My first Automated People-Mover conferences was Las Colinas in 1993. This biannual conference has since been rebranded APM-ATS to clearly also embrace Automated Transit Systems such as PRT. The 2018 conference took place in Tampa Florida this April-May.
The Advanced Transit Association contributed in 12 different sessions. ATRA president Peter Muller presented his and my joint paper comparing the business cases of LRT, GRT and PRT. He also made another presentation on airport inter-terminal train replacement.
Robbert Lohmann presented progress and plans for 2getthere in Bluewaters Dubai and Rivium Holland and a study on automated vehicles on an airport apron.
Former ATRA president Stan Young presented a modelling architecture for Automated Mobility districts and moderated a panel on that theme.
My own presentation described the simulation modelling evolution from PRT to aTaxi. I also moderated a session on New and Emerging Technology including a presentation of TransitX PRT.
ATRA were represented in four discussion panels including planned updates of the APM standards with the relaxation of the Brick Wall stopping requirement.
During the final session I had the pleasure of presenting the Award for outstanding contributions to advanced transit. As you know, the award this time honours Prof. J. Edward Anderson for his pioneering PRT research.
In summary, an interesting conference with important ATRA contributions.
Ingmar Andreasson
ATRA VP
Robbert Lohmann and Sam Lott on the evening cruise