Now this is kind of not mass transportation but it is like the trains I mentioned above. It requires a whole retrofit of the highway system which to me is mass transit. Everybody has their own cars so it is individual transportation but they all work in unison once they are on the highway.
The site I used as a source is extremely long so I’ll give you the summary which is still very long. Basically, dual mode systems being proposed by various companies consists of special automatic guideways with most of the artificial intelligence in the guideway network as opposed to putting it in the cars like General Motors is suggesting. You will use your own car if you have one but other cars like taxis as well as buses will use it ony if it is equipped for dual mode. The guideways use magnetic levitation (maglev) and once your on it your engine will be shut down so it not only saves time but it saves money on wear and tear as well as gas. It is better also because you don’t have to go to the buses as Personal Rapid Transit makes you do, you have the bus in your parking spot or driveway. You leave whenever you want and once you’re on the guideway you are free to do whatever you need to do, whether it is grooming, taking a conference call, or whatever you want to do. This system though is once made for the highways, but what this website suggests is that if you’re going downtown you just park your car directly off the guideway which obviously reduces street traffic as well as street parking issues.
Getting on the System
There is an “entry stop” where you turn off the engine, and tell the computer where you want to go. The computer is basically like a parking garage entrance where they also charge you based on how far you want to go. While you are telling the computer where you want go, another computer checks all your part to make sure it is safe to allow you onto the guideways as well as identifying your car through an onboard computer chip. Then, if you are accepted to use the guideways, you are shot up to guideway speed and found a place in the system by slowing down cars and speeding up others ones for a short amount of time to fit you in. If however you do not meet the standards of the guideway system, you will be forced to back up and use the regular roads.
