Abstract
The increased popularity of the private vehicle and the low budgets available to public-transport (PT) planners has meant that PT patronage has decreased significantly from what it once was. This has led to congestion and pollution problems in many cities around the world. It is thus apparent that new, high quality and sustainable PT system is needed to open the opportunity to attract more people to use PT. This work describes such a system called SkyCabs. The SkyCabs concept is comprised of many, lightweight, driverless cabs running two ways on a single elevated monobeam. With each cab seating up to eight people, the aim is to create a feeling of personal travel, and in doing so increase the level of patronage on PT services. The SkyCabs system is investigated based on the following three criteria; a comparative analysis which involves researching and comparing system characteristics, a computer simulation analysing operational feasibility and an economic analysis which involves calculating and comparing the benefit-cost ratios for each mode analysed. A background section has been included to provide information on existing PT modes which have been compared to SkyCabs throughout this work. The SkyCabs concept has been deemed feasible within an urban context such as the North Shore of Auckland, New Zealand. This finding is based on a comparison with other options investigated and it is due to SkyCabs favourable characteristics, the high level of service offered and the low cost of implementation relative to return benefits.
Highlights
Introduction and Research ObjectiveOver the last 50 years, public-transport (PT) patronage has steadily declined largely due to an increase in private motorcar popularity [1]
The Crash Cost Savings (CCS) and vehicle operating cost savings (VOCS) for SkyCabs, Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), Light Rail and Group Rapid Transit (GRT) are wholly dependent on the estimated transfer percentages
It is seen that the capital cost and transfer percentages are the most sensitive SkyCab variables used in the economic analysis
Summary
Over the last 50 years, public-transport (PT) patronage has steadily declined largely due to an increase in private motorcar popularity [1]. This has resulted in widespread congestion, costing billions in wasted time, fuel and accidents every year [2]. Traditional forms of PT, such as bus and rail, have been ineffective in attracting the private motorist and coping with the increase in population [4]. This has especially been the case in cities with low population den-
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