MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- A new concept in commuting may be gaining momentum. The idea involves personal pod-cars or PRT's that offer on-demand non-stop transportation in a system called ULTRA.

The idea was floated at Mountain View City Hall Wednesday night before a transportation subcommittee.

Proponents suggested people to imagine riding in battery-powered self-driving cars on elevated guideways from the train station to the city's biggest business park.

"It goes nonstop point to point at 25 miles per hour," explained Steve Raney of Advanced Transport Systems Inc. "The cars down below with traffic lights are going closer to 12 miles an hour, so it's actually faster. So that makes it really competitive."

The British company making PRT's is installing its first system at Heathrow Airport in London.

The proposal is to build a similiar system 8.5 miles long with 24 stations going from the Mountain View Transit Station to the Shoreline Business Park where there are 25,000 employees at various companies including Google and NASA. The system would cost somewhere between $60 and $128 million.

Right now many Shoreline companies provide shuttle buses to take employees to the train station. Proponents of PRT say the system would take more vehicles off the freeway and roads.

The proposal was intriguing to some area residents.

"That would actually be pretty neat," said Myra Galeano of San Mateo. "I like the idea, yes."

John Gale of Palo Alto wasn't convinced. "That's a lot of money. If we spent it on schools, education, libraries things like that, [it] might be better spent there."

One commuter asked about companies moving locations away from a PRT system. "Shuttle bus is flexible but to set a certain route is a little bit risky," said Masae Otsuka of Mountain View.

"What it does is it makes the buildings that are served by PRT a lot more valuable," responded Raney. 100 percent more valuable in one study by a UC Berkeley professor the company cited.

Other cities are considering a PRT system. San Jose even has a representative in London inspecting the PRT being built at Heathrow Airport.

"I think it's exciting," said Mountain View councilman Jac Siegel. "I think it's clearly in our future."