Interest in personal rapid transit (PRT) is growing rapidly, and a wide variety of entities are now looking at purchasing, supporting and/or facilitating personal rapid transit applications of vastly differing sizes and complexities. Many of these entities are relatively new to the concept of personal rapid transit and, although enamored by it, may lack the skills to adequately protect themselves and/or their communities from the risks that may be involved. Personal rapid transit is very easy for the user to understand, but it incorporates a number of technical aspects not easy for the owner to understand. Even those well versed in conventional transit will usually require many years of study and involvement before they comprehend all of the nuances associated with personal rapid transit.
There are now a number of personal rapid transit suppliers with paying clients and commercially available systems. Other entrepreneurs are developing new systems - each with the stated potential to provide even better service for less cost.
Few system developers have the capital to both develop and commercialize their systems independently, and many are seeking projects suitable to allow the development process to be folded into a commercial application.
This type of arrangement can bring benefits to all parties, but the risks must be thoroughly understood.
While the developer may (or may not) understand all of the risks involved, it is unlikely that the party, to be the beneficiary of the ultimate application, has the technical expertise to truly understand what they are getting into and how to mitigate their risks. In addition, the beneficiary needs the tools necessary to fully understand the different options that are available, in order to receive a personal rapid transit application that meets its needs. If one company is offering what seems like an unbeatable deal, there will often be others available with different offers that may or may not better meet the beneficiary's needs and, therefore, may warrant consideration.
This section is intended to provide an overview of the activities involved in a typical personal rapid transit project. However, not all of these activities are necessarily required for each project. This section is not intended to be exhaustive, just to outline the types of things that need to be done to help ensure successful personal rapid transit projects.
