Advanced Transport Systems has been commissioned by the European Union's CIVITAS Renaissance programme to study the potential for using the ULTra Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system to improve transportation in historic urban environments. The study site is Bath, an ancient city that is also an UNESCO World Heritage site - in fact the only city in the world to be designated a World Heritage site in its entirety . This research has been under way for almost a year, and will culminate in a 2010 report to the European Union. There are no plans to actually build an ULTra system in Bath, however it is anticipated that this study will inform the development of ULTra systems in other historic urban environments.
"This is an exciting and very challenging project for us," said Nathan Koren, Project Studies Manager at ATS. "We believe strongly that a PRT system such as ULTra could make a very positive contribution and complement the transportation mix in Bath, by reducing pollution and easing congestion. As well as being a tourist attraction of the highest calibre Bath has a high residential and working population, creating the type of traffic congestion problems that are typical for many historical settings . A PRT system such as ULTra could potentially allow all travellers better access to and within towns and cities, enabling greater accessibility to tourist attractions, as well as hospitals, universities and business and residential areas.
“However, being located in a beautiful and historic environment such as Bath means that there are many other concerns - not strictly related to transportation - which must be addressed. What would the system look like? How would it blend into the existing urban fabric? How would it relate to the businesses and institutions throughout the city? What would the local residents think about such a scheme? How should their concerns and preferences be assessed, and incorporated into the planning and design process? This study gives us the opportunity to focus on these very important social, cultural, and political questions. Even if this research does not lead to an ULTra project in Bath itself, we believe that it will have broad applicability in many other urban environments."
ATS believe that its current designs, while appropriate for an airport environment such as Heathrow, may not be suited to a sensitive environment such as Bath. Therefore, ATS has launched an international design competition to harness the vision and talents of designers around the world, who can submit their own visions of how the ULTra system could be adapted to Bath.
Already there are over 70 entrants to the competition, from 18 countries. Registrants range from individual architecture students to large multinational design firms. "With a boundary-pushing design challenge such as this," says Koren, "size and experience probably doesn't count for as much as creativity and insight -- so I believe that we could see compelling entries from any quarter." The submission deadline for the competition is October 1st, after which the entries will be critiqued by an independent jury, before being made public, to assess reactions to the different designs
Those who are interested in the Bath study, or wish to register for the design competition, can find out more at:
