SECURING THE AIRFRONT

Airports attract all kinds of traffic.  Yes, there are passengers, companions and workers, many coming be car. There are also taxis, limos, buses and shuttles from nearby hotels, car rental facilities and remote parking.  Unfortunately airports are frequent targets for terrorist attacks, so much attention is given to security matters airside, but also landside.

On an airport’s landside, what is more secure -- an unknown road vehicle with unidentified passengers and content, or a podcar that is video-watched as passengers in a station board it? Most of us would vote for the latter.  Roadway freedoms can bring mortal threats.

New Podcar Potentialities

A recent assessment of the ATN industry by the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI) at San Jose State University points out that few transport planners and land use officials understand the new, flexible design parameters of this now-proven (in small networks) mode of transit classically known as PRT.  Station location and sizing are fundamentally different from more familiar rail modes, including automated people movers without off-line stations. ATN guideway dimensions are significantly smaller, viable with one-way segments, and capable of sharper turns and higher grades. Station sizes can be minimal, enlarged only where there is demand. All this makes ATN design flexible in the third dimension, generically called “elevation” by architects and engineers, even in sections that are underground.  

An ATN-oriented development strategies waiting to be explored.

Visions of ATN-oriented airfront districts are few and far between.  Airport  districts are growing and attract private investment. Pressures to plan and manage them to be efficient and secure are increasing. ATN traffic will be easier to secure 24/7 than road traffic. With reduced parking needs, the airfront can be more compact, further reducing traffic.

ATN systems can more easily be expanded in the future by means of the flexible addition of guideway segments and stations. To make this bold, new development scenario even more attractive, GHG emissions will be significantly lower.

If Not San Jose, then Stockholm

The MTI report also pointed out that there is a disconnect between airport management, municipal zoning and land use regulation, and the general metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) in place across the US. They have too little to do with each other -- to the detriment of land use efficiencies and competitive advantages in a global world. Outside the US, there are examples of better airport-land use coordination. Paris-CDG was one of the early ones to see the potential of commercial development beyond terminal retail on airport property.  Stockholm-Arlanda has interesting examples too.

The US Congress would do well to adjust MPO mandates to be more than passive recipients of FAA dictates. PCC8 at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport is organized with USDOT coordination in the framework of long-term Swedish-USDOT cooperation. The September 3-5 gathering will advance the vision of ATN-served airfront districts laden with many benefits, including a more secure airport.

AIRPORT SMARTS

Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport may be in the lead to de-carbonize its airfront transport with the current study underway with two adjacent municipalities, but it is not alone. Helsinki is not far away, and has a stealth PRT technology developer that took part in an application study in 2005 near Vantaa Airport. It was done by something called TechVilla Institute, a center of expertise for lifting, moving and logistic industries. The setting is a fast-growing airfront district that has already taken off. Called Aviapolis, it has many sleek green buildings filling up with world-oriented businesses.

It's a sellers market in Aviapolis near Helsinki Airport. Will there be buyers for podcar connections?

In fact, a new World Trade Center is underway, and apartments too.  Aviapolis brags that it is the “new heart” of the Helsinki region and, by extension, of most of Finland. It claims a “well functioning transport system” -- meaning mostly uncongested roads, for now. Maybe quality buses or shuttles -- but so far, no podcars.

Vanta-Helsinki Rail, A Year Away

Meanwhile, national and local officials are busy building an 18-kilometer, $1 billion commuter rail extension with 8km tunnel under the airport. The line will continue on to the main north-south line of Finnish railways. Ring Rail, as the project is known, will have five stations, plus three for later development. By next summer, service may be running to stations at the airport terminal and Aviapolis.

What mode split to transit will this bring to Aviapolis and the airport district as a whole? Maybe 25 percent?  If the rail service operates well, especially through harsh Baltic winters, maybe 50%.

What if the reach of the Ring Rail’s future Aviapolis station were extended by integration of an ATN system? This would take transit access to every corner of the district. The mode split would go even more to transit. A half share seems doable. If things go really well, why not 90 percent? How many tons of GHG will that save? If it’s solar, will Vantaa’s ATN be self-sufficient and carbon-free?

There have been studies of airport district ATN applications in the past. Known ones are Seattle-Tacoma, Bologna and more recently, San Jose.

Airport car rental officials have learned the benefits of consolidation.  ATN will take consolidation of airfront development to a whole new level. Next stop: PCC8 at Arlanda Airport, September 3-5, 2014. 

We're losing our Garden

Reaction to the IPCC report is strong.

IPCC is the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. the world's best science is telling us that we need to ACT NOW. To limit our Earth's temperature rise to two Centigrade degrees, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to 40-70 percent of what they were in 2010. We as a planet need to shift gears. Our current ways of doing things are not sustainable. Do we really want to mess us Garden Earth?

Defossilization is now a new word, pronounced with many different accents, in the world vocabulary of environmental discourse. It means that we need to reduce the burning of fossil fuels to do so many things -- heat our buildings, move around, generate electricity, etc. It's just making it too hot in the Garden. We need to act.

While that threatens those making money in the oil, car and coal industries, it opens great opportunities for others to create new wealth in the transition to sustainable energy. "It's eminently affordable," declared 350.org to those who abhor next taxes to raise trillions of dollars for new infrastructure. Given the IPCC-documented costs that Climate Change is already bringing, defossilization is a compelling investment.

In cities and towns of the New Economy walking, biking and public transit are to be encouraged. Happily, solar powered ATN is a potent addition to the mix, reinforcing existing rail and spreading a fine mesh of service access to most districts and neighborhoods. What will the stations look like? What do they mean for architects, designers and planners? How will community life change?

TOOL UP: Urban and airport progressives will gather in Stockholm this coming September 3-5 to assess the options and take sustainable transportation to the next level at the 8th Podcar City conference. For more info or to reserve a place for your corporate or professional name in the PCC8 Booklet, email lfabian21@gmail.com.

Post-Car Urbanism:  Implications for Town & Airport District Planning

The 8^th annual Podcar City conference will advance the vision of sustainable urban transportation that reduces our auto-addiction and its high costs. Most modern countries are auto-addicted. Recent converts are in oil-rich areas and the choking cities and towns of India and China.

Auto-addiction is life when cars serve almost all everyday needs. On the whole, and especially from a community viewpoint, this degrades the quality of life. Whenever too many people want to gather somewhere, parking becomes a problem. If more people walked, rode bikes or came by transit attractive enough to make them prefer it, community life would improve. Automated Transit Networks (ATNs) do that. Planners, civic designers and landscape and building architects need guidelines. PCC8 will help create them by addressing issues head on.

Airports present special challenges. PCC8 will learn from professional studies of sustainable development underway near Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport. What efficiencies can be achieved to create good jobs for thousands of Swedes? Mark your calendars for September 3-5 north of Stockholm.

Conference Theme

Here are the themes to be explored in the PCC8 program:

·   Revitalization of maturing suburbs and inner neighborhoods

·   Rationalization of airport clutter into airfront development

·   Definition of the evolving range of ATN options including solar

·   Innovative remote parking solutions, robo-valets, and urban infill

·   How PPPs can finance and implement infrastructure projects

The  Icebreaker on Wednesday, September 3 will be close up and personal with the Podcar Station Display  already greeting from afar thousands of highway motorists approaching Arlanda Airport. The conference technical sessions will take place September 4 and 5 at the Arlanda Radisson.   

For current information on PCC8 and to register, www.podcarcity.org.

PODCAR CITIES TURN TO THE AIRFRONT

The 8^th Podcar City conference will be September 3-5 where breakthroughs in airport district planning are being made around Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport and adjacent suburbs: Sigtuna and Upplands Vasby.

Private developers and municipal officials want world-class, sustainable development. With the Institute of Sustainable Transportation, they are detailing out PRT as a brilliant way of achieving that. There have been uncoordinated studies in the past. This is now all coming together, this time under the leadership of Magnus Hunhammar. Sweden is breaking new ground. 

In the US, airport officials seldom collaborate with the cities and towns, suburban incorporated and not, especially when complaints about noise, fumes and traffic are so common. In Sweden, civic discussions are generally lively and informed, based on deep Scandinavian traditions of environmental stewardship, love of nature and appreciation of excellence in design.

PCC7 in Arlington VA last fall centerted on national policies and politics. This fall PCC8 will deal largely with Arlanda issues, comparing them to other airports where airfront PRT has been or is being explored and taking the discussion a big Swedish step forward, A podcar station mockup visible from the airport’s main entrance, is already starting a lively conversation. 

PCC8 looks to be airport hot. Sigtuna and Uppslands Vasby see benefits in airfront connectivity.

Washington Dysfunction

APTA claims to speak for US transit. Strangely, it has little to say about full automation, and more specifically about driverless metros. Can we expect better from the USDOT or Congress?

Brussels-based UITP makes clear statements about the safety and capacity-enhancing benefits of full automation. The European Union has awarded $20 million to fund a center of expertise in driverless metros in Paris, with collaboration from the RATP (Paris transit authority) and Alcatel-Lucent. Bold plans are underway to ring the city-on-the-Seine with a working-class transformating driverless ring. Copenhagen plans are perhaps more advanced in a similar Ringen on a smaller Scandanavian scale.

When APTA official Charles Joseph was recently asked about APTA's attitude toward driverless metros and ATN feeding appropriate metro stations, he had nothing to say. Instead he off-shored the question to Honolulu, where construction has begun on an elevated metro that maybe will be driverless. Press releases don't mention it. Consultant Simon Zweighaft does - loudly and clearly. He helped build the Miami DPM and has done a lot in the real world of transit outside the Beltway.

Maybe there should be a T-Party -- more adept than the Tea-Party - but responding to the Beltway dysfunction that we all feel.

New Year Energy Burst

ATN concept such as this one for Montgomery County MD are popping up all over! -courtesy of Bob Johnson

2014 starts with an upsurge if active demands for modern mobility options, with much focused on the maturing forms of ATN now available or judged within technological reach with modest risk.
On January 10, the mayor of Huntsville AL will unveil plans for CBD redevelopment that include a simple three-station APM. Huntsville Hospital and its APM experience offered some technical assistance. If well received, the plan may migrate to a larger, more complex solution.
On January 11, PRT thinkers and schemers will gather at the University of Maryland to examine applications studies and an surprisingly active field on interest in innovative transportation at ATRA's Technix workshop.
On February 2, during the Super Bowl games that take place in NJ Meadowlands near Secaucus, new Amtrak stops at the decade-old Secaucus Junction transfer station will be added. Jpod will demonstrate the potential of solar-powered PRT. In the background, a stalled mega-mall on par with Minnesota’s Mall of America may break ground. 
In Greenville SC, green village development strategies and multi-modal stations ideas are advancing under the inspired leadership of Fred Payne, an elected county economic development director, in a region where vehicle manufacture and research is a big part of the economy.
On February 9, Kirkland WA will hold a community visioning workshop to explore options for a rail right-of-way for walk/bike paths, parks, possibly PRT or other transit. Google and Microsoft are major players.
All of them will hear that the next Podcar City -- PCC8 -- conference will take place September 3-5 at Stockholm’s major airport with participation with two adjacent suburbs on Sweden’s airfront to the world, halfway between Stockholm and Uppsala.