Is personal rapid transit for real?

USC associate planning professor Catherine Burke had an interesting opinion piece in The Times on Monday: She advocated for more research of personal rapid transit systems, saying the time is now for a new transportation alternative.

What are these things? Basically small, automated cars that are attached to fixed guideways. What makes them different from a train is that the guideways go all over the place, the idea being that the pod on the personal transit system takes you directly to your destination. There's no going to umpteen other stations first.

Now, a confession: I have to say that I'm skeptical. Readers e-mail me ideas for these type of systems all the time. I think they're novel and kind of neat, but I also tend to think that it's a little too advanced for the Southland.

To put it another way, I'd be more ready to accept podcars zooming about if there were more bike racks at train stations, synchronized traffic signals or ticket machines that dispensed monthly passes. You know, the kind of simple, no-brainer things that should have been done decades ago but still seem beyond the grasp of local transit officials and the politicians who are supposed to be watching them.

So that's my issue. Others have, well, other issues. The group Light Rail Now, for example, has a long dissection of personal rapid transit on their website and they conclude it doesn't work too well -- that crowds will swamp such systems and result in long amusement park-like lines.

On the other hand, the above video is from London Heathrow's Airport, which is building a personal rapid transit system to connect one of its terminals to parking, rental car facilities and other buildings. If nothing else, it's slick.

And, if it works, maybe there is a real-world application out there somewhere.

-- Steve Hymon