Bachmann Supporter Westover Joins Felein in Bashing Central Corridor LRT

Read about it at Lloydletta.

Ed Felein's Anti-LRT Article Part 2

Over at the Minneapolis forum, David Greene fisks Felein's anti-LRT article.

Some highlights:

Felein: There has been no public discussion or debate over the alternatives to that route.

Greene: False. This Corridor has been discussed _ad_nauseum_. It's been on the planning table literally for decades. There were many public meetings and hearings about it over the last couple of years. I know because I attended them.

Felein: It will probably kill people. The Hiawatha line killed two people its first year of operation...

Greene: Both accidents were just that: accidents. In both cases the people ignored warning signals and crossed the tracks illegally. Certainly these were tragedies but to say that we should halt rail transit on University because of them is irresponsible.

Felein: Ask any motorist trying to cross Hiawatha Avenue if LRT has sped up their traffic.

Greene: ...transit corridors are not meant to speed up traffic, reduce congestion or improve the driving experience in any way whatsoever. They are meant to provide transportation options for people.

Felein, Zimmermann and others in the Green Party have taken positions on transportation that are opposite of the mainstream transit and environmental groups like the Sierra Club North Star and Transit for Livable Communities, both of which support the Central Corridor LRT.

When it comest to transportation policy, Felein and other Zimmermann supporters in the Green Party are not "green".

Left-Wing Wackos Join Right-Wing Wackos to Bash Rail Transit

Ed Felein, the editor and publisher of PULSE (where my comic appeared between 1999 and 2003) sounds like David Strom and Phil Krinkie in this PULSE article.... not to mention Michele Bachmann, Ray Vandeveer, and Mark Olson who are running against progressive Democrats who support rail transit (Ed's a big help).... It's ironic that after the Hiawatha Line's phenomenal success, the only people remaining who say LRT is a bad idea on University Avenue are extreme right-wingers and the few people who haven't left the Green Party.

I won't go into detail about Felein's arguments against the Central Corridor LRT line. If you've listened to Mark Olson or Olson's PRT pal Dean Zimmermann (also Ed Felein's pal), you know all the tired old complaints about congestion, scary predictions that LRT "will kill people" and comparisons between trains and buses. It always cracks me up to hear critics of LRT extol the virtues of buses... which they never ride.

The timing of the article may seem a bit odd since the Met Council approved the Central Corridor on Wednesday, the day the article was published.

I suspect that Felein wants to stake out a grandstanding position opposing the Central Corridor LRT project in a way that won't have much affect on the project, but will create a campaign issue for Farheen Hakeem who is running against Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin. Felein ran as a Green against Peter McLaughlin for Hennepin County Commissioner. Felein is one of the few people still remaining in the Green Party ( the recent Green Party state convention could only attract 87 delegates).

Hakeem could run against McLaughlin's support for highway expansion on 35W, but like her fellow Green Party member Dean Zimmermann, she would rather stake out the anti-transit, anti-environment position rather than oppose an auto-centric, environmentally harmful project. Dean Zimmermann spent much of his time in office opposing rail transit and promoting PRT with Mark Olson. Many people in the 6th ward wished Zimmermann would have spent more time opposing McLaughlin's Access Project instead.

Another reason Felein is attacking LRT at this time may have to do with Olson's pod-pal Zimmermann's indictment for extorting bribes from a developer. Zimmermann's trial is scheduled for the end of July. If Felein could manufacture opposition to transit among progressives, it can only help rehabilitate the sorry reputation of Zimmermann.

Ironically, Felein's transit-bashing public relations effort may also help Mark Olson who is running against Jim Huhtala, a strong supporter of rail transit.

You're doing a heckuva job electing progressives, Eddie!

Olson's PRT Pal Ed Anderson's Anti-Rail Transit Career

A book appeared in 2000 called "The Transportation Renaissance". It was written by a PRT fan called Edmund Rydell. He describes how Anderson and his pals got legislation passed in the early 1970's that prevented the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC) from planning for rail transit:

"...Ed and others got legislation that took away from the [Metropolitan Transit] Commission its planning function. Over 20 years later, the Twin Cities still lacks an effective transit strategy."

Personal Rapid Transit Weird Wiki Wackiness

Here's a bizarre archive of ravings from the small but noisy cult of PRT true believers on Wikipedia

If Wikipedia was a real encyclopedia instead of soapbox for crackpots, it would have only a brief, but accurate description of PRT like this one from Professor Vukan Vuchic, "Transportation for Livable Cities" (Rutgers 1999):

Here's the Uncyclopedia article about PRT... Personal Rabbit Transit



Learn more about the PRT scam at the PRT is a Joke web site.

Personal Rapid Transit and "LIM"

Always learning new stuff about the PRT hoax.

Taxi 2000's PRT pod is supposed to run on futuristic-sounding "linear induction motors" (The pod actually rides on dorky, little rubber tires). Read about the wacky inventor of LIM, Eric Roberts Laithwaite:

"Scientist who used linear motors to drive hovering trains but was then branded a crank for defying Newton."

I have a hypothesis; PRT seems to induce a magnetism ( I call it Gadgetbahnism) that pulls all sorts of crack-pots into its orbit... here's an entire archive of wacky Wikipedian PRT nonsense that validates my hypothesis:

"...And once again, please consider finding some other focus for your obsessive interest than pushing for speculative details about hypothetical transport systems."

My hypothesis about gadgetbahnism would also explain why PRT attracts nutcases from across the political spectrum.

"Maybe if we build PRT vehicles that look like giant penises..."

People ask me all the time whether PRT is for real and I tell them to just go to the PRT Yahoo sites and read the PRTistas discussing wacky stuff like moving people in "evacuated tubes"...as in this hilarious post.

Incidentally, the guy who says that evacuated tubes are "unquestionably in our future" - Bob Dunning is President of ATRA.

Republican Representative Abrams criticized Mark Olson for suggesting ATRA be consulted on the Central Corridor. I will post a movie on the web that includes that criticism of Olson and more soon.

Olson's Personal Rapid Transit: "Boondoggle"

Flashback to 2004:

Ray Vandeveer, Like Olson and Bachmann is a Right-wing PRTista Wacko

Ray Vandeveer is running for the State Senate District 52 seat left vacant by congressional candidate Michele Bachmann. Vandeveer is one of the strongest supporters of Olson's PRT scam.

T.W. Budig:

Exploring the use of personal rapid transit — small vehicles in which commuters can enter destinations on computers and be whisked here and there — is one item he’d like to examine further, said Vandeveer.

This is not futuristic; the technology exists today, he said. And why be so insistent on being tied to 150 year old technology: trains, he said. .

Forest Lake Times:

Ideas such as computer aided dispatch for buses, and Personal Rapid Transit (developed through the University of Minnesota) appear to offer more cost effective transit options.

Roll Call on Olson's Personal Rapid Transit Amendment

Take a look at the break down of the votes on Olson's 2005 PRT amendment at the Minnesota Votes web site.

It's mostly a small bunch of right-wingers like Olson and Vandeveer who vote for PRT. They got a few clueless Democrats to vote for it. (There were only 2 DFLers voting for a similar Olson PRT amendment in 2006).

Mark Olson needs to explain why 67% of his own party rejected his amendment.

The PRT Con Job Continues in New Zealand

From Tom Beard in the Wellurban blog:

....for now I just want to counter the rabid anti-public transport arguments that the promoters trot out. In particular, they claim that:

Wellingtonians have a view that public transport is "for losers" and that will not change by upgrading buses and trains."

Sound familiar?

Read more here:

Ed Anderson: Con Artist or Nutty Professor?

CPRT Seattle contact David Gow posts this on his attack blog devoted to me... at least I think it's me (he spells my name with asterisks).

"***'s newest post is hilariously tenuous--and possibly actionable!"

I suppose he means that Ed Anderson may sue me for calling him a con artist... if he does, he'll get laughed out of court.

For thirty years Anderson has convinced public officials, investors and citizens into listening to his ridiculous gadgetbahn mumbo-jumbo and investing in countless projects and studies that went nowhere. With every PRT business venture failed, he'd start a new one without fixing what was wrong with the last one. Doesn't that sound like a flim-flam man?

But maybe Ed Anderson isn't a con man. Maybe he's just an absent-minded, nutty professor.

The Taxi 2000 vs Ed Anderson lawsuit had some nutty e-mails from Ed Anderson like this one:

Ray,

This is what we have come to. The guy who is now CEO of our company is a liar, deceiver and slanderer, all with information he has obtained second hand.

Ed

...and this one:

Dear Chuck,

I am sure you have a lot of catching up to do.

Mark Olson wants to meet with us to discuss a legislative strategy. He is thinking of a bill that would deep six T2C, and I suggested that he hold off until he talks to us.

Interesting! What did Mark Olson mean by that? I thought Mark Olson was promoting Taxi 2000.

Ed Anderson's Atlantic City Casino Con Job

According to Transportation Renaissance by Edmund Rydell (Xlibris 2000) Ed Anderson tried to sell the German PRT concept Cabintaxi to Atlantic City Casinos in the late 1970's.

According to Rydell's book, the Cabintaxi deal fell through because Ed Anderson's partner turned out to be a swindler with mob connections. The book attempts to whitewash Anderson's role in the con job, but I don't buy it. Anderson is anything but a naive dupe.

The book also covers Anderson's career as a foe of rail transit. In 1970, Anderson teamed up with other Citizens League members, like Jerry Kieffer to stop plans to build rail transit in the Twin Cities. Kieffer says:

"Ed and others got legislative action that took away from the Commission its planning function. Over 20 years later, the Twin Cities still lacks an effective transit policy."

Since the 1970's, Anderson has made a career of using the PRT stalking horse to attack rail transit all over the world... and sell worthless stock in his phony PRT companies to suckers.

Here is a picture of Mark Olson and Ed Anderson:

Does Mark Olson Agree With Ann Coulter About Gay Marriage and 9/11 Widows?

Watch the video at Crooks and Liars.

Coulter said this about the 9/11 widows:

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much ."

Right-wingers like Mitch Berg love Ann Coulter.

Why I Love Ann Coulter, Part II

"And that's why we need Ann Coulter . She's the catharsis our inner conservative needs, the one to go ahead just do it..."

Does Mark Olson love Ann Coulter too?

Are Republicans Throwing Mark Olson and Personal Rapid Transit Under the Bus?

My source at the state Republican convention in Minneapolis told me a Republican insider was "...making jokes about PRT...".

I predict that the Republicans will use humor to explain away Michele Bachmann's past support for PRT. That would be an excellent tactic. Bachmann sponsored a PRT bill and promoted PRT in the media, but she wasn't in as deep as Mark Olson. Bachmann has nothing to gain by promoting PRT in this election.

If my prediction is correct, I wonder how Mark Olson will feel about being thrown under the Bachmann bus?

Mark Olson is a Creationist

Eva Young has a post on Lloydletta about Mark Olson and his creationism. She makes this point:

Intelligent Design creationism is antithetical to good rigorous science education.

It's a sad fact that Mark Olson is a member of the House Education Policy and Reform Committee.