Would More Drivers Use Mass Transit if It Mimicked Private Cars?

Personal Rapid Transit is probably best described as a hybrid between the private car and public transit, with some more familiar elements of the taxi and elevator thrown in. Picture, in short, a pod car. Engineers and researchers (even Google!) have been fantasizing for several decades now about the concept, which would personalize public transit in small vehicles – perhaps running on or hanging from an elevated track – that would transport you straight to your destination without any of the stops and delays of a bus route, or without the cost of a taxi ride.

In concept, an automated PRT vehicle would hold four people or fewer, mimicking the private, quiet ride of a car. Relative to all of our existing alternatives, there’d be very little emissions, no traffic congestion, no loud teenagers or offensive odors. It’s the kind of public transit – again, in theory – that holdouts in private single-occupancy cars on the highway might actually be willing to ride.