The Taxi 2000 Personal Rapid Transit System

Following 13 years of research in the field of automated guideway transit, the Taxi 2000 PRT system has been under development since 1981 with objective of minimizing costs of transit while maximizing ridership and meeting required levels of capacity, safety, reliability, security, and comfort with minimum energy use, pollution, land use, material use, and disruption during installation. In 1993 the Chicago Regional Transportation Authority selected Taxi 2000 for full-scale development; however, by departing from the fundamental objective, the resulting system found no market. In January 2000 Taxi 2000 was freed from its obligations and has been able to seek investment capital to fully commercialize its PRT system. The paper describes the system, gives evidence of its ridership potential, and discusses the potential benefits for communities.