15
“Our ideas about the future of transportation
haven’t changed much since
The Jetsons
aired in
the 1960s,” says futurist Ed Finn, director of the
Center for Science and the Imagination at Arizona
State University: “ it’s still flying cars and floating
modern cities.”
When Dennis Elliott and Chuck Elms
first started in the APM industry, automated
transportation systems were almost that futuristic:
a technology that came from the aerospace
industry, which visionaries were just beginning
to apply in civilian settings. The idea of moving
people short distances in small, driverless vehicles
was in its infancy.
Lea+Elliott was there at the beginning: creating
some of the specifications, adapting regulations
from aerospace, working through the kinks, and
watching a budding technology flourish into the
almost ubiquitous technology it is today. Airport
APMs took off—and Lea+Elliott has worked on
two thirds of those currently in service, including
the largest airport APM in the world. We worked
on the only personal rapid transit (PRT) system
in operation in the 1970s—the Morgantown PRT,
and we have continued to help keep that system
updated and improved ever since it opened. We
turned the future into the present.
Automated transportation began in the
United States and has since spread around the
world; and we travel with it. While we began
providing services in the United States, 30% of
our revenue is now derived from international
projects. Automation began on airport APMs and
has since spread to other modes of transit, and so
have we. While we started as a company working
predominantly on airport APMs, over 30% of our
revenue now comes from rail transit projects.
In fact, today, we are working on the two largest
transit projects in the United States: Honolulu Rail
Transit and the Dulles Corridor Metrorail projects.
The automated transportation industry has
come so far in the past 40 years, and we have
stayed ahead of the curve. A flexible company, we
easily adapt to the changing dynamics of the global
market. So where do we go from here?
How we talk about the future of transportation
has changed over the years: Transportation
Being Lea+Elliott
“Customers are focused on making
improvement to their infrastructure. Because
of our expertise, we can help them—not by
taking over their role, but by giving them
good advice that will inform their policy
decisions, enabling them to make better
decisions for their markets and countries.”
Sanjeev Shah | Principal, Regional Director
Moving
Forward
1...,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19 21,22,23,24