Hey there! I researched a lot of these things recently and made a post here about it.
Some particularly relevant things to your post: The yet non-existent (at scale) system you describe is Personal Rapid Transit (PRT). The best podcar design is likely a one-seater with a fully-reclined passenger. Fully-reclined minimizes air resistance along with used road volume, but people may prefer partially-reclined for comfort.
One great measure of efficiency is total cost of ownership per mile. Cars have a minimum total cost of ownership per mile 3x ($0.5 vs < $0.2) that of trains, but are admittedly pretty big.
Space is at a premium in cities, and mass transit makes 15-30x more efficient use of it than cars. It’s possible PRT can match this with smaller vehicles and tiny headways. Busses go a lot slower than trains, limiting their effectiveness. 75% of bus cost is the driver in the US. They tend to be used more as feeders for trains in many cities.
You can look at other countries for answers to some questions: Paris and Tokyo have pretty cheap housing and amazing train systems and still have commuting.
One cool thing about PRT is the vehicles can be super light, possibly allowing the road itself to be cheaper (especially bridges and raised sections). I think PRT is most promising as a transport system for lower densities since trains seem almost as good in cities. Otoh lower densities come with higher road network and utility cost.
Alon Levy has a blog on everything transit related and is absolutely meticulous. He’s not infallible, but a great resource for tons of different metrics.
Strong Towns is a great book on municipal finances and incentive structures.
CLT construction may result in 35-floor buildings as cheap per sq-ft as typical 5-floor wood buildings today.
Hey there! I researched a lot of these things recently and made a post here about it.
Some particularly relevant things to your post: The yet non-existent (at scale) system you describe is Personal Rapid Transit (PRT). The best podcar design is likely a one-seater with a fully-reclined passenger. Fully-reclined minimizes air resistance along with used road volume, but people may prefer partially-reclined for comfort.
One great measure of efficiency is total cost of ownership per mile. Cars have a minimum total cost of ownership per mile 3x ($0.5 vs < $0.2) that of trains, but are admittedly pretty big.
Space is at a premium in cities, and mass transit makes 15-30x more efficient use of it than cars. It’s possible PRT can match this with smaller vehicles and tiny headways. Busses go a lot slower than trains, limiting their effectiveness. 75% of bus cost is the driver in the US. They tend to be used more as feeders for trains in many cities.
You can look at other countries for answers to some questions: Paris and Tokyo have pretty cheap housing and amazing train systems and still have commuting.
One cool thing about PRT is the vehicles can be super light, possibly allowing the road itself to be cheaper (especially bridges and raised sections). I think PRT is most promising as a transport system for lower densities since trains seem almost as good in cities. Otoh lower densities come with higher road network and utility cost.
Alon Levy has a blog on everything transit related and is absolutely meticulous. He’s not infallible, but a great resource for tons of different metrics.
Strong Towns is a great book on municipal finances and incentive structures.
CLT construction may result in 35-floor buildings as cheap per sq-ft as typical 5-floor wood buildings today.
I’d love to talk sometime.