BM Design Gives Us A Glimpse At The Future Of Transportation
While EVs are the most environmentally friendly transportation solution of today, there is one start-up which thinks further ahead. What might sound like a futuristic idea, borrowed from a Sci-fi movie, will soon be reality in some cities - I am talking about Personal Rapid Transit, which fits right between the mass transport metros and busses provide and more private transportation like taxis. BM Design is a Finnish start-up which has the solution to our transportation needs of tomorrow.
Personal Rapid Transit - PRT for short - explained in the words of Asko Kauppi, Founder of BM Design, is "packaged routing of people". Asko has a ICT background, and is one of the several hundreds of people who invented PRT. The idea itself is nothing new and has its roots in the 1960s & 70s but yet a company needs to present a viable commercial solution for PRT.
A first attempt at this is undertaken by ULTra PRT at Heathrow airport in London, their line should go live this spring; though according to Kauppi ULTra PRT is not progressive enough. He is not bashing his competitor, though: "They are great people over at ULTra PRT and I can not see them as direct competitors - the industry is so young that if they succeed, we only can benefit from it." The real competition of personal rapid transit are the existing mass transportation means we use today: Bus, metro, tram and taxi.
The advantages of PRT are that instead of you waiting for a bus or metro to arrive, the PRT vehicle - a lightweight, battery operated vehicle seating two to three - is waiting for you. Check in at the passenger-friendly ground level station, let the computer know your destination and it takes you there - without stops. Traveling times will always be the same, and with a vehicle waiting for you there's no more running to catch the bus or metro. Scientific research also sees PRT as the absolutely best solution for mass transport, but yet the early adaptors are timid.
Their timidness comes from the associated risks of being the first mover, and costs. Thus BM Design plans to make it easy for communities to make a purchasing decision, as they will offer their patent pending PRT solution on leasing terms. Also, instead of doing everything - from building and maintaining the tracks, vehicles and planning the track network - BM Design concentrates on what they do best and outsource the rest. They have their partners lined up, and the response to the company was "Very positive" as Kauppi presented it at the Transtec Conference in Delhi last week. India and China are very interested in PRT because it is cheaper and faster to build than metros and it can handle their growing urbanization and associated transportation needs. No more digging immensely expensive metro tunnels or laying tracks for trams, the installation of the PRT rails is quick and they have a low-key visual impact on the city scape.
Kauppi plans to have a test track installed by the end of 2012, which would go live to the public in 2013. It is not a laboratory track in a closed environment, but a real track with real commuters using it. "This way we can collect data in an authentic environment and tweak the interface accordingly" Asko told me. The plan is to be sales ready in 2014, after gathering a year of feedback.
To get the test track ready, Asko is looking for funding. EUR 2m are needed for the beginning, but besides the money the investors should share the vision and bring connections and knowledge into the company. "I have a talented team of eight people ready to start working as soon as funding is secured" Kauppi told me. To contact him, check out BM Design on the ArcticIndex as their website will go online at the end of May.
I am very excited about BM Design and PRT. While public transportation in Finland is ranked the fifth best in the world, I personally think it still has a lot to improve - bus operators drive like they'd be sitting in a rally car, trains are usually late, metros are packed. And while patience is a virtue, waiting for a bus to arrive is such a waste of time, that a waiting vehicle which brings me straight to my destination is a salvation. I strongly believe that personal rapid transit will be the future of transportation, and BM Design will be one of the leaders in PRT's proliferation.
Most futurologists accept that fully autonomous cars will be commercially viable by 2020. If that holds true the days of the private vehicle will be over as will, to a large extent, congestion. Robot cars can travel closer together and choose optimal routes. The infrastructure already exists for these and they can go anywhere.
One never knows the future but that's where my money is.
Hi, Jon.
That's a valid concern and nice you brought it out. The problems such vehicles will not solve is traffic congestion. In many parts of the world (which happen to be out main focus) congestion and efficiency of traffic (time-wise) is a more serious problem than ecological values.
We're _mainly_ developing this for the developing markets s.a. India. Only the pilot shall be in Finland. Each geography has a bit unique needs.
And what if the automated cars concept wouldn't in fact be reality in 2020. We just cannot have all the hopes on one technology, when it comes to saving the world. :)
Hi Asko,
I'm certainly not against your plans but the big problem in any rapidly changing technological environment is always infrastructure costs. It's a big investment to put the tracks up when you don't know what's around the corner.
Just to challenge your point about congestion, my understanding is that it is mostly caused by a) too few people per car; b) speeding up and slowing down - which is how humans but not robots drive; c) cars driving too far apart. Robotic taxis would not suffer from these problems. I accept the levels of congestion in Helsinki, London and Delhi are orders of magnitude different though and I wish you luck. Looks great.
You are right. I don't want to sound like we've thought it all, but... :)
The "answer" to the infrastructure dilemma - and also to standardization - is selling the service, not the track or vehicles. This way, building up and eventually upgrading/removing track is on us, not the customer.
This is a _big_ mental change, compared to the current model where roads are owned and used "by us all".
To the congestion case, we're both right. Some relief can be done by use of "intelligent traffic services" (ITS), car pooling etc. But if congestion is too heavy (as in India), such measures will not be enough.
The result of implementing PRT networks will relief congestion on existing roads, making them perform better and - also - be easier places for fully robotic cars to run on. This is not an either-or situation, but win-win-win-win-win.
For more on Personal Rapid Transit (videos, links, studies): http://www.prtstrategies.com.
If you are not aware of the Vectus PRT activity on PodCars in Sweden, you might like to learn about them at: http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans/prtquick.htm
There are lots of other PRT projects around the world as well. Particularly, at the Masdar eco-city in Abu Dhabi.
If you get "started up" with a website in May, please let me know so I can add you to my listing of PRT projects around the world. Finland is not yet represented.
We've been following other PRT vendors rather closely, of course. You can see them referred to on our launch presentation:
http://www.slideshare.net/akauppi/transtec-delhi-2010
I wonder if this design is switchable so it can be used for networked service.
I also would like to see a design for a station and how the "door" problem is to be solved. It is indicated that the stations would be at ground level. How is the vehicle orientation handled during a steep decline or rise? Are stations to be off-line or not?
Switchability (merges and splits) comes from having the track on only one side of the vehicle. At junctions, track is on both sides and the vehicle can continue to either direction. Unfortunately, this is not shown in any of the pictures.
All stations are naturally off-line (= not disturbing passing by traffic). This is one of the defining features of any PRT system.