Personal Rapid Transit For Heathrow Airport, Dubai Financial Center

Heathrow Airport and Dubai Financial Center are moving forward on robotic vehicle transit technology called personal rapid transit (PRT) with the aim of reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions

The British Airport Authority (BAA) is investing $13.1M for a 25% interest in PRT maker Advanced Transport Systems (ATS). Applications of PRT at Heathrow promise to reduce passenger transfer time from Terminal 1 to Terminal 4 from 75 minutes to 10 minutes. In Dubai, a planned 1.2km PRT network will connect with the planned Dubai LRT station via express moving walkways.

Leading New Urbanist Peter Calthorpe has recently advised Dubai and has also called for new transit circulation technology "that offers fundamentally different choices in mobility and access" as a complement to existing smart growth tools. At the June 2005 Pasadena CNU Conference, Calthorpe lamented "90-year-old transit technologies," calling for "elevated, electric, small-vehicle" transit.

Thanks to Steve Raney