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Requires no expensive infrastructure
Currently, only helicopters and other vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicles can avoid airports, but heliports and vertiports have had to be relatively large to accommodate the large, noisy vehicles needed to carry enough passengers for profitable flights.
The Skycar will use much smaller vertiports - built on flat roof tops, on top of parking garages, in parking lots, etc.
With the Skycar, governments will not have to build new freeways, parking lots, or airports, so can save farms, wetlands, forests, and of course money - the Skycar infrastructure doesn't require thousands of square miles to be paved over - the land required for small vertiports is less than 1/100th the amount needed for an equivalent rail system.
The Skycar will not require public subsidies as do large mass transit systems and the auto - no big outlay for infrastructure is needed to enable the Skycar to start operations, as is required for virtually every other form of transportation - and, once installed, a Skycar system can add new service areas in months, not years.
The small infrastructure required can be financed by use charges - flight time estimated at 12¢ per minute and vertiports at $1 per use (1990 dollars). It is estimated that this level of funding will be sufficient to finance the air taxi system's use of central navigation, communication and weather information service, with link-up to the ground and air traffic control systems.
Large-scale use of the Skycar will cost much less than many proposed transportation alternatives, such as light rail, high speed rail, or MagLev - due primarily to much reduced ground infrastructure required for an equivalent Skycar system, costs will be 1/5 to 1/20 that of a rail system.
Helps the long distance commuter
The Skycar will replace existing commutes of 40 minutes with flights of 4 to 8 minutes - plus, with the air limo or taxi service, you won't have to park.
When the electronically piloted air taxi is available, you won't even have to drive or put up with a stranger (pilot) driving you.
Just call the dispatcher on your cell-phone - tell him or her where you want to go - in a few minutes, when your Skycar arrives, get in, and lift off immediately - fly straight to your destination across town or across the continent.
Many auto commuters will take the Skycar just because they don't like the hassle of driving.
The Skycar has the potential to significantly increase your productivity on the job by reducing the time and stress of your commute.
Lets you live where you want
With the Skycar, you can live in a scenic or rural area rather than in a nearby expensive congested suburb and still work in the city - live up to 100 miles away and still have less than a half-hour commute.
Suburb-to-suburb commuting within a large region will also be feasible with the Skycar.
Attend cultural events, special school or university, and visit recreation spots without having to live in or near the urban area.
Workers can afford to live in cheaper housing much further from the city, because the commute time is still reasonable.
The middle and upper class will be able to choose the most desirable home sites within a much greater area than is possible now, and can enjoy the benefits of pursuing business or professional opportunities over a wide region.
Retirement, vacation, and planned "rural setting" communities will proliferate further from cities, without needing additional expensive freeways - 2-lane roads will handle the necessary truck and reduced auto traffic - with the Skycar, shopping and medical facilities can be centralized for a region, not duplicated in every community.
Improves family and community life
With the Skycar families can quickly come together from distant areas - older children can easily visit relatives or friends, or attend private school or lessons in next city, without requiring a parent to drive them.
Increased access because of quick, easy Skycar transportation means that scattered individuals and communities will be able to draw on many resources and activities just as urban dwellers in large cities do now - high density will not be required to support rich and varied cultural opportunities.
Communities are likely to develop their own individual character as a result of the Skycar - instead of "plastic malls" endlessly repeated in each community for the convenience of its residents, people will find it just as convenient to visit a truly unique shop or restaurant in another town or city in the region - communities will vie to attract residents and/or tourists, and can draw on people over a wide area.
Opens up new areas for development worldwide
The Skycar overcomes the limitations of difficult terrain such as mountains, forests, islands, deserts, and tundra, where the cost of transportation infrastructure has been prohibitive - the Skycar would greatly improve transportation in, for example, Japan, Indonesia, Greece, Brazil, Chile, China, Russia, Alaska, and Saudi Arabia - 40 countries have already contacted Moller about the Skycar.
Japan, for example, recently completed a costly 33 mile undersea tunnel to the island of Hokkaido to shave 2.5 hours off a 13.5 hour commute from Tokyo to Sapporo - the M400 would have cut 11.5 hours off the commute, and the expensive tunnel wouldn't have been needed.
The figure shows how a small island near Tokyo could be used as an airport, with people arriving very near their final destination via Skycar within 1 hour.
Many countries and regions would, with improved transportation available at relatively low cost, be able to enjoy greater economic development and an improved quality of life - better medical services, shopping, business activity, etc. with the Skycar.