Personal Rapid Transit Guide Ways
By: Lucas E. Shubert
Personal rapid transit (PRT) is a mode of automated transit. It can be used for passenger movement as well as freight. The vehicles involved are generally powered by electricity and smaller than their fossil fuel powered counter-parts. Therefore, the two lane guide ways upon which these vehicles travel are narrower than typical streets. These guide ways are generally made of asphalt or concrete. This material is reinforced if the guide way is elevated. Guide ways are usually elevated at busy or dangerous intersections with existing right-of-ways. They also hold the potential to be joined with pedestrian and bicycle pathways. That kind of system can requires them to be widened and include more complicated structure and different materials.
Several potential landscaping and site related opportunities can be designed around or into these guide ways. One of them is the geometry of the guide ways themselves. They have the potential to retain, detain, or drain storm water into or away from the site in which they are found. If part of a larger greenway, storm water might be collected into rain gardens or retention ponds found within them. Guide ways can also enter or exit a destination at a steep grade, making them a harsh watershed, whether designed for it or not. Consideration for that watershed must be taken into the design of the guide way.
Another consideration in the design of a PRT guide way is the material involved with its structure. Since it must be a hardscape to support passenger (and especially) freight vehicles. Permeable pavement is, therefore, a sound choice for this material on guide ways at grade. However, at elevated segments of guide way, there is likely some form of traffic or natural change in topography that exists beneath it. That implies the use of asphalt or concrete over elevated spans. The generally more expensive option of traveling beneath an intersection is another way to avoid dangerous interaction with existing traffic. But, that method does not lend itself to a simple means of storm water management.
The idea of creating a greenway wherever the PRT guide way goes by involving other modes of travel is becoming more and more popular throughout the world. This kind of combined pathway lends itself to many opportunities for effective landscaping. Designs including the use of functional vegetation can involve rain gardens, retention ponds, vertical gardens, and green roofs. Rain gardens and retention ponds both effectively deal with storm water management. Green roofs and vertical gardens can be integrated into the greenway whenever it passes through, over, or adjacent to an access point to a building or destination.
Personal rapid transit (PRT) is a mode of automated transit. It can be used for passenger movement as well as freight. The vehicles involved are generally powered by electricity and smaller than their fossil fuel powered counter-parts. Therefore, the two lane guide ways upon which these vehicles travel are narrower than typical streets. These guide ways are generally made of asphalt or concrete. This material is reinforced if the guide way is elevated. Guide ways are usually elevated at busy or dangerous intersections with existing right-of-ways. They also hold the potential to be joined with pedestrian and bicycle pathways. That kind of system can requires them to be widened and include more complicated structure and different materials.
Several potential landscaping and site related opportunities can be designed around or into these guide ways. One of them is the geometry of the guide ways themselves. They have the potential to retain, detain, or drain storm water into or away from the site in which they are found. If part of a larger greenway, storm water might be collected into rain gardens or retention ponds found within them. Guide ways can also enter or exit a destination at a steep grade, making them a harsh watershed, whether designed for it or not. Consideration for that watershed must be taken into the design of the guide way.
Another consideration in the design of a PRT guide way is the material involved with its structure. Since it must be a hardscape to support passenger (and especially) freight vehicles. Permeable pavement is, therefore, a sound choice for this material on guide ways at grade. However, at elevated segments of guide way, there is likely some form of traffic or natural change in topography that exists beneath it. That implies the use of asphalt or concrete over elevated spans. The generally more expensive option of traveling beneath an intersection is another way to avoid dangerous interaction with existing traffic. But, that method does not lend itself to a simple means of storm water management.
The idea of creating a greenway wherever the PRT guide way goes by involving other modes of travel is becoming more and more popular throughout the world. This kind of combined pathway lends itself to many opportunities for effective landscaping. Designs including the use of functional vegetation can involve rain gardens, retention ponds, vertical gardens, and green roofs. Rain gardens and retention ponds both effectively deal with storm water management. Green roofs and vertical gardens can be integrated into the greenway whenever it passes through, over, or adjacent to an access point to a building or destination.
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