D3TON8R
October 4th, 2005, 02:32 AM
How's this article about the Brits new "Laser Bus" Plan!
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CITY dwellers will be able to summon driverless buses to their front doors and be taken directly to their destinations under a futuristic plan for urban transport unveiled recently.
The buses would link up in laser-guided "platoons" on busy streets, relieving congestion and more than halving current journey times. The system has aroused the interest of Transport for London and could be used to ferry athletes and spectators around the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, in 2012. The door-to-door service, known as Personalised Public Transport (PPT), is designed to attract car drivers who dislike walking to bus stops and having to squeeze on board with up to 140 other people.
Each driverless bus would accommodate a maximum of 24 people but for an extra fee could also be ordered for exclusive use. The vehicles would cruise the streets like London's famous black cabs but would be summoned by a mobile phone.
Alan Ponsford, the project leader, said that the system was designed to retain the benefits of a personalised transport service without the congestion and pollution caused by private cars.
He accepted that the system would be expensive to install but said the operating costs would be far smaller than for existing buses because paying drivers represent 60 per cent of the cost of running a bus.
Fares on driverless buses would be similar to existing bus fares.
They would follow magnetic markers in the road and would avoid other vehicles and pedestrians by using obstacle detection and collision avoidance systems.
The electrically propelled vehicles would operate at a maximum of 40km/h on residential streets but accelerate to 73km/h on special lanes on major roads.
The team behind PPT is holding discussions with potential commercial partners and plans to produce two prototype vehicles by 2007.
The system would be trialled the following year. Toyota demonstrated a similar driverless public transport system at this year's World Expo in Aichi, Japan. Cardiff is among a group of European cities that is considering installing a monorail carrying driverless taxis.
David Davies, the Conservative MP for Monmouth and Welsh Assembly member, recently condemned the proposal as a "pipe dream that could end up being the most expensive funfair ride this side of Walt Disney in Paris".
But he conceded such a system would never completely replace the car. "Cars will survive, but only for the dwindling proportion able to afford them. But everyone will have an alternative that offers the same A to B convenience."
......
CITY dwellers will be able to summon driverless buses to their front doors and be taken directly to their destinations under a futuristic plan for urban transport unveiled recently.
The buses would link up in laser-guided "platoons" on busy streets, relieving congestion and more than halving current journey times. The system has aroused the interest of Transport for London and could be used to ferry athletes and spectators around the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, in 2012. The door-to-door service, known as Personalised Public Transport (PPT), is designed to attract car drivers who dislike walking to bus stops and having to squeeze on board with up to 140 other people.
Each driverless bus would accommodate a maximum of 24 people but for an extra fee could also be ordered for exclusive use. The vehicles would cruise the streets like London's famous black cabs but would be summoned by a mobile phone.
Alan Ponsford, the project leader, said that the system was designed to retain the benefits of a personalised transport service without the congestion and pollution caused by private cars.
He accepted that the system would be expensive to install but said the operating costs would be far smaller than for existing buses because paying drivers represent 60 per cent of the cost of running a bus.
Fares on driverless buses would be similar to existing bus fares.
They would follow magnetic markers in the road and would avoid other vehicles and pedestrians by using obstacle detection and collision avoidance systems.
The electrically propelled vehicles would operate at a maximum of 40km/h on residential streets but accelerate to 73km/h on special lanes on major roads.
The team behind PPT is holding discussions with potential commercial partners and plans to produce two prototype vehicles by 2007.
The system would be trialled the following year. Toyota demonstrated a similar driverless public transport system at this year's World Expo in Aichi, Japan. Cardiff is among a group of European cities that is considering installing a monorail carrying driverless taxis.
David Davies, the Conservative MP for Monmouth and Welsh Assembly member, recently condemned the proposal as a "pipe dream that could end up being the most expensive funfair ride this side of Walt Disney in Paris".
But he conceded such a system would never completely replace the car. "Cars will survive, but only for the dwindling proportion able to afford them. But everyone will have an alternative that offers the same A to B convenience."