The name Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) indicates that passengers are served on an individual basis. It is an important quality of PRT that passengers do not have to wait for vehicles to be filled up. They travel alone or in company of their own choice. PRT vehicles like taxis are designed for small parties, typically for 3–5 passengers. In this paper we will discuss pros and cons with non-puristic PRT where some passengers are matched to share the same vehicle. Simulation results are given for a proposed PRT network for Fornebu Oslo.

The concept of a dynamic and flexible Intelligent Subscription Bus Service (I-Service) was developed, and two integrated questionnaires were conducted among the commuters of a large university campus. To determine travel times to the campus by I-Service, a digital urban road network map with travel time databases was produced, and software was developed to calculate optimum routes using these databases. Travel times for each participant were determined by the shortest travel time principle. The proposed hypothetical service was introduced to participants, and anticipated advantages for each participant were reported back to them by means of a second questionnaire to determine if they would prefer using I-Service. As a result, a 49% modal shift potential from all other modes in general and a 52% modal shift potential from private car to I-Service were found.

The European Commission has launched a research project called EDICT-E uropean Demonstration of Innovative City Transport within the "Cities of Tomorrow" programme. A test of a PRT system has been carried out in Cardiff, Wales. Three other cities have participated: Eindhoven and later on Almelo in the Netherlands, Ciampinio in Italy and Huddinge in Sweden. In the test site at Huddinge a PRT network was evaluated at Kungens Kurva Shopping Area southwest of Stockholm. The research programme had a time frame from January 2002 to November 2004. In the test site at Huddinge the following research programme was outlined: (1) A performance comparison between 4 PRT systems: Taxi 2000, ULTra, Austrans and FlyBy, (2) a local Travel Survey about Travel Pattern and Behaviour, (3) the Design of a PRT network, (4) a Travel Demand Analysis with regional forecasts and local PRT simulations, (5) development of enhanced Control Strategies, (6) an Assessment Framework with a Cost-Benefit Analysis Evaluation, and (7) user Attitudes and Acceptability studies. This paper describes these topics of the research project. The Kungens Kurva area has some 42,000 visitors per day, of which 95 % arrive by private cars and 5 % by bus. The world's first—and largest—IKEA furniture store is located here. The Kungens Kurva Area is today congested in peak periods and a substantial part of the shopping mall area is covered by surface parking lots. The area is forecasted to increase its land use and activities as one of the foremost external shopping malls in the Stockholm region. Up to 2011 it is foreseen a doubled level of shopping activities, with much more car traffic as a result. The City of Huddinge has ambitions to preserve its community as a sustainable society. Therefore there will be a need for an innovative city transport system to serve these new mobility needs. This paper summarizes the results from the Swedish test-site: "Kungens Kurva", SW of Stockholm, Sweden. This research project was co-funded by the European Commission (50 %) and the Swedish VINNOVA Research Fund (50 %). Swedish partners were: Transek Consultants, LogistikCentrum and Municipality of Huddinge.

A study was recently undertaken for a client in the Silicon Valley to explore the capacity limits of automated transit networks based on small vehicles departing on demand. Based on proven PRT designs, advanced strategies were developed for ridesharing with multiple destinations and multiple origins. These strategies were applied to morning (few to many) and evening (many to few) peak demand periods. Vehicle pair-coupling was introduced in stations while decoupling could be performed at speed in diverges. A tentative 30 miles single guide-way network was designed with 50 stations. The network connected a city and campus to existing and proposed transit stops and provided service within the area. Simulations verified a total network capacity of 14,500 trips per hour using 910 vehicles designed to accommodate 6 seated passengers. The average vehicle load was up to 4.3 passengers (72%) and the maximum link flow was up to 6,500 pphpd. This capacity is comparable to that of mass transit while providing on-demand service and mostly non-stop travel.

Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) offers direct, on-demand travel in automated vehicles seating 3–6 passengers on exclusive right-of-way. Commercially available systems now offer speeds up to 45 kph at headways from 3 seconds. With 3-second headways, a typical load of 1.5 passengers and 30 % empty vehicles, the link capacity will be 1200 passengers per hour (one direction). This paper explores ways to extend the capabilities of PRT with respect to capacity and speed. Strategies have been developed and verified with the generic simulation software PRTsim.