Open Letter to the Star Tribune About Personal Rapid Transit

Here we go again... the Strib's Laurie Blake has another puff piece about PRT. Fox news also ran a puff piece about J-Pods featuring a clueless Minneapolis Council President Barbara Johnson... and you can watch it here. The "inventor" of J-Pods, Bill James claims that his wacky invention will be the "dominant form of transportation in 15 years". Of course, Fox reports that J-Pods can be built for "4 million a mile" compared to "$70 million a mile" for LRT... geeee, which candidates do you think that bit of disinformation is going to help?

Unlike the shiny red Taxi 2000 prototype, the J-Pod is obviously a joke. I don't expect Fox News to be able to sort fact from fiction, but it's disapointing to to read yet another PRT puff piece that repeats the same anti-LRT disinformation from the Strib's transportation reporter, Laurie Blake.

Here's my letter to the Strib about Laurie Blake's article:

Date: October 13, 2006 11:46:31 PM CDT
To: readerrep@startribune.com
Cc: Laurie Blake , sberg@startribune.com, Eric Black
Subject: J-Pods: " $4 million a mile "?

Kate Parry (Reader Representative),

I have written to you about this before.

This article is the fourth or fifth article by Laurie Blake about PRT. I think it's time to take a more skeptical look at PRT.

The "J-Pod" she is referring to is model made by a PRT hobbyist using plywood, metal tubing, carpet remnants and duct tape.

PRT is an issue in several elections this year. PRT is a stalking horse for anti-transit individuals and groups who claim LRT is too expensive. Several candidates have promoted PRT including Michele Bachmann, Mark Olson, Alan Fine, Alan Shilepsky, Ray Vandeveer and Michael Cavlan.

Please assign future PRT stories to an investigative or political reporter.

If you would prefer, I could write an opinion piece about PRT for the Star Tribune. I have had opinion pieces about PRT published in several newspapers. Here's one I wrote for the Seattle Post Intelligencer:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/237556_antiprtop.html

Thank you.

-Ken Avidor

Here's Laurie Blake's article:

http://www.startribune.com/462/story/709182.html

Inventor shows off way to go

Inventor Bill James of Burnsville demonstrated his elevated people mover, the JPod, to Minneapolis City Council President Barbara Johnson on Thursday in downtown Minneapolis. Johnson tried the cab of the JPod, which is powered by electricity as an alternative to the car and other oil-dependent forms of transportation. James is looking for private investors to help him build the first network of the gondola-like pods in Minnesota. Each weighs about 240 pounds and carries four people using standard roller-coaster technology. As the inventor envisions it, a network of JPods could take the place of cars in an area downtown, at a college or business center. The cost would be $4 million a mile, compared with about $70 million a mile for light rail, James said.-LAURIE BLAKE