Blackout and Emergency Procedures

What would happen in a power outage? Would I be stuck in the elevated vehicle?

• The PRT system will draw power from several sections of the local power grid. - City-wide power outages are rare events. By drawing power from several sections of the grid, the system may be able to supply power to the affected section from unaffected areas or, at worse, limit the power outage to a small portion of the entire system.

• A backup power supply is a requirement. - No PRT design will be approved without a backup power supply system. The modest emergency power requirements (see the next item) will allow backup power generation from backup generator sets powered by natural gas or diesel fuels, stationary fuel cells, or from wayside battery systems.

• Use of 'creep' mode to minimize backup power requirements. - During a power outage, the system can be programmed to have every car drop to low speed, 5 mph for example, and creep to the next station on the line. Once the vehicle reaches the station, the passengers exit the vehicle and may wait for the restoration of power or make other transportation arrangements. This strategy reduces the power requirements (and the costs of the backup system) since power is only needed to slowly move each vehicle to the next station on the line, and then move clear of the station platform.

  You should also note that the close spacing of stations on a PRT system keeps the amount of time spent in a vehicle during this creep mode to a minimum. For example, by spacing stations every half-mile along the line, the maximum time to the next station at a creep speed of 5 mph is only 6 minutes. The average time to the next station would be 3 minutes. If required, emergency platforms (similar to building fire-escapes with pull down stairs) can be installed in areas with longer stretches between stations.

• The last resort - emergency personnel - The PRT vehicle will be designed to allow evacuation via ladder, cherry picker, etc. At sixteen feet (or less) high the PRT system is not quite as high as a two-story building. Guideways will generally be run over roads and sidewalk or clipped to the sides of bridges to allow emergency vehicle access. The PRT vehicles have doors on both sides, and the doors will have standard key slots (like elevators) to allow emergency personnel to manually open the doors if needed.