Traditional funding of transportation systems has often been with Federal money along with State and local matching shares. However, funding of that kind has dwindled considerably in recent years. In addition, with the widening recognition of the adverse effects of carbon emissions, government agencies are scrambling to identify ways of implementing new transportation modes that are carbon neutral or better.

PRT is now recognized as providing new opportunities to help avoid dangerous climate change. This is most apparent in a new report* finalized February 11, 2008 by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Because of this, some new funding opportunities are expected.

The most commonly discussed method of financing a PRT system is a Public - Private partnership where the municipal agency provides right-of-ways using a franchise agreement and also oversight engineering and legal contract development. The private portion of the project is expected to come from PRT developers and investors.

Assuming that public committment, at least one PRT developer has offered to build the entire PRT system using his own investment and operate it to obtain return on investment.

* See pages 3-4, 3-12, 10-85, and 10-92