Editing Personal rapid transit (section)

===PRT research starts===
However, planners who were aware of the PRT concept were worried that building more systems based on existing technologies would not help the problem, as Fitcher had earlier noted. Proponents suggested that systems would have to offer the flexibility of a car:

<blockquote>
The reason for the sad state of public transit is a very basic one – the transit systems just do not offer a service which will attract people away from their [[automobile]]s. Consequently, their patronage comes very largely from those who cannot drive, either because they are too young, too old, or because they are too poor to own and operate an automobile. Look at it from the standpoint of a commuter who lives in a suburb and is trying to get to work in the [[central business district]] (CBD). If he is going to go by transit, a typical scenario might be the following: he must first walk to the closest bus stop, let us say a five or ten minute walk, and then he may have to wait up to another ten minutes, possibly in inclement weather, for the bus to arrive. When it arrives, he may have to stand unless he is lucky enough to find a seat. The bus will be caught up in street congestion and move slowly, and it will make many stops completely unrelated to his trip objective. The bus may then let him off at a terminal to a suburban train. Again he must wait, and, after boarding the train, again experience a number of stops on the way to the CBD, and possibly again he may have to stand in the aisle. He will get off at the station most convenient to his destination and possibly have to transfer again onto a distribution system. It is no wonder that in those cities where ample inexpensive parking is available, most of those who can drive do drive.<ref>Irving, pg. 2</ref>
</blockquote>

In 1966, the [[United States Department of Housing and Urban Development]] was asked to "undertake a project to study ... new systems of urban transportation that will carry people and goods ... speedily, safely, without polluting the air, and in a manner that will contribute to sound city planning." The resulting report was published in 1968<ref>{{citation
 | author = Leone M.Cole, Harold W. Merritt
 | year = 1968
 | title = Tomorrow's Transportation: New Systems for the Urban Future
 | publisher = U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Metropolitan Development
}}</ref> and proposed the development of PRT, as well as other systems such as dial-a-bus and high-speed interurban links.

In the late 1960s, the [[Aerospace Corporation]], an independent non-profit corporation set up by the US Congress, spent substantial time and money on PRT, and performed much of the early theoretical and systems analysis. However, this corporation is not allowed to sell to non-federal government customers. In 1969, members of the study team published the first widely publicized description of PRT in ''[[Scientific American]]''.<ref>Systems Analysis of Urban Transportation Systems, ''Scientific American'', July 1969, Vol.221 No.1:19-27</ref>
In 1978 the team also published a book.<ref name="FundOfPRT">{{cite book
 |last         = Irving
 |first        = Jack
 |author2      = Harry Bernstein
 |author3      = C. L. Olson
 |author4      = Jon Buyan
 |year         = 1978
 |title        = Fundamentals of Personal Rapid Transit
 |publisher    = D.C. Heath and Company
 |url          = http://www.advancedtransit.net/content/fundamentals-personal-rapid-transit-book
 |access-date  = 2023-06-11
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20080923093711/http://www.advancedtransit.net/content/fundamentals-personal-rapid-transit-book
 |archive-date = 2008-09-23
 |url-status     = dead
}}</ref> These publications sparked off a sort of "transit race" in the same sort of fashion as the [[space race]], with countries around the world rushing to join what appeared to be a future market of immense size.

The [[oil crisis of 1973]] made vehicle fuels more expensive, which naturally interested people in alternative transportation.