The future of sustainable urban transportation is being imagined inside a nondescript building near downtown San Jose, where San Jose State University students and faculty are working on a personal rapid transit system known as the "SPARTAN Superway."
It's a new take on an old idea: An automated transit system with guideways and offline systems linking the university’s north and south campuses, but completely and sustainably powered by solar energy. Pods on the superway would go 20-25 miles per hour throughout San Jose, and the guideway of people-movers will be elevated and constructed in areas that already have a right of way.
"We have to make a difference," Engineering Project Manager Gregory White told KCBS Radio, expressing enthusiasm that the project can help California reach its climate goals. "We have to make a change right now in order to preserve our future. So I think that what we are doing here is just awesome."
San Jose State mechanical engineering professor Burford Furman and International Institute of Sustainable Transportation Director Ron Swenson founded the initiative in 2012, working with a group of students from different majors hoping to demonstrate the technology’s feasibility.
The group published a feasibility study in December in tandem with the Mineta Transportation Institute, showing the solar-powered canopy atop the guideway is sufficient to power the system every day in "better-than-zero net metered conditions." Compared to San Jose State's park-and-ride shuttle, the superway would produce 98% lower carbon dioxide and particulate matter emissions, according to the study.
"As people hear about it, they go, 'Wow! That’s a great idea.' But it’s far enough out of the box that it comes across almost like 'The Jetsons,' " Furman told KCBS Radio, adding that the system could conceivably eliminate parking spaces by traveling directly to a building.
White showed off a 10-meter track and a small-scale model as a demonstration of the group’s software and mechanical capabilities. He said it was their first working prototype "within the past eight years or so."
The electric-powered vehicles would be able to send location data back to a dashboard to ensure safety protocols, including collision avoidance and proper speed, are being followed. Funding would likely come from a public-private partnership, according to the team.
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