01373599

Component

Personal rapid transit (PRT) systems are comprised of small, driverless vehicles carrying passengers between stations on dedicated guideways. Originally envisioned to operate at very short headways (a second or less between vehicles) and to provide non-stop service, initial systems are operating at higher headways of around three or more seconds. The resultant reduced capacity has prompted the question of ride sharing to be raised – even if it requires some or most passengers to no longer receive non-stop service. Large PRT systems with many origins and destinations have been thought not to be conducive to ride sharing. This paper presents a ride sharing methodology that is applicable to any PRT system with more than about ten stations. The methodology is simple to implement and has sufficient flexibility to accommodate changing demand in each station (e.g. morning peak, off-peak, evening peak, late night, etc.). The paper provides sufficient information and analysis to describe the ride sharing methodology and demonstrate its functionality. It finds that vehicle occupancy (and therefore system capacity) can be substantially increased over a fairly wide range of demand levels both between and at stations. It also suggests areas for further analysis and research. 

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AP020 Emerging and Innovative Public Transport and Technologies

01362476

12-0882

English

11p

2012

Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; Tables

Headways; People movers; Personal rapid transit; Ridesharing; Travel demand; Vehicle capacity; Vehicle occupancy

Operations and Traffic Management; Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2012 Paper #12-0882

TRIS, TRB

Feb 8 2012 4:58PM