It's not far away now. Masdar City in the United Arab Emirates will have its PRT up and running this year. Watch for the PRT cars part-way through the video
Subsidise old technology - the way of the future
Written by Will Wilson
Wednesday, 18 February 2009
Ok, that title is a bit tongue in cheek but you would think it was true judging by the thinking evident in Minnesota. Given the amount of well developed research that has come out of Minnesota, including Ed Anderson's, you could call it America's home of PRT.
Yet that very city seems to have gone out of its way to ignore PRT. In the face of economic crisis it would rather stick with a technology which is going to require continued subsidies, bringing with that all the attendant issues of subsidised services.
Read here an article decrying the opportunity lost in the City's Central Corridor light rail line
Also here an interesting article noting the skewed economics that arise from such subsidies
Change.gov launches citizen briefing book
Written by Will Wilson
Saturday, 17 January 2009
The Obama administration was elected on its "time for a change" platform and true to that position has established the opportunity for feedback on change ideas for America. To that end the administration has created a citizen briefing book for the President elect to review ideas for change.
It is no surprise then to find that "Greening America" with technologies such as PRT is right out front in the feedback from the citizens of America. Visit the site and search on PRT to see the ideas that are being put forwar. Register, add comments and vote for PRT
Ed Anderson has launched his new website for PRT International. He has had www.prtinternational.com as a domain for a little while but has not felt he needed to launch a website until now. The website showcases his PRT technology which he is calling ITNS or an Intelligent Transportation Network System. Ed says ITNS synthesizes decades of research, development, design, and planning.
The launch of the website effectively shows Ed and his team are open for business and looking for opportunities to put ITNS to work. Read the current newsletter announcing the website launch here
The website was developed with assistance from our very own PRTNZ.com - a result of the working relationship between Ed and Will Wilson, the author of this site.
Fast Track to rail electrification?
Written by Administrator
Wednesday, 12 November 2008
The change in government may herald some fast tracking to desparately needed rail electrification with ARC ready to order 35 electric trains. There are also expectations that work on the ring road route from Auckland South out to West Auckland might move forward more quickly. This infrastruture will be met by a regional fuel tax of 2c a litre from next July rising to 9.5c a litre by 2011.
Auckland City Mayor John Banks says government needed to have a greater focus on big projects requiring $1 billion of investment every year for the next 20 years. He signalled an intention to push for a $1 billion-plus underground city rail loop. It would be great for PRT to get on the agenda for his upcoming local economic summit.
What is being described as 'the current oil shock" with fuel prices expected to rise to $2.80 a litre for petrol and $2.50 for diesel, appears to be driving a "drive not to drive". The New Zealand Herald reports
"Consultants to the Government's new Transport Agency are recommending a
smorgasbord of measures - including a national road pricing scheme and
tax incentives for public transport passenger - to ensure those who are already driving less for economic reasons can continue doing so for decades to come." Read the article here
Nevertheless, the Green Party says Government was still spending far too much on new roads in defiance of the impact of high fuel prices. This may be borne out by an earlier report in the New Zealand Herald referring to a draft report which the Government's new Transport Agency is circulating among interested
parties. The report "proposes building a four-lane motorway on a new alignment
between Puhoi and Warkworth, and then an expressway of similar capacity
over the 19km section to Wellsford.
The report also proposes
pressing ahead with a realignment of the difficult Schedewys Hill
section north of Puhoi, upgrading an extension of the Northwestern
Motorway to a four-lane expressway to Brigham Creek Rd, and extending
the Northern Busway to Silverdale. The realignment may form the first section of a future motorway." Read the article here
But here's the thing. In the face of increasing poplutation growth on the North Shore, increasing congestion, increasing greenhouse emissions and now increasing fuel prices why are our transport planners NOT looking at alternatives like PRT. Auckland Regional Council members have baulked at some of the roading suggestions above. The environmental impacts have also been noted. There has also been a request to the Transport Agency to work within the Auckland Growth Strategy which is partly aimed at controlling urban sprawl. But that is another point. If the Regional Council really want urban development to remain within "designated growth areas" then the appropriate transit paradigm should be the one that is flexible enough to accomodate that. PRT, at least conceptually, can provide that flexibility. It can go where people are. People are not forced to cluster to transit corridors like motorway ribbons or rail routes.
