Evaluation on Ride Comfort of Energy Saving Urban Transportation System “Eco-Ride“

To solve various traffic issues existing in urban area, the high energy-saving new public transportation system called “Eco-Ride” was proposed and has been developed. The “Eco-Ride” vehicle that does not have on-board driving devices runs using potential energy by the application of roller coaster technologies. Then the merits of “Eco-Ride” are low initial cost and high flexibility to install by the light-***weight vehicles. For the real use of actual transportation, safety and durability should be checked. The test track of about 100 meters in total length was constructed in Chiba Experiment Station, Institute of Industrial Science, The University of Tokyo to execute various experiments. The analysis of ride comfort of “Eco-Ride” was examined. In the “Eco-Ride” system, the track shape such as vertical curve decides velocity and acceleration, so, the design of curve is important factor to consider the ride comfort. For the vertical ride comfort, the suspension property is important. In this paper the basic investigation for ride comfort is presented.