SkyTran is a type of mass transit called Personal Rapid Transit or PRT. A PRT system has vehicles that can be taken on demand (meaning no waiting), and can transport people anywhere in the system. This is very similar to the road system because one can get in a car when they want to, and travel where they want to. SkyTran is currently being developed by Unimodal Inc.
SkyTran is a simple and light-weight design, the guideway's supports can be made using standard utility poles in a similar way to street lights. Vehicles are levitated using a maglev design called Inductrack. Inductrack employs a series of unpowered insulated conductors inside the guideway and permentant magnets inside the vehicles - no complicated electronics are needed to levitate vehicles. As a vehicle moves over the insulated conductors in the guideway, part of the vehicle's forward momentum is converted to an upward force that levitates the vehicle. This allows for a very simple design of both the guideway and vehicles. The only electronics needed are a linear induction motor to propel vehicles and control electronics to direct the vehicles. The system can also use a regenerative braking system. Inside the vehicle is a cabin with two seats, a door, and a small computer. Compared to a modern gasoline car, SkyTran's vehicles contain thousands fewer parts - even the guideway has fewer fabrication steps than an inner city road.
SkyTran would ideally be built as a grid-system so that anyone could go anywhere on the grid. However, the system can also be built linearly like a train route.
This report predicts how a SkyTran system would economically affect the city of San Francisco. Needless to say, I would not have written this report if the predictions weren't interesting - in fact, my calculations show unprecedented benefit. You may have seen the movie Who Killed the Electric Car, and seen how extremely efficient electric cars can be built and thrive in the market place. While electric cars can be much more reliable and inexpensive than combustion-engine cars, electric cars can never solve the problem of road congestion and traffic. Roads and cars simply take up too much space. This report shows that SkyTran can solve this seemingly difficult problem while doing what the free market is meant to do best: making people money.
The hypothetical grid system that could be built in San Francisco has unprecedented predictions. The first predictions are "bare bones" predictions, which don't take any complicated statistics or effects into account. They simply look at 1. building cost, 2. running cost, and 3. revenue. The most notable thing about the predictions is that SkyTran would actually make money. This seems trivial, but no other large-scale transportation system has ever accomplished this without heavy government subsidies. The second most notable thing about the predictions is that the system would pay off in less than 6 and a half years if charging the suggested 10 cents per mile. After this, it would make almost $32 million per year. Of course, charging prices around the price of riding BART or taxis would allow the system to pay off much faster - as much as 20 times faster (at taxi rates, the system would pay off in 2 months, assuming that the obscene price doesn't affect ridership...).
If you're not that interested in its benefits for the city as a whole, you might like to know how SkyTran could benefit you personally. Any average SkyTran user would save almost $500 per year - almost $15,000 after 30 years. However, an ex-driver would save more than $5500 per year, which is upwards of $160,000 after 30 years. Not to mention that these SkyTran users would save almost 250 hours or 10 days of their life per year - this is equivalent to more than 6 working weeks. On average, people waste 5% of their lives driving on the road - 18 full days per year. Imagine having an extra five waking-hours every week.
Right now, San Francisco uses more than $340 million per year on mass transit. SkyTran's running costs would be less than 15% of that figure - around $50 millio