SkyWay is a new mode of transportation intended to address all of the failures of today's surface transportation. Whether it's trains, or cars or buses; whether it's walking, cycling or running; it is "unsafe at any speed" on our roads and highways. Why? Humans are merely human. Mistakes happen. Streets are congested. People are in a hurry. Danger also arises from the pollution (carbon and particulate) generated in the production of transport systems and the fuels used in the operations thereof. Schemes are developing to add safety at the micro level - often at great expense; often for short duration. "Safe Streets" add lanes to crowded streets to separate the mode of transport. "Bus rapid transit" dedicates one of the few existing lanes thus eliminating valuable space on congested roads. Subways move transit to a different level above or below the other modes, but they still come face to face at some point with all the other modes.

SkyWay, on the other hand, takes a concept tested in the 1999 - 2012 FTA study of low-speed urban maglev systems and makes substantial improvements in materials, methods, scale and electronics. It raises transit to a level above the surface transit just enough to avoid conflict with any of the other modes. The movement of SkyWay pods is restricted to a fixed guideway and controlled by automation using SWARM AI. This prevents any pods from ever coming in contact with any other pod, or any other transport vehicle. That means it is accident free.

The autonomous operation removes the human factor from this system. Automation focused solely on the transportation source and destination, SkyWay lets the user work, talk, relax, eat, sleep and be distracted without any concerns for safety. No more drunk driving or distracted driving. No worrying about pedestrians nor cyclists at street crossings; nor trains at rail crossings.

Because this system is built as a snap-together design; because it includes solar shield above the guideway and thus is self powered most of the time; because the materials are minimal and the pods are small (4px), this system is cheap and fast to deploy with minimal equipment and labor. There are some proprietary features that eliminate the need for stations and bus stops. In fact, it has the same agility as a surface vehicle - right up to your front door. Did you know that it costs more to collect fares than the value of fares collected? So SkyWay is free and gets its revenues from 7 other sources (i.e. energy and marketing).

Carbon free, near zero energy, zero accidents, near-zero maintenance, on-demand, 24/7/365 operation, all weather.

The Chinese have recently adopted a similar project called Rainbow Rail that lacks several unique functions.