Advantages and benefits

Performance gains

• In average shorter trip times.

• Higher reliability.

• Higher ride comfort.

  • Passengers are not obliged to concentrate on driving,

  • No sudden breaking or acceleration.

  • No problems with finding the destination or parking.

Social benefits Higher life quality less noise stress-free near complete elimination of pollution in the vicinity of the users. elimination of danger to users and non-users. Accessible to all regardless of age, driving skills, capital resources, state of health or inebriation. Separation of traffic from pedestrians makes the street available for social life and for children to play.

MAIT is environmentally friendly Lower energy usage , less pollution and less noise and possibility to use renewable energy sources due to extensive use of electrical motors and way-side power supply. Lower land-use because less surface and parking area is required and due to the use of elevated guideways. Less waste because of longer life-cycles and high recycling capacity. Separation from wild life .

The energy reduction over cars has been estimated with a factor of 10 [13]. However this rate can vary strongly dependent on the assumption or whether secondary factors are also included, such as the avoidance of congestions by automated systems. The amount of noise reduction depends on the carrier technology, speed and materials of tires and guideway (for carriers with wheels). However, a considerable noise-reduction with respect to cars is expected because:

• guideway-type carriers have lateral guide-wheels and can use flat rubber tires, similar to modern metro vehicles.

• Electrical motors produce less noise than combustion engines.

The electrical power is usually supplied by the guideway. The energy storage problem is therefore avoided and the energy can be produced with any available technology; preferably with renewable energy sources or coupled heat-electricity power stations. The gain in land-use is even more difficult to quantify since it not only depends on the applied carrier-track technology, but also on the street-layout and traffic demand patterns of a city. Simulation software could be used to perform comprehensive case studies. However, considerable gain can be expected since

• carrying capacity is higher compared with roads. In particular if traffic lights and congestion are included in the calculations.

• vehicles are usually shared, such that the parking space can be reduced considerably (A vehicle storage place is still required for empty vehicles, waiting for a customer)

• elevated guideway structures can remove traffic from ground level. On the country side they also help to separate traffic from wild-life.

The high recycling capacity is possible because the system design is modular and defect parts can be replaced. For example, if the cabin is damaged, only the cabin must be replaced and not the carrier. Moreover, one of the design philosophies is to have a deeper modular structure, such that also single components can be easily and efficiently replaced.

Added value People and goods arrive faster and in-time. People can be productive during traveling. Lower medical costs. Lower insurance costs. Lower energy costs. Better usage of invested capital: Higher usage of vehicles by vehicle sharing and reduced transfer times. More adapted usage of infrastructure: light MAIT -infrastructure is for light weight MAIT vehicles only. Better distribution of traffic: passenger transport in passenger cabins during day, and freight transport in freight cabins during the night, combined with automated delivery. For the same reason the most expensive part of the system, carrier and track, can be used during a greater part of the day.

Shorter trip times means cost savings. Arriving in-time allows a better planning of schedules and production processes.

Lower medical costs and lower insurance costs are due to the higher safety for users and non-users. Human errors, the primary source of accidents in present transport system, is avoided. Concerning light weight and heavy weigh vehicles: in most cases the contents of large trucks are pallets that can be distributed over many small MAIT vehicles.