On acid

Citation

(2001), "On acid", Work Study, Vol. 50 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ws.2001.07950eab.011

On acid

On acid

Lead acid batteries are set to be at the heart of a revolutionary urban transport system which will begin operation in Cardiff, the capital city of Wales in the UK, in 2003. The new transport system, called Ultra, is a series of driverless and "on demand" taxi vehicles, which can carry up to four persons almost anywhere in a city centre, on a unique guideway, without stopping at intermediate stations or lights. Detailed analysis by two major British Civil Engineering groups has shown that the Ultra guideway can carry as much traffic as a single lane of freeway, but costs less than a tenth of the price to build. And it only occupies a quarter of the land. Each Ultra taxi module is essentially an electric vehicle, but it doesn't need a trolley-type overhead line, or conductor rail from which to derive its power. The vehicle will travel at an average speed of around 25 mph – three times faster than is already achieved in most cities in a car today. To hit this speed requires only a modest electric motor – just 3KW. That means that sufficient electric energy can be stored on board using small lead acid batteries, without putting too much weight into the vehicle body. The whole system uses 70 percent less energy than conventional buses, cars, trains or trams, so it's very much an idea of its time. Every time the vehicle offloads its passengers, it takes a fast "opportunity charge", typically lasting a minute. By scattering the fast charge technology around the Ultra network, the system's costs are kept down. The Cardiff system is planned to run in a series of loops, taking in destinations including the new Welsh Parliament, the main rail station, the University and the famous Castle, as well as major shopping precincts.