Conclusions

The benefits of MAIT will become quickly obvious and available to everyone; the introduction of MAIT will allow car traffic in urban areas to be eliminated rather than diluted over a much larger area. Life in the streets will be safer; the air will be cleaner and there will be less noise; there will be more green space, more pedestrian walkways, more bicycle tracks, more public places for people to meet and for children to play. People will relate to MAIT as a superior sort of lift rather than an inferior substitute for a car.

The ownership of the components of the MAIT system is flexible and could permit development by a combination of state and private enterprise. Adding the MAIT concept to the various emerging advanced transit technologies, together with parts of the existing transport infrastructure, offers the vision of a seamless transportation system with benefits far exceeding those of the parts.

Historically, improvements in transportation infrastructure have been followed by an increase in trade and wealth of a nation or continent. MAIT will usher in a transport revolution which, over some decades, will have a far wider impact than the introduction of the shipping container 40 years ago. MAIT will not only enhance personal mobility for all ages, incomes and abilities, but will also considerably improve the traffic of light freight. MAIT links indoor and outdoor transport, optimizes just-in-time delivery and allows automated overnight distribution of goods. Thus, it increases productivity by supporting the trends in modern manufacturing such as flexible and decentralised production, out-sourcing and modular-sourcing. MAIT is also an ideal completion for the ever increasing e-commerce marked as food and dry goods can be delivered automatically to private homes from stores or factories where orders are submitted by the Internet. Moreover, In itself MAIT may grow rapidly to become a major industry sector.

However, it became evident that the broad introduction of MAIT necessitates the constructive cooperation of various scientific disciplines, including industry, potential operators, political decision makers and mass media.