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Track

The primary design criteria of the BM One system has been the lightness of the track. This helps make the system cheap, but most of all helps it fit well into existing urban environment. This is where PRT concepts preceding us have not delivered.

Our track design allows 0..90 degree elevations. We use three different methods for this. At slender slopes, the vehicle can drive itself uphill. At steeper hills, we use track assisted elevation, like pulling rollercoaster carts at amusement parks. For vertical or near vertical, as well as in most stations, vehicle elevators are applied.

The resilience built into our track deserves a special mention. The BM One track has been design such that snow, leaves and dust flows naturally through it, without piling up and causing problems. There are no protrusions nor external electrical contacts in the track.

Stations

There are two kinds of stations in the BM One service.

Light stations are bigger than bus stops, but not by much. They have place for up to three vacant vehicles, waiting for for passengers. One to three of these can be boarded at a time (for travelling as a group). The station is shared by arriving and departing people.

Capacity of light stations is up to 360 pph (persons per hour) - similar to a full bus leaving every 10 minutes.

The weather cover is designed to fit the particular needs of the local climate. It can be air conditioned or simply open like here. It can also be completely absent. Benches are not required since vehicles are expected to be ready for you to enter. This helps keep the footprint of the station small.

Parallel stations are wider and can be built in multiple layouts, depending on the available space and intended people flow. Arrival and departure are separated, making people flow fluent. You won't need to wait for a vehicle to be emptied before boarding it.

Parallel stations can be scaled up until track capacity starts to be the limiting factor, around 3600 pph. This begins to match the lower end of subway line capacities, or those of a bus terminal, making BM One capable of integrating with such systems, as a feeder network.

Both kind of stations can be built outside as well as within buildings.

Cabin

The BM One cabin fits 2-3 people whereas existing PRT solutions are designed for 4-6 persons. We've arrived at this size to keep the system light. Also, the average occupancy of private cars in Western city traffic is 1.3 - 1.6 persons. We want the system to also scale down to individual passengers travelling alone.

If you have a larger group (up to 7-9 people), you can group multiple vehicles to travel together. You'll all share the same route and arrive next to each other at the destination. During the travel you can talk to each other using the video screen.

The video screen carries various channels that one has personally selected, much like how modern "app stores" work. There can be channels for hotel check-in (before you even arrive), for seeing the latest movie trailers (and booking your ticket) or for finding vacant services (s.a. hairdresser's) and booking them. The user interface to the channels is persistent so that next time you enter any bubble the display will carry on from where you left it on your earlier trip.

The audio quality of the cabin is much better than most private cars would allow. We can do this because electrical vehicles themselves are quiet, but also by using noice cancellation to lock you out from outside city noise and provide a convenient, nice, personal "bubble moment".

There's more to the travel experience, but here we have limited space. The best way will be simply to get a drive on one of these. You'll never look down on public transport after that!

Service is the product

We don't sell the track, the stations or the vehicles. We sell the service of transporting people within agreed track routing and capacity requirements.

To the customer this means ease of purchase. No need to maintain the track, nor renew or repair vehicles. We can even optimize and renew the machinery as part of the contract, rather raising the service level than letting it drop (as usually happens with i.e. buses or local trains).

If a service contract is not renewed, we'll simply remove the tracks, stations and vehicles and reuse them elsewhere. This is possible because the whole product has been built with such life cycle in mind. On the other hand, also extension of existing tracks is equally easy. Due to the construction of the track, we don't even need to make changes to existing track if a new portion is erected next to it.

Selling the service provides a solution to avoiding vendor lock-in. We don't like a situation where the customer is bound to us not by reason but by their earlier decisions. We want to prove how good we are over and over again. We offer a means to bidding new developments without the need for track standardisation. This level of dynamism is unprecedented in any city infrastructure.

Safety

BM One is based on the concept of active safety. Sensors in the track and the vehicles are constantly observing proper operation of tha system. In case of malfunctions (i.e. a vehicle engine failure or a street-level crash to some of the support poles), initial reaction is automatic. Within less than a second, both the track operator's personell and the municipality's emergency units have precise and prioritized information on the event. Incoming traffic to the concerned track section has been re-routed via other ways, to contain the event and to guarantee normal operation elsewhere in the track.

Passengers can voluntarily file medical information concerning themselves, which will be useful in prioritizing responses for the emergency personnel. If needed, vehicles can be lifted off the track by normal lift utility vehicles.

Naturally, we'll do our best to make accidents very infrequent, but sometimes things do happen. For these cases, well rehearsed procedures and flawless communication between the track operator and the local emergency personnel is the key to a swift, effective reaction to the hazard and allowing the track to become operational as soon after the incident as possible. Especially important is the joint training with the local emergency personnel since handling automated transport systems will be a new thing for them - at first.

Accessibility

Throughout our design we are considering people with seeing, hearing and movement disabilities. Most of these hindrances can be overcome simply by good design. User interface can be made more bold for people with bad eye sight. Volume levels are persistent between your trips. There's ways for even completely blind people to be able to use the service effortlessly.

With wheelchairs we must do more. They won't fit in the regular BM One cabin and we don't intend to bloat the design so they would. Instead, we're making a completely separate, larger cabin which can be used by wheelchair. The cabin requires a few minutes of wait from the passenger but that's all. It can also be handy for travelling with a trolley or as a second cabin for transportation of heavy luggage.

Having the wheelchair vehicles is intended to be a customer option. In some parts of the world providing support for handicapped people is compulsory (and defined) by law, while in others the handicapped don't generally even have wheelchairs. And maybe in the future we have so good prostheses that the use of clumsy chairs becomes a matter of the past.

You'll find more renderings in our picture gallery.