My favorite cartoon was The Jetsons (which I experienced in a later decade through Saturday morning reruns). I didn't like the lame stereotypes (reflecting boorish contemporary thought on futuristic utopia was a downer but I liked the automatic nail polisher type gadgets and robots and family and sarcasm and irony), I totally dug the technology and sounds, the shapes and colors, especially the idea of stylin space cars. (If I went on an episode of Pimp My Ride...) In a previous post, I lamented that some solutions try to fit us to the solutions, instead of fitting the solutions to us. Some poet said, don't be a tool to your tools. I had that scrolling as one of my screen savers for years (until that tool crashed).
One of the problems with rail + bus transit (or rail + driving/parking or walking/weather or biking/weather/racking) is rail or bus doesn't come that close to most people's homes or work or where they want to go, including the other inconveniences, to be deemed convenient enough to outweigh driving a vehicle as the primary means of surface transportation. This "first and last mile inconvenience" (getting to and from destination of departure and arrival when using public transit), having to wait around or plan around limited service (areas and schedules), strangers, parking, weather, storage, etc. are all challenges even in the more pervasive and density supported current systems. There are a number of solutions floating around to solve some of the limitations of current conventional transit systems that are, well, not the current transit systems.
Here are a couple.
I bring these up because I think it is a mistake to unquestioningly apply dated technology and thinking or mismatched solutions to fit or further an existing system that isn't exactly working (a transit system that is undersized for peak needs but too lightly used overall because of its limitations and cost per benefit, and a peak-times congested highway network that is not capable of being expanded as fast as demand is growing, even with added toll road or toll lane funding models are considered, which have been given the red light from the Texas Legislature, except for the exceptions. I won't explain that part right now). To me it is important to consider the culture and conditions of Texas (or wherever the solutions are being considered for application). Solutions shouldn't flatten the world 'til crushing, as much as some people think that is the way to go. Not all of it should be inevitable or accepted (sorry, Friedman).
The current system is what we have, and it is the springboard obviously, but it should not be the final blueprint in thinking. The current system of public transit and transportation is not sustainable as a whole, unless further inconveniences to prevailing travel behavior (and lifestyle) are imposed, or rather mandated, the law (with police state enforcement). Technology is an opportunity to address the challenges. The technology should not be something that we completely fit to but that also fits to what we want as much as possible.
Texas Tribune article, Up In The Air, Feb 2010, features Austin Personal Rapid Transit and Innov8 Transport, who have two different models of what they think personal transportation could be like in Austin (and other places) if begun potentially in two to four years. (When you hear that, count on multiplying the start time, finish time and cost by as much as five, ten or more). Issues like safety, privacy, and funding are always going to come into play no matter the utility. (People are still going to find a way to jump off the PGBT).
Please read the article if you will. Of the two systems, the first has some interesting features and is more conventional but does not seem to address the "first and last mile" issue as well as the second one would. It also doesn't address cost of such system and it seems to be more of an inner city address.
The second one, a dual mode system, seems to be the most versatile and with quicker adaptation (and adoption) potential because it would couple existing roadway with new high speed track/rail (that Texas is vying for stimulus money to study, in regard to high speed rail). In the dual mode proposal you and your vehicle drive onto the high speed rail system (it looks like a tram); dual mode; from road to rail. In this way it provides point to point convenience using your own vehicle (a vehicle made to work on the high speed rail and the roadway, proposed to be electric).
Contrarily, the PRT proposal seems to have the system own (ownership of) the travel units (they don't want you to call them "pods" but that is what they are) stationed at tightly dispersed little stations (see video). They are proposed to be electric, no point emission as well.
All of this is insanely expensive but so are the piecemeal and unsustainable solutions, that consume resources such as our time, being used and offered otherwise that are just not keeping up and never will keep up and have bad consequences, like paving over Texas.
Too bad we can't just jump to Moller Air Cars or Milner Air Cars. I should pull out the packet I have from the 70's, with Moller's early model, and scan it in and post it. But, sometimes even when technology is near ready, people are no where near ready to handle it. It doesn't look like they have these ready for prime time anyway. There are a number of experimental and military projects around with such transportation or similar devices. (I was going to say something about teleportation but I don't want to freak out the non-space car huggers too much).
The existing DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) light rail line in Richardson, TX, and subsequently the Richardson corporate bus loops or routes we use for the shuttles and the UTD route could be mini-test route/s for a PRT or dual mode type system (connection). There is one PRT system at Heathrow preparing to open according to the last link. There are PRT tests occurring elsewhere, one in MN.
Texas has its first (High Speed) Rail Director under TXDOT now.
Video and article links are below. Check them out when you are able if you have not already.
Pie in the sky, to an extent, but something's got to give. We need more promising, adaptive, graceful options than what is being pursued.
Austin (now ULTra) Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) Video
Their leapfrog concept is the same one I suggested for DART, since we had DART, to have near a Chinatown / downtown station when a station was being bandied about for Richardson there several years ago. Redevelopment issues were considered problematic and competing ideas / locations had already won out. Since Chinatown is one of the unique things about Richardson, and the downtown is the geo center, and the Home Depot deal fell through (mismatched in my opinion anyway), and the TIF corner there switched ownership hands with no activity visually apparent, or even if there was, it is not out of the question to take another look at that area, somehow, or some technology, linking it better, to non highway connectivity. It is right on the existing DART line with no light rail access provided there (it would slow the line if there was a parallel configuration to the other station configurations, that is why a leapfrogging configuration as seen in the below video was and would be the suggestion when speaking of DART LR trains).
(I wish the opportunities in our governments were not shaded by financial and other mismanagement and lack of oversight/transparency/cronyism and resultant waste and subsequent distrust. Those things are very damaging.)
Innov8 Transport (dual mode) - Their video has President Obama speaking for a few seconds at the beginning regarding economic recovery and investment (aka stimulus funding). I wish they had not included it because while it is part of the transportation issue, it clouds it for some people because of the problems they have with Obama's policies, his spending, etc. or reduces critical thinking because they like him so much.
There is a slide presentation next but if the slides on the presentation are too fuzzy to read, skip ahead to the 2:03 mark where Travis Krupp starts talking and there is animation. You'll need to turn the sound up. You can enlarge the screen by clicking on the four way arrow in the lower right hand corner of the video. Use the escape button on your keyboard to come back to normal size.
Article see, ULTra PRT at Heathrow to Launch June 2010 (it is a PR piece essentially, but the web site has a lot of pictures and proposals and info about Heathrow launching the system).
On-schedule for historic June 2010 start
In June, the London Heathrow ULTra system will become the world's first PRT system to enter revenue service, keeping to the previously announced schedule. We are currently quite busy at Heathrow, conducting passenger trails and proving out the system in various scenarios: large influxes of passengers, emergency scenarios, and non-standard use cases where passengers have special needs or seek to use the ULTra System in an unexpected manner. This comprehensive test program will ensure that the ULTra system provides a reliable, user-friendly, high-quality service from the very first day of public operation.
ULTra PRT is happy to arrange guided tours for cities and organizations with serious interest in an ULTra system for their location.
