Sunday, August 3, 2014

Spartan Superway in the News

Here are some news articles about Spartan Superway at Intersolar in July and Maker Faire in May.

2014-07-15  Automated Transit Network (ATN) at Maker Faire 2014
An interdisciplinary team of engineers, industrial designers, urban planners, and business students are designing a paradigm-breaking, sustainable transportation system - the Spartan Superway. The Superway is a solar-powered automated transit network (ATN) that has potential to significantly impact urban transportation. 

2014-07-11  Spartan Superway showcases sustainable transportation
The Spartan Superway special exhibit at Intersolar North America demonstrated practical applications of PV in the transportation industry. Students and faculty from San Jose State University showcased their futuristic transportation system, which utilizes solar power to move compact, fully automated vehicles along above ground steel rail system. The concept is designed to maximize efficiency by ensuring cars only accelerate and decelerate between stops once. The system generates 1 MW per mile of track, moving the vehicles close to 40 miles per hour to the occupant’s destination. Faculty staffing the booth explained the advantages to the system.

2014-07-10  A Little Trouble And A Lot Of Hope At The Spartan Superway Project:
The Spartan Superway Project is a multi-disciplinary team of student engineers, designers and urban planners at San Jose State University. The group envisions cities where on-demand, elevated transport alleviates traffic congestion and gets people to destinations faster – and all of it would be powered by renewable energy.

2014-07-08  New Innovations Shown at Intersolar Conference in SF
The sun can move lots of things -- like one day, a public transit system.

"And move people with the energy that they're sitting underneath," said Inist.org project manager Sam Ellis.

Here, it's not just about making more power, but using less.

"You don't want to have rubber tires on an asphalt road," Ellis said. "You want to have steel wheels on a steel rail."

2014-05-10  SJSU students to unveil their innovative solar-powered Automated Transit Network design at upcoming Maker Faire
In an interdisciplinary effort, San José State University engineering, business, design and urban planning students are determined to revolutionize transportation with their new Spartan Superway, a 100 percent solar-powered Automated Transit Network (ATN), using driverless podcars. The ATN project was first motivated by a solar design challenge proposed by the Institute of Sustainable Transportation (INIST) two years ago, to help cities move toward a more sustainable future.