Following 13 years of research in the field of automated guideway transit, the SkyWeb Express system (formerly called Taxi 2000) 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 SkyWeb Express for full-scale development; however, by departing from the fundamental objective, the resulting system found no market. In January 2000 SkyWeb Express was freed from its obligations and has been able to seek investment capital to fully commercialize its PRT system. By August 2002 sufficient funds were invested to permit contracts to be let on a prototype vehicle that would run under automatic control on a short segment of guideway. The system was opened to the public on 10 April 2003 and has transported hundreds of people flawlessly in almost daily demonstrations. The paper describes the system, gives evidence of its ridership potential, and discusses the potential benefits for communities.
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