Auto-taxi could end city traffic congestion - 2002

13 August 2002

A new automatic taxi system for transporting commuters directly between public transport and inner-city destinations has been developed by a QUT PhD student in an effort to solve Brisbane's peak-hour traffic congestion problems.

The "Auto-taxi" system has the potential to encourage people to leave their cars at home, requires little infrastructure to be established and offers a personalised, environmentally friendly option to commuters.

School of Design and Built Environment PhD student Roland Porst designed the personal rapid transport system to relieve overburdened current transport systems.

The system proposes fully automated six-person electric vehicles travelling around the city collecting and dropping passengers at their chosen destinations - a sort of "dynamic car-pooling".

Mr Porst said the driverless Auto-taxis would follow magnetic markers embedded into existing road surfaces, in a dedicated lane separated by small concrete lane-dividers. The vehicles' symmetrical shape would enable them to change direction once they reach the end of a network and would also reduce manufacturing costs.

"You don't need tracks or elevated guide-ways, so installation costs are low and there's little impact on urban areas as you're not closing streets for months tearing up road surfaces," he said.

"In a city like Brisbane where we typically have four lanes - two going in each direction and two for parking - I'm suggesting we allocate half that space to this system by converting streets to one ways or if necessary using one of the parking lanes.

"Simultaneously, it means that space is still available for cars - we haven't taken away anyone's right to drive into the city if they want to, but we're providing greater access through public modes."

Mr Porst said a survey of Brisbane commuters undertaken as part of his study indicated that while all participants had access to some public transport, they were often discouraged from using it because they had to walk to their departure point and final destination.

"The Auto-taxi enables direct point-to-point, comfortable travel and makes existing public transport systems more efficient," he said.

"So you might get off the train at Central Station and hop in an Auto-taxi which takes you right away to QUT or 200 Elizabeth Street, for example. There are no set stops."

He said there would be potential to expand the system to operate in outer suburbs and incorporate it into new residential developments, but initially it would most likely run approximately from West End to Kelvin Grove 24 hours per day.

Passengers could interact with the system either through mobile phone technology linked to Global Positioning Systems or through an on-board control panel. This, Mr Porst said, would depend on whether the government and traffic authorities wanted to offer the system as a user pays or free service.

Mr Porst outlined the potential of his idea to Brisbane City Council during a recent discussion on future transport considerations.

Chair in Transport at QUT Professor Luis Ferreira said the Auto-taxi concept was very relevant for a city like Brisbane because of its projected high population growth and high level of private car ownership and use.

"We will see significant increases in peak period road congestion unless car users can be enticed to use public transport or an alternative such as the Auto-taxi," he said.

Mr Porst's supervisor, industrial design discipline leader Associate Professor Vesna Popovic said the proposed Auto-taxi design demonstrated innovation as it had great potential to satisfy different lifestyle demands of commuters.