Why
A study for an alternative for the costly infrastructure for an urban public-transportation system. People and freight reach their destination without inbetween stops in maximum two person cabins. These cabins move electrically driven along an overhead rail system forming a finely mazed web, that covers the city. Full guidance by computer, comparable to Internet.

How
Two-persons transportation units receive a coded instruction upon boarding, about where to go. A selection-mechanism assures that the units shift independently from secondary to main tracks and visa versa. The transport rail is so light, it can be hung from walls and lamp posts.

Additional information

Artist impression of IzoGo transportation in the Dutch city of Utrecht, by Baldwin van der Helm

Internal links

IziGo urban transport system, mass transportation without congestion History The IziGo idea emerged around 1970 as a contribution to a Dutch think tank called "The Werkgroep 2000". Socially relevant modernization should support avitally alive democracy. Public transport had to prevent the clogging up of cities: Better use of open space in cities, allocating space in cities to other functions than traffic. Faster, more frequent, non polluting, direct from start to destination, comfortable, single seat cabins, safe and cheap transport. Making the periphery as accessible as the center, thereby upgrading the value of suburbs, specially those in recline. To be build without destroying the existing charm of a city. The study gave us the impression that the efficiency of transport in a town could be greatly improved. It could offer a dense network at a surprising low level of investment. Quality of life in suburbs could profit highly from better accessibility to the center, while functions of the center could dissipate into the periphery because of this good accessability. More ... Present situation The need for public transport in crowded cities is evident. Congestion in towns results from the low effectiveness in which road space is used by private cars for parking and driving. A person using an automobile take 8m2 road surface standing still and at least three times as much when driving. A person moving around in a bus or tram needs only about half a square meter. This is something between a ten to twenty times higher effectiveness in the use of road space. More ... Ultimate effectiveness in the usage of road space Ultimate is not to use any space for a driver, but choosing for automated transport units. Ultimate is using one-person transport units weighting fifty kilograms or less, with cramped space for a second person, child or luggage. With the result that no non-used public transport space is driven around. Ulimate is that it need not use space at street level. Such a carriage needs to weight no more that 50 kilograms and can move along a rail suspended from buildings and lampposts or use a sub street level gutter. Ultimate is if the carriages can roll along the rail without a distance for safety between them. Carriages joining the same rail rub themselves into the line of ongoing carriages. When moving out of this line at a junction, carriages may close the gap again. Ultimate is when locations for boarding and leaving the carriages is integrated in other use of city space, such as shops, theaters and pubs. More ... Technology choice in a democratic setting A technology is in support of democracy, when it offers its value without excluding people because of cost or lack of education. A technology supports democracy when it offers new chances to anyone who is ready to go for it, but not at the cost of those who are not ready. And of course not at the cost of nature and of coming generations. Two technologies comply with these demands: Internet and the "Technology of the Fair" Automated transport comparable to Internet The technology of the Fair The ultimate city transportation system could be pictured as high-tech and in need of an enormous investment, taking at least ten years to build. But there is another approach with as guiding example: the fair. More ... How the Izigo Transportation system may function and look like One to two person cabins with a roof, closed in cold and moderate climates, an open cage-like construction in tropical conditions. Each cabin hangs with wheels in the overhead rail construction, the wheels are electrically driven and controlled by the computer. The cabin computer controls the choice of way at a junction: either straight ahead or sideways. One of the ways this choice can be realized is to make the rolling suspension like that of a curtain. Two small wheels front and rear, run in the left rim, two others, positioned symmetrical to the first set roll in the opposite rim of the rail. Lifting one set of rollers ( the left one) free from the rim makes the cabin follow the opposite rim, the right one. This could be the rim that leads to rail bending away. If the right set of wheels are lifted, the cabin will roll straight ahead. More ...

Call for better urban transport Resource Squeeze on the World's Poor ... but many of the 5.2 billion people living in low and middle income countries - large numbers of whom struggle to meet their basic material needs - have been facing an involuntary decline in their quality of life ... ... Europe can guide the world with technologies that drive sustainability. Europe can build transport and city infrastructure that facilitates rather than thwarts the transition to a sustainable future.

Sky Tran, an IziGo look-alike From the Dutch magazine " De Ingenieur" date April 4, 2003, we cite the text of an article on a system for public transport similar to the Demotech disign for the IziGo. There are many similarities, such as the idea of a light rail system layed out in a network grid with one- to two- person cabins. or freight containers of roughly the same size. Different is their high-tech approach with wheels replaced by a system of magnets and a high speed of transportation. Outstanding differences with the Demotech design is our low-speed (max 40 km/h), no distace needed between carts, low level engeneering and simple upkeep, leading to an overall low exploitaiton cost.

External Links

Links related to urban transport

• http://www.llnl.gov/str/Post.html
• The World Bank's Urban Transport Strategy Review 2001 [PDF]
  Page 1. WORLD BANK Urban Transport Strategy Review Urban Transport Strategy Review
  The World Bank's Urban Transport Strategy Review 2001 Gerhard Menckhoff Ninth ...
  http://www.un.org/esa/gite/csd/gerhard.pdf
• Urban Transport Home Home
  ... services for the poor. The World Bank's Urban Transport Strategy. Review prepares for this challenge. The document was published ...
  http://www.worldbank.org/transport/ut_over.htm
• Transport ... services for the poor.
  The World Bank's Urban Transport Strategy Review will prepare for this challenge. The document was published ...
  www.worldbank.org/transport/
• More links on transport
  http://www.worldbank.org
  World Bank Publications: Cities on the Move Details ... DC. Infoshop. Cities on the Move: A World Bank Urban Transport Strategy
  http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/ catalog/product?item_id=1067657
• Infrastructure, Transport, and Urban Development
  Cities on the Move : A World Bank Urban Transport Strategy Review: A World Bank Urban Transport Strategy Review.
  http://publications.worldbank.org/ecommerce/ catalog/category_3882?page=2
  
• Review of World Bank urban transport policy
  This review of World Bank urban transport policy was developed with ... from experts and NGOs from around the world. ... consensus in the field of urban transportation ...
  http://www.itdp.org/read/James_Wolfensohn.doc
  
• Izigo in disguise as a banana transporter
  Banana plantations in many tropical countries use an interesting monorail system to haul fruit from field to packing shed. Similar systems have begun to spread to large-scale flower nurseries and other types of plantations.
  The story told at this website shows a transportation system much of which could be copied for the mechanical part of the Izigo concept. Regarding software for selecting destination of the carts, most probably there is an industrial handling systems that only needs to be adjusted for urban transport use. http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/banana.html
• Sky Train
  http://www.skytran.net
• Send us an email form about any relevant link, that should be added here

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