NPR aired the last episodes this week in their year long series titled Climate Connectionsby focusing on the new “zero-emissions” city being built outside of AbuDhabi called Masdar City. With an expected population of 50,000 people,the “experiment” in green technologies and sustainable design will bethe largest effort ever to create a carbon-neutral urban center. Theproject is the crown jewel in the Abu Dhabi’s amibtious plans to becomethe ’silicon valley’ of the renewable energy world. The Middle Eastcertainly isn’t naive when it comes to looking past oil for the futuresecurity of their economies.One of the more interesting technologies being put into action inMasdar is the PRT — or Rapid Transit System. Designed to hold sixpeople, these pods will travel to more than 1,500 stations distributedthroughout the city. From the NPR clip,“‘Really, all it is is a car,’ says Scott McGuigan of CH2M Hill, theconstruction firm that’s building Masdar City. ‘It’s a simple vehicle{for} six passengers. It’s designed like a car, but obviously it’spowered by solar energy with batteries.’”Unlike other PRT systems in development, this one will be completelyunderground. In fact, don’t expect Masdar City to go looking likesomething out of Blade Runner. The architects are sticking toa purely traditional Arab theme — not only because it makes people feelmore “at home”, but also because narrow streets and shaded walks keepthings cooler; reducing the need for air conditioning.But back to the PRT — they will basically take you anywhere you want to go. No fixed routes like a Subway. Once again, from the radio segment,“‘You program what station you want to go to, and {the vehicle} willdirectly take you to that station,’ he says. ‘If you look at thingslike Blade Runner, etc., that we had 15 years ago, it’s really bringing that to the fore now.’”Hmm…then again, perhaps we will get a little Blade Runner in the mix. Construction on Masdar City starts this summer.
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