'Levitated' car travelling proposed

24 January 2002: A researcher at the US Center for Rapid Transit Systems at Virginia Polytechnic Institute is proposing that commuters in northern Virginia one day won’t have to choose between trains or highways. For about 30 cents a kilometre, they’ll use a rapid, personal transit system that will glide them along inside of their own cars using an electromagnetic levitation system. When they get to their destination, they’ll be able to drive off and head straight to the garage.
       
“The current mass transit systems are not an American solution,” says Ramu, noting that high-speed trains have carved out a niche in countries like Germany and Japan, but, he says, in the States “people want to go door to door.”

The university has licensed the technology to co-inventors Ramu and university provost Leonard Ferrari. The pair have set up a Blacksburg-based company to develop and sell the systems, which they maintain would reduce gasoline consumption, smog and overall wear and tear on cars.

Other personal rapid transit systems, such as Taxi 2000 and SkyTran, have been proposed. While these systems also transport people through urban areas in small, car-sized pods, they require people to leave their own set of wheels at home.

January 2002