around can be a maddening chore from S.F. Commuter Chronicles, 12/14/98. News Item.
Tele-commuting/Tele-commerce, etc.
- Telecommuting, FHWA, '92 -- a status report covering applicability, effects, pilot programs, and future directions.
- Home Delivery of Shopping: the Environmental Consequences. Paper to ASG seminar held at Lundqvist & Lindqvist Conference Centre, Sweden (9/ iii/99).
- Home delivery - the traffic impacts, S. Cairns
- Environmental Cost-Benefits of Bus-based Park and Ride
- Delivering the future?, S. Cairns
- Menu for change, S. Cairns
Transportation Demand Management sites
- Online TDM Encyclopedia — "The Online TDM Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive information resource available about Transportation Demand Management (TDM). It provides detailed information on more than three-dozen TDM strategies, plus chapters on numerous issues related to TDM planning, evaluation and implementation. The Encyclopedia is created and maintained by the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative and practical tools for solving transportation problems."
- Franklin, TN's TMA Group -- one small community's nicely designed smart commute site -- especially nice vanpool page. (link provided by Dennis Norton)
Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) & Other Advanced Fixed Guideway Technologies: The best overall resource is Innovative Transportation Technologies -- Jerry Schneider, Professor Emeritus, Depts. of Civil Engineering and Urban Planning, University of Washington, Seattle, monitors developments in these technologies. Good places to start there are PRT, the new Site Index, and the What's New page; the Planning and Deployment Issues, PRT Quicklinks, and Monorails pages list several models as deployable, under active development, or awaiting development funding. The site also provides access to the Transit-Alternatives Discussion List. A sampling of PRT links, most of which are accessible through his site or from the Journal of Advanced Transportation (published by the Advanced Transit Association) include:
- SeaTac, Washington – Personal Rapid Transit -- The City of SeaTac, Washington 1997 MIS recommended a PRT along 12.1 miles of "one-way" guideway (see the map) and serving a forecasted ridership of 24,000 patrons, utilizing 21 PRT stations. Since the primary beneficiaries of the proposed PRT system are local businesses, a "Partnership Franchise" between the public and private entities was recommended as part of the implementation approach. Through FY 1999, Congress has provided $0.6 million in Section 5309 new starts funds for this effort. Susan C. Hendricks was the Technical Manager who developed potential station locations for the PRT system to maximize ridership and accessibility. See also the MIS Executive Summary, this independent summary and update as of 1/18/98 (from Jerry Schneider) and the Finding of Satisfactory Completion of Federal MIS Requirements presented to the Puget Sound Regional Council.
- Taxi 2000 / PRT 2000
- Keep Backing Rosemont PRT, Chicago Tribune (11/30/98)
- Personal Rapid Transit 2000™ (PRT), Executive Director of the Chicago's Regional Transportation Authority
- Report on the History and Status of the Rosemont PRT Project 04/22/97
- Raytheon and Illinois to Invest $38 Million in Taxi 2000 PRT to build a 1/2-mile prototype
- Taxi 2000: Personal Rapid Transit, WRI.
- Morgantown/WVU's PRT [also referred to as a GRT -- Group Rapid Transit]
- Basic info and a photo
- Some details
- Map of PRT through campus
- Map and more photos
- Aerial photos and photos of stations
- "The Morgantown PRT: It Is Still Running at West Virginia University", Journal of Advanced Transportation, 25:3, 269-280 (Winter, 1991) -- more details. A publication of the Advanced Transit Association.
- A Review of PRT's, Virginia Tech Personal Electric Rapid Transit Systems (PERTS) High Speed Ground Transportation Group -- references the following:
- "Role of New Technology in Urban Transportation: A Historical Perspective", Kornhauser, Alain L. and Wilson, Lawrence B. in Personal Rapid Transit III: Progress, Problems and Potential of a promising new form of public transportation. Gary, Dennis A., Garrard, William L., Kornhauser, Alain L., eds., U. of Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1976. 87-108.
- Fichter, Donn. Individualized automatic transit and the city. Providence, Rhode Island, 1964.
- Wilde, William A. "The Simple, Compelling Case for PRT." International Conference on PRT & Other Emerging Transportation Systems. Minneapolis, MN, Nov. 18-20, 1996: U. of Minnesota, 1996. (not yet published). <
- Floyd, Thomas H. "It is time to give the "True PRT" concept a Fair Test." Journal of Advanced Transportation. 21.1 (Spring 1987): 3-16.
- The Technical Committee on Personal Rapid Transit. "Personal Rapid Transit (PRT): Another Option For Urban Transit?" Journal of Advanced Transportation. 22.3 (1988): 211-227, 239-240, 250-285.
- Anderson, J. Edward. "Some Lessons from the History of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT)." International Conference on Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) and Emerging Transportation Systems, Minneapolis, MN, Nov. 18-20, 1996.
- Vuchic, Vukan R. "PRT: An Unrealistic System." Urban Transport International. September/October 1996.
- Anderson, J. Edward. "PRT: A Response to Professor Vukan R. Vuchic" Urban Transportation Monitor, December 1996.
- Vuchic, Vukan R. "PRT Works in Simulation Only-An Answer to Professor J. Edward Anderson" Urban Transportation Monitor, December 1996.
- Anderson, J. Edward. "A Second Response to Professor Vuchic's Comments on PRT".
- Aldrich, B.C. "Neighborhood Improvement Associations & Innovations in Urban Transportation System" Anderson, Dais, Garrard, Kornhauser, eds. Personal Rapid Transit: A Selection of Papers on a promising new mode of public transportation. U. of Minnesota: MN, April 1972. 35-42.
- Tegner, Goran. "Market Demand and Social Benefits of a PRT System; A Model Evaluation for the City of Umea, Sweden" unpublished.
- The Simple, Compelling Case for PRT
- Survey of R&D in PRT Systems
- The Past, Present, and Future of Urban Cable Propelled People Movers
- Automated Transit and Land Use Intentions: Alternate Scenarios with PRT and Shuttle/loop Technologies
- Defining and Measuring Service Availability for Complex Transportation Networks
- Cybertran: A Systems Analysis Solution to the High Cost and Low Passenger Appeal of Conventional Rail Transportation Systems
- A Proposed Transition Path to an Advanced Dualmode System, Journal of Advanced Transportation, Vol. 28, No.1, pp. 17-28.
- Abstracts of Some of the Papers Presented at the PRT Conference
- The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) Ongoing Debate Page
- Pilot project with PRT - Some critical issues, Stockholm County Council
- PRT - a Suitable Transport System for Urban Areas in Sweden? conclusions of a study at Chalmers University in Gothenburg, Sweden (which also produced Using Virtual Reality to Test Rider's Reactions to Making a PRT Trip).
- Additional Studies and Projects Authorized in D.O.T.'s TEA-21 -- see sections for SeaTac (authorized for alternatives analysis and preliminary engineering following approval in their MIS), Morgantown, (authorized for an upgrade) and Albuquerque (authorized as part of a High Capacity Transportation System Study Final Design and Construction)
- Automated People Mover Applications: A Worldwide Review, Lehman Center for Transportation Research, 01/25/99. Research report.
- Some Lessons from the History of Personal Rapid Transit, J. Edward Anderson of the Taxi 2000 Corporation, 08/04/96.
- Lea+Elliott's Automated Urban Transit systems
- Monorails of the World -- see e.g., Dortmund (Germany) University's monorail
- Monorails of North America (see Jacksonville's Transit Authority page for a status update on upgrading and extending their Skyway monorail)
- RUF (Rapid, Urban, Flexible) Personal Rapid Transit Technology a dual-mode (street and guideway) vehicle highlighted here for the artist renderings of 1) placement in the medium of an arterial street and 2) integration with a highway.
- Monorail FAQs, the Citizens Committee for Monorail
- Is Rail Transit Right For Your Community? Asking the Right Questions; Measuring the Benefits, the STPP (Surface Transportation Policy Project), 09/17/97, commentary on the implications of A Desire Named Streetcar: Fantasy and Fact in Rail Transit Planning by Don H. Pickrell for the DOT, Journal of the American Planning Association.
- Major Transportation Investment Study (highlights) -- the costs & benefits of light rail along the UP Right-of-Way were addressed in this study for the Santa Cruz County RTC. (full text available at the RTC office)
- Light Rail in Minneapolis: A Bridge to Nowhere, and Light Rail in Milwaukee, Wendell Cox (former Los Angeles County Transportation Commissioner), 5/26/98.
- Myths of Light-Rail Transit, RPPI.
- The Mythical Conception of Rail Transit in Los Angeles, Jonathan Richmond (Taubman Center, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard)
- Labor/Community Strategy Center v. Los Angeles MTA
- Grade Crossing Viewer, FRA -- accident statistics on local grade crossings.
- Rail Fixed Guideway Systems; State Safety Oversight, DOT
- For more on light rail, see, e.g., the FRA, RTC, the Modern Transit Society, Light Rail Central, and Railroading America
- A gondola ride over the city of Zacatecas begins on the Cerro de la Bufa and ends at the Cerro de Grillo.
- the Teleférico Cerro Otto from San Carlos de Bariloche -- one of the most populous towns in the province of Río Negro and also one of the most important tourist centers of Argentina. The Nahuel Huapi National Park (from the araucano nahuel: tiger and huapi: island) is known for its extraordinary and beautiful landscape and the autochtonous flora and fauna. Technical aspects of the tram.
- and from Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, take a virtual tour of Pão de Açúcar (Sugar Loaf) and the Morro da Urca (Urca Hill). Check out the view from the departure point for cable cars to Sugar Loaf's peak.
- Cairn's, Australia tram through a rainforest. See the trip map and facts and about the tram.
- Skyrail, a tram from Christchurch (the Garden City), NZ to the summit of the Port Hills moving up to 700 passengers per hour in each direction.
- Costa Rica's tram through the rainforest -- see these views of the tram: in the trees and by the waterfall and at the station. See Bill & Brian Jones' description of their visit, 8/9/96.
- Vancouver's Tram offering an "incredible view of Greater Vancouver."
Advanced Vehicle Technologies: Brief mention of these are made here because these are well-covered elsewhere. Local infrastructure decisions to support these technologies will likely await their success in the marketplace. (NOTE: Santa Cruz County will be exploring infrastructure required to support its impending $1,000,000 bulk purchase and discounted resale of 10,000 electric bikes to County residents.) (Credits due Prof. Schneider for many of these links -- visit his What's New page for updates.)
See Life after Diesel: The Alternatives (Chapter 6 of Exhausted by Diesel: How America's Dependence on Diesel Engines Threatens Our Health, NRDC and the Coalition for Clean Air) for an environmental assessment of several of these technologies.
- National Hydrogen Association -- hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
- Bruderly's Guide To Hydrogen and Fuel Cells -- catalog of links
- keep on track of fuel cell technologies by searching the Calstart index
- California Fuel Cell Partnership -- "automobile companies and fuel suppliers will join together to demonstrate fuel cell vehicles under real day-to-day driving conditions. The California Fuel Cell Partnership will place about 50 fuel cell passenger cars and fuel cell buses on the road between 2000 and 2003."
- EV World -- "The World of Advanced Electric Cars, Hybrid-electric and Fuel Cell Vehicles, ... featuring test drives of latest electric cars, EV industry decision-maker interviews, electric car conversions, electric car database, reports from advanced vehicle conferences, latest fuel cell and hybrid-electric vehicle development news. Regarded as a leading Internet source of electric vehicle news and information. ..."
- Electrifying Times -- "The International Magazine of Electric Vehicles (EV's) Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV's), Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEV's), Battery and Advanced Battery Technology, Alternate Fuel Vehicles, Electric Car Races, Rallys, and Expositions."
- Zapworld -- electric scooters, bikes, motorcycles, etc.
- Zev Technologies -- hybrid (pedal)-electric pedicabs, electric scooter, electric boats.
- Unique Mobility's -- electric scooters, electric & hybrid electric passenger cars (one in cooperation w/ Pininfarina; others), transit bus
- Hybrid diesel electric bus -- as used in Christchurch, BZ. Manufacturer: Designline
- DOE's Clean Cities Program -- has 1) info, 2) FAQs, 3) news, and 4) industry and government links related to alternative fuels; as well as info on clean vehicles. (link provided by Judi Grunstra)
- ARPA's Electric & Hybrid Vehicle Data Center
- Some of these resources also have a significant focus on innovative transportation technologies
Enthusiast's Corner: for fans of buses, coaches, trolleys, trams, (monorails, bicycles, mopeds, etc. to be added)