Our transportation challenges have “jump started” a wide range of thought, conversation and research concerning change.  Innovative concepts to address our problems range from self driving cars to ride sharing programs to smart spine corridors to transportation network hubs to increased bike riding and zero emission vehicles and more.  It is CALII’s goal to be helpful and to assist efforts to address these complex problems that confront users, operators, metropolitan planning organizations and public transportation system owners.

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But … where do we start?  CALII has concluded there is a vast yet unexplored potential for transit NETWORKS to complement our existing transit investment.  Our traditional transit systems operate chiefly in CORRIDORS which are most effective in densely populated cities.  The transit NETWORKS we envision could become the flip-side of high capacity/limited stop solutions that are currently offered by trolleys, commuter rail and to a large extent buses.  CALII believes what will help are innovative systems that increase the use of our existing trolley, commuter rail and bus CORRIDORS by creating transit NETWORKS that conveniently connect riders with them. This would help address what’s been termed the “first/last mile problem” of our current transit investment.  The name of the transit system comprised of NETWORKS that we seek evaluation of is an Automated Transit Network (or “ATN”, also sometimes referred to as Personal Rapid Transit or “PRT”).

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As discussed elsewhere, the ATN concept has been around for awhile.  Although ATN development is well beyond the “proof of concept” stage (existing ATN systems are discussed herein) there is no clear path for their advancement.  There are no ATN specific standards issued by the State of California (or other states) covering all potential ATN applications.  Nor have any of the country’s design professional associations created a set of ATN specifications and standards.  In order to help bridge the gap between regulators, transit agencies, policy makers, design professionals and others, CALII believes creation of a fully functioning ATN application (referred to by some as a “demonstration” or a “pilot” project) addressing a specific site’s needs (or problems) may allow ATN technology to be improved, evaluated, standardized and approved.  The thought is a demonstration program will allow validation of more complex and demanding ATN applications than those which presently exist.  The creation of a means to evaluate technology in this manner may also assist other new technologies by providing an acceptable method to evaluate and move them forward.