In situations where a Personal Rapid Transit system is being proposed in a community environment, numerous stakeholders with differing interests are likely to be involved. One way to bring such a disparate group together and build consensus for a personal rapid transit system, and the way in which it is to be accomplished, is to hold a workshop of community leaders. The workshop must be facilitated by somebody knowledgeable in personal rapid transit and experienced in running workshops. This person needs to be empathetic and encourage all opinions to be heard.
The workshop could take the following format:
The results of the workshop should be documented and made available to the participants. A likely implementation step is the formation of a Personal Rapid Transit Steering Committee comprised mostly of key participants of the workshop. The Steering Committee would meet periodically during the project to help ensure the major goals are being met and the best interests of the community are being kept in mind.
A Personal Rapid Transit management team should also be formed. This could initially be comprised of key staff members of the Owner. Where the Owner lacks qualified staff and/or for complex projects, a consultant will probably be needed to provide program/project management services.
It is vital that the project leaders have a thorough understanding of the Personal Rapid Transit concept and how it interrelates with transportation planning. Historic personal rapid transit projects, such as those at Morgantown, Denver and Rosemont, suffered from a lack of project leaders with a thorough understanding of Personal Rapid Transit. In all three projects, the personal rapid transit concept was morphed towards something more familiar to conventional transit planners - corridor travel and/or larger vehicles. This led to cost overruns at Morgantown and project failure at Rosemont and Denver.
