The author describes the development of a new mode of urban transportation based on two concepts: the concept of car sharing so that the total number of cars in a densely populated area is decreased and made less polluting, and the concept of the automated highway so that these public cars can be made available at any time in a large number of stations placed along a network of dedicated and automated roads. Such a transportation system could offer an alternative to the private automobile but also to public transport systems in places or at times when mass transit is not efficient. In particular, it is thought that these automated public vehicles could use the existing lanes which are now dedicated to public transport such as the bus lanes or the tram tracks. If the concept of car sharing is extended to the concept of car pooling, this new transportation system could even one day replace some of the mass transit systems with a much better level of service.
Abstract