Conclusion

This thesis has identified the purpose and goals of an urban area, and attempted to define the characteristics of a mass transit system that could help meet the goals of diversity and specialization in a dense package. It has also applied intelligent routing in such a way as to allow comparisons of feeder and trunk transit networks with more futuristic PRT systems. The latter is accomplished through the use of a unified scheduling and simulation framework. Therefore, this work makes a step toward filling a gap between existing analyses of traditional transit featuring large, high-capacity vehicles, and smaller personal or group routed vehicles.

We hope that this work will ultimately inspire urban planners to invest intelligently in infrastructure to tackle $21^{st}$ century challenges, from reducing effects of peak oil and global climate change to creating equal access housing and environmental sustainability for a population. Often we try to look for solutions to the transportation problem by developing better vehicles, when we could address the problem more effectively with better urban design and development.