Guidebook for Planning and Implementing Automated People Mover Systems at Airports (2010)

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

3Over the past 30 years, air travel has grown dramatically. Planes are larger, and many airports have changed their character and configuration, becoming far bigger and more complex. Some new airport designs include more and larger terminals and facilities that may be spread over large areas. As a result, these airports have become much less walkable due to long distances between facilities and services. Also, the introduction of the A380 aircraft, with over 500 seats, will continue the trend of greater passenger volumes and the resulting larger terminals and longer walks. Airline travel is very time sensitive, and it is critical that all passengers and employees be able to travel efficiently with luggage, strollers, wheelchairs, or other accessories. Recognizing the importance of mobility to passengers and employees, some airports have planned and implemented automated people mover (APM) systems. APMs are transit systems with fully automated, driverless operations, featuring vehicles that travel on guideways with an exclusive right-of-way. These systems have been developed and implemented in various sizes and configurations since the early 1970s. They have been installed in many different settings worldwide, including airports, leisure facilities, insti- tutions, and urban areas. APM systems are distinct from tra- ditional heavy- and light-rail public transportation in that they operate without drivers or station attendants. Typically, APMs use a narrower right-of-way and smaller vehicles than traditional rail transportation services. The advent of com- puterized system operations and increased congestion, along with a desire for improved mobility and integration of activity centers, has spurred the development of APM systems. As of 2010, there are 44 APM systems operating at airports worldwide. Most early APM systems were implemented to facilitate passenger and employee conveyance within the secure area (airside) of an airport—generally conveyance between passenger check-in areas (terminal) and airplane gates (con- course). These APMs allowed greater volumes of passengers to move more quickly over longer distances, connecting large, often dispersed airline terminals. More recently, APM systems have been designed to connect airport terminals with landside facilities such as parking, car rental services, regional trans- portation services, hotels, and other related employment and activity centers. While a typical airport’s staff is experienced in the planning and implementing of many types of facilities and passenger conveyance systems, they are often less familiar with APM sys- tems and the interface requirements between the APM and the airport facilities served by the APM. This guidebook will help provide such familiarity. 1.1 Research Approach The approach of this guidebook to planning and imple- mentation of APM systems at airports is to look at APMs from all perspectives—past, present, and future, as well as inward and outward. Specifically, the approach is to look at the his- torical role of APMs at airports, at present airport applica- tions, and at future technological advances that will allow APMs to meet the needs of tomorrow’s airports. At the same time, this guidebook looks inward at the physical compo- nents of APMs and outward at the facilities and equipment with which APMs must interface at the airport. To implement this research approach, specific areas or issues are broken out and presented in a sequenced manner that attempts to parallel the progression from planning and design to implementation and operation of actual APM sys- tems. The specific areas and issues of research are presented as separate chapters, which, in addition to this chapter and the Introduction in Chapter 2, are: • Chapter 3: History of APM Systems and Their Roles at Airports; • Chapter 4: APM System Characteristics; C H A P T E R 1 Background

• Chapter 5: Airport APM Planning Process Overview; • Chapter 6: Needs Identification and Assessment; • Chapter 7: Matching Needs with Passenger Conveyance Technologies; • Chapter 8: APM System Definition and Planning Method- ology; • Chapter 9: Project Coordination, Justification, and Feasi- bility; • Chapter 10: APM System Procurement; • Chapter 11: Operations and Maintenance; and • Chapter 12: System Expansion and Overhaul. The world of APMs has its own vocabulary and many asso- ciated acronyms. To aid the reader of this report, two theoreti- cal APM planning examples are provided in Appendix A. Other appendices include an inventory of airport APM systems (Appendix B), a glossary of APM terms and acronyms (Appen- dix C), a summary of applicable APM codes and standards (Appendix D), and a passenger flow modeling discussion (Appendix E). The research team’s experience comes from team mem- bers who have worked for airport agencies, for APM sup- pliers, and for APM consultants. An airport peer review was performed on the APM planning methodologies and criteria aspects of the guidebook that are found within Chapter 8. Par- ticipants in the peer-review panel were airport staff members. A detailed selection process resulted in staff from six airports populating the peer-review panel. The panel represented a cross section of APM configurations (shuttle versus pinched loop), APM types (airside versus landside), and APM propul- sion (self-propelled versus cable-propelled). Panel members reviewed the planning methodology and criteria documents and provided written comments to the consulting team. Com- ments were then provided to the ACRP 03-06 project panel for review. The resulting comments were then incorporated into the draft guidebook. 4