Temporal and Economic Benefits of Vertical Take-Off and Landing Vehicles in Urban Transport

Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) is a futuristic mode of transport that can potentially revolutionize the way we commute. However, despite the technical leads offered by VTOL, the feasibility of this state-of-the-art urban commute needs to be established from various aspects. This study assesses the temporal and economic benefits offered by VTOL technology over the conventional road taxi service. The mode ‘taxi’ is chosen as it is thought to compete, as a chief mode of urban transport, with the VTOL transport in future. The comparison is based on two decisive factors: the peak hour travel-time and fare by taxi and VTOL on 44 routes in five metropolitan cities: New York, Los Angeles, London, Munich and Shanghai. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is performed on the data set and conclusion is drawn on the statistical significance of the difference in the response variables (time and fare) by mode choice (VTOL versus Taxi). VTOL is found to offer significant advantages over the surface transport (taxi) in terms of time and fare. The findings of this study are expected to assist in determining the practicality of VTOL systems. Moreover, the methodology used here is reproducible and provides a framework for testing the practicality of other futuristic transport modes (such as hyperloop).