At 06:27 AM 5/2/2012, you wrote:

Good point, certainly a possibility - so long as there is a  way to
get to your destination when you get off the guideway.

It's really quite amusing to see these first/last mile vehicles being
demonstrated by people who look like they are in their 30's when the
text  makes the case that a fast growing population segment in many
countries is the elderly. People who have low vision, bad hearing,
balance problems, slow reaction times, arthritic joints and other
problems are certainly not as able as the people doing the demos.
Makes me wonder if the people designing these systems know anything
about the limitations that some of their potential clients have to deal with.

Beyond that, where are you going to park the "mother ship" if your
destination is in an auto-free zone? Would high rise parking garages
in low cost locations near all major activity centers around the
region be needed? It's another example of the lack of system
engineering by these inventors.

I suspect that many of the elderly will not often want to travel to
these high density destinations anyway, unless they are in a bus and
do actually get to the desired door - and get picked up there as
well. Of course there will still be a large market of younger people
so long as they can find a convenient place to park their "mother ship".

- Jerry Schneider -
     Innovative Transportation Technologies
       http://faculty.washington.edu/jbs/itrans