There are a few vocal folks who absolutely hate the PRT concept, but they tend to make criticisms about older PRT designs and do not make any specific comments about the ULTra design. Further, there really is no way for "PRT haters" to make an informed analysis of the ULTra design, as this requires a) a high level of relevant technical expertise, b) access to proprietary design details about the ULTra system, and c) very significant time and money to conduct a thorough study.
Somehow transit is a passion-inducing topic. There are subway-lovers and subway-haters. There are light rail lovers and light rail haters; bus lovers and bus haters; PRT lovers and PRT haters, etc. There are pro and con websites devoted to various types of transit and transit systems. The ratio of ardent PRT lovers to haters is approximately 100:4.
There are long-standing anti-PRT articles such the 2004 "PRT is a Cyberspace Dream" by a light rail advocacy website (http://www.lightrailnow.org/facts/fa_prt001.htm). The success of ULTra in the face of 40 years of PRT failure by other project teams highlights the unique talents of ATS ULTra engineers/designers and highlights the wisdom of UK government, EU Research Directorate, and BAA funding of the ULTra project.
For Heathrow ULTra PRT, BAA made an equity investment in ATS. Before investing in ATS, BAA undertook a rigorous technical analysis of ULTra, asking "what's wrong with ULTra." BAA undertook the most thorough analysis ever of a PRT system design. BAA asked many difficult questions and received pages of detailed responses from ATS. The result, for BAA: there isn't anything wrong with ULTra. ULTra meets the needs of a very demanding customer. Hence ATS is comfortable answering questions about the ULTra system. The more people know about ULTra, the more they come to understand the elegance and sophistication of the system.
Blogsphere Details:
One of the main PRT-haters is a fascinating, passionate, and prolific Minnesota-based blogger / comic strip writer / environmentalist named Ken Avidor. Avidor appears to have a large amount of time to make his feelings known on the worldwide web. His "Illichville" comic is a car-free New Urbanist sustainable city. His "Bicyclopolis" comic envisions a world without petroleum, where Civil War re-enactors (with old-fashioned guns) and bicycle repairmen thrive. Within the Bicyclopolis story, Minnesota's giant auto-centered Mall of America disintegrates. See: http://www.roadkillbill.com/.
Avidor authors some angry blogs against elected officials such as:
While being very enthusiastic, Avidor has sometimes been overzealous. Moderators removed Avidor's Wikipedia privileges for repeated "vandalism" of the PRT entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit). Across the worldwide web, Avidor can be counted on to make anti-PRT comments on any PRT news story. Avidor is tracked by multiple, dedicated pro-PRT bloggers, most notably "Mr_Grant" and "A Transportation Enthusiast." On one Seattle Post-Intelligencer chat forum, Avidor participated in a heated thread of more than 200 entries back and forth, covering 8 hours, running until 5AM Minnesota time. It can be frustrating to wade through "Avidor-agitated" blog threads, because prose tends to de-generate into personal attacks and "talking over" the other side's points.
As a private-sector company, it is startling for ATS ULTra to view the immense quantity of PRT blogosphere debate. For PRT systems that will receive public-sector funding, an active blogosphere should serve a fiduciary role. However, given the less-than-civil nature of chat, it is difficult to characterize the current debate as "healthy."
ATS ULTra North America, Palo Alto / Berkeley