Safety issues have been a primary concern in the development of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), since it started several decades ago. Safe design involves careful attention to all features of the design, such as: (1) the use of an hierarchy of fault-tolerant redundant control systems; (2) bi-stable fail-safe switching; (3) alternative power supplies; (4) vehicle and passenger protection, and (5) attention to the interaction of people with the system. Safety, together with reliability and adequate capacity, must be achieved while still making the system economically attractive. Hence, techniques to achieve these goals at minimum life-cycle cost are primary in PRT design. Building on the theory of safe, reliable, and cost-effective design of PRT systems developed during the 1970s, a new PRT system design, now called TAXI 2000, was initiated in the year 1981. The paper describes the new design and reviews the principles of safe design, incorporated into taxi 2000, which the designers believe will make this new system safer, more dependable, and more economical than existing modes of urban transportation.
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