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2
Transport concepts
4 main transportation concepts are presented. All these require aspects of both the vehicle and infrastructure to
be combined to form an optimum transport solution.
COAST is a public transport system served by an integrated, flexible, rapid response vehicle-sharing scheme
served primarily by the private motorist, but is supplemented by taxi operators and public service vehicle
operators. The LOCI concept uses a radically different car design and infrastructure using a narrow road gauge
allowing vehicles to be used on paths and extra lanes adjacent to conventional roads. Both these concepts
increase passenger utilisation in different ways; COAST by increasing the number of people travelling in a
standard sized vehicle and LOCI by substantially reducing the size of the car to meet a typical rather than
maximum loading requirement. Most importantly, the increased passenger capacity in relation to the space taken
by these vehicles justifies their use on preferential routes, priority passage through traffic management schemes
and a much lower tariff for road pricing if introduced. This would reduce transit times, make them more
attractive and competitive compared with present transport methods, and would reduce the need for significant
additional road building
ELECAT and INITIATE are passenger and freight vehicle concepts respectively, which apply modifications to
the existing transport infrastructure to increase transport capacity and reduce fuel consumption. They can be
used by existing designs of vehicle with some minor modifications, but the long term benefit would be to enable
the electrification of the transport network by effectively extending the range of battery powered vehicles
(BEVs) and drawing energy from zero-carbon stationary energy sources. The COAST, LOCI, INITIATE and
the ELECAT concepts can also be combined in various ways and are complementary to one another.
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