Personal rapid transit is a futuristic transit system that would use gumdrop-shaped cars to whisk travelers along on elevated tracks. University of Minnesota researchers developed a version of the concept, and a Fridley-based company stands ready to build a full system.
But supporters say the industry needs incentives to flourish, and they have found allies in Rep. Mark Olson, R-Big Lake, chief sponsor of several bills in the House, and Sens. Yvonne Solon, DFL-Duluth, and Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater, who are sponsoring legislation in the Senate.
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amg | 11:21 AM |
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We already have PRT- it's called cars and roads. Why some people want to build a duplicate system that goes to fewer destinations is beyond me.
The biggest problem with PRT conceptually is that even if it works, it perpetuates the horrendous land use patterns that have prevailed in the US for the past 50 years.
Is "PRT" a Trojan Horse for highway builders?
Learn more at the unofficial "Personal Rapid Transit" sceptic web page:
http://www.roadkillbill.com/PRTisaJoke.html
PRT is a way to ignore the bus system, commuter rail and our current LRT and waste time and money on
a futurerama ride. No one has built it, it does not
even have a theme park demo, much less a real system in operation. feh.
Personal Rapid Transit could replace the bus system in MSP easily, and a significant portion of the taxis in use as well. An ultra-light track that can be run almost anywhere, with little or no disruption of existing roads and right-of-ways: it runs on an elevated track out of the way of cars and such. If you want to take a trip from Edina to Minnetonka on the busses, you have to go through downtown Minneapolis. With PRT, you could be routed by computer over the shortest route without having to go through downtown, change busses, and waste a ton of time. Busses don't go where anyone wants them to go. That is why in a Metro area the size of MSP, with over 2 million people living in the seven county metro area, there are fewer than 100,000 that use the bus. Did traffic go straight into the toilet during the bus strike that just ended this month (April 2004)? Didn't think so.
You want security? Busses aren't secure, because it is easy for one predator to get onto a bus and cause problems. Remember the news footage of the drivers getting assaulted? PRT: you only let people you know onto the car, or ride by yourself.
Bus systems are inherently a cost center, because you can not charge like taxies do: distance or time based. Busses cost a lot of money to maintain, and if a bus breaks down with passengers on it, all those passengers are inconvenienced. Busses produce pollution, with diesel engines in every unit, further adding to air quality problems in downtown Mpls/StP.
PRT can be billed entirely on distance alone. You want to go from Richfield to Maplewood? That costs more than if you want to go from Richfield to Minneapolis. And it gets charged more. PRT cars are electrified, powered off the electric grid, and the energy needed to power them comes from power plants where the power is generated wholesale in a much more efficient manner and on a greater scale than a single diesel engine in every bus.
No more driver strikes to cause disruption. No more security issues. No more long inefficient routes through places you don't want to see just to get to where you want to go. PRT could take you directly from the skyway system in MPLS or StP directly to the non-secured portions of the airport. No more parking costs to fly out. The list goes on and on. If PRT was on every major road and highway throughout the Minneapolis St Paul area, you'd never have to walk more than a mile to get to it. You could get rid of your second car.
Learn about how Transitguy, Avidor and Anonymous have gotten it all wrong:
http://gettherefast.org
http://kinetic.seattle.wa.us/prt
People like Nazi Michele Bachmann support PRT because it's a way for them to use public transportation without having to share space with all those horrible Negroes and Orientals and Mexicans that ride buses and trains. They can sequester their white asses in a private little car and feel safe and secure.
The news is that PRT is going to be built. It looks like the first applicaton will be in Cardiff, Wales. The test track is operating. Testing started in January 2005 with positive responses from riders.
PRT is more energy efficient than cars, light rail, buses or taxi. A PRT system would make most sense in congested areas because 30mph non-stop would be an improvement over light rail (20mph average), cars in traffic jams. Cars and roads are of limited use as population grows. Alternatives are needed
Some more about the PRT non-joke mass transit system:
http://kinetic.seattle.wa.us/nxtlevel/prt/seehow.html
http://kinetic.seattle.wa.us/nxtlevel/prt/pocket.html
