PRT for Perimeter Center

For consideration for the long-range Perimeter Focus / Perimeter Livable Centers Transportation Circulation Plan

PRT (personal rapid transit) is an electric, 200-mpg-equivalent, elevated transit system with many 3 to 5-person vehicles. First deployment of the ULTra PRT system is scheduled for London Heathrow Airport in Spring 2010, to serve Heathrow's new Terminal 5. Working as circulator transit for office parks, airports, universities, and other major activity centers, PRT is faster than a car. In these applications, PRT makes carpooling and MARTA more effective, by solving the "last mile problem."

U.S. PRT proposals are emerging in Virginia, San Jose, and other locations. For Perimeter Center, it makes sense to consider PRT as a high quality option in long-range planning. A three-minute youtube animation of ULTra PRT can be viewed at: http://www.ultraprt.com/. Market research for transit-served major job centers forecasts a PRT-induced commuting mode reduction from more than 80% single occupancy vehicle (SOV) down to 45% SOV. In these studies, carpooling increased to more than 30% and transit increased beyond 15%. PRT provides a high quality option for the Perimeter Focus / Perimeter Livable Centers Transportation Circulation Plan.

Georgia’s statewide Investing in Tomorrow’s Transportation Today (IT3) partnership is lead by Governor Perdue, GDOT, and GRTA. (http://www.it3.ga.gov/) 

"...We will transform the way we look at transportation. We will stop focusing only on how much money we spend and start focusing on an outcome-based strategy to create a 21st century transportation network throughout Georgia." - Governor Sonny Perdue June 12, 2008

• PRT for Perimeter Center represents an investment in reliable, “connecting” infrastructure, as called for by IT3. IT3 identifies “premium circulators.” PRT is world’s best first- and last-mile circulator and is faster than a car. No other circulator approaches the speed and ridership potential of PRT.

• PRT for Perimeter Center helps to better match infrastructure investment and real-estate development as called for by IT3. IT3 calls for investments in the densest centers. Perimeter Center one of the largest job centers in the southeastern US, hence justifies investment.

• For any new Georgia line haul transit investments, such as for commuter rail, PRT circulators make such investments more effective by increasing ridership and by creating mega-TOD in the PRT system that feeds line haul transit stations.

Some PRT quotes:

• David Holdcroft, Heathrow Terminal 5 ULTra PRT Project Manager: "This innovative PRT system forms part of BAA's [formerly British Airports Authority] plan to transform Heathrow, improve the passenger experience and reduce the environmental impact of our operation through the development of cutting edge, green transport solutions. It offers a completely new form of public transport - one that will deliver a fast, efficient service to passengers and bring considerable environmental benefits, saving more than half of the fuel used by existing forms of public or private transport."

• One of the advantages of a PRT network "is that it offers a lot of flexibility. It's much less expensive than traditional transit. It doesn't serve the same needs as high-speed rail or BART metro. It's a complement to those systems," Laura Stuchinksy, Sustainability Officer, City of San Jose Department of Transportation.

• "We've concocted a system where local trips take an auto. That's our biggest tragedy. Streetcars, such as those used in Portland's Pearl District, and elevated people movers, like those in downtown Miami, are moving people from rail stations to their final destinations. But a new concept, PRT, may help revolutionize urban transportation, providing a cost-effective way to get people from train stations to where they need to go." - Peter Calthorpe, co-founder, Congress for New Urbanism.

Perimeter PRT System Sketch Map. Four colored "loops" with about 5 miles of guideway and 15 stations per loop. Additional connecting guideway between red and orange loops and between orange and magenta loops is appropriate. These connections could occur along Peachtree Dunwoody Road NE.   

Aerial photography system sketch: 1800x2500, 1.6MB http://www.ultraprt.com/cms/PC02.jpg

Higher resolution map from above, 1800x2500: http://www.ultraprt.com/cms/PC02map.jpg

The most recent PRT cost information can be found at: http://www.ultraprt.com/cms/index.php?page=cost-per-mile-7m---15m

PRT is faster than a car

• Google Maps driving time (assuming light traffic and avoiding highways) from UPS HQ (55 Glenlake Pkwy NE) to Ashford Perimeter (4151 Ashford Dunwoody Rd) is 8 minutes.

• PRT trip time is only 7 minutes, 20 seconds =  0:20 average wait time + 7 minute trip time.

Perimeter Center is one of the largest employment centers in the southeastern US:

• Perimeter Center is a major high-rise edge city within metro Atlanta. It is located 15 miles north-northeast of Atlanta downtown, and is centered on Perimeter Mall, the nucleus around which it has formed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perimeter_Center 

• There are 115,000 jobs in the corridor, with 213,000 jobs expected by 2013. Overall, it represents a $3 billion real estate investment: 4,000 businesses, 248 office buildings, 40,000 residents, 26M square feet of office space (16M is Class A), 6M square feet of retail, and four MARTA metro rail stations. http://www.perimetercid.org/about.html. 

11x17 two-sided, one-fold Perimeter PRT brochure: 8MB: http://www.ultraprt.com/cms/PerimeterPRT_11x17_2_side_brochure.pdf Print on card (heavy) stock, and fold in half as shown on to the right:

June 3 Luncheon: PRT for Perimeter Center

Seating is limited. Advance registration is required to attend this event. Lunch will be provided. To register, please contact: Deborah McCalman, Perimeter Transportation Coalition, 770-394-4543, deb@perimetergo.org. 

Luncheon Program (15 minutes per speaker, 5 minutes for Question & Answer between speakers)

Your Host: David Southerland, Executive Director, Perimeter Transportation Coalition, http://www.perimetergo.org/.

Speaker 1) Steve Raney. PowerPoint presentation 1.8MB: http://www.ultraprt.com/cms/PRT4Perimeter.ppt

Steve Raney, Principal Consultant, ATS ULTra PRT. Raney is the world’s leading researcher on PRT for major activity centers such as Perimeter Center. He was Principal Investigator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s "Transforming Office Parks into Transit Villages" study in Pleasanton, CA.  He was project manager for BART’s Group Rapid Transit study. He is the author of six Transportation Research Board (TRB) papers.  His "wireless carpool assistant," TrakRide, is patented. Raney holds three masters: business, software, and transportation from Columbia, RPI, and Berkeley. He has conducted technology product research at Microsoft, Citigroup, and Silicon Valley start-ups.  His recent conference presentations include TRB, Rail~Volution, Association for Commuter Transportation, Greenbuild Expo, Green Technology Summit, Engineers for a Sustainable World, Going!, Intelligent Transportation Systems World Congress, Environmental Protection Agency, and American Planning Association. http://www.ultraprt.com/

Speaker 2) Peter Muller. 

Peter Muller, President, PRT Consulting. Muller has bachelor’s (summe cum laude) and master’s degrees in civil and environmental engineering. He has over thirty years of civil engineering and planning experience in transportation including roads, freeways, airports, railroads and PRT. He has been heavily involved in PRT for over eight years and has published numerous papers on the topic. www.PRTconsulting.com

These two speakers are presenting three papers at the American Society for Civil Engineers Automated People Movers Conference at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel, June 1-3. http://content.asce.org/conferences/apm2009/index.html. There will be about 400 conference attendees, transportation professionals in the people mover and personal rapid transit industry.

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