Friday, May 04, 2007

ATRA & Personal Rapid Transit Strike Out (Again)

Remember Larry Fabian? He's the guy who sent me this gloating e-mail after the 2006 election:

How is that you haven't posted the results of Tuesday's elections yet?

Bucking the Democrat thumping, Minnesota's two PRTistias were reelected, I see. Wouldn't honesty urge you to post that on your lovely website?

Larry Fabian
The One Who You So Kindly Told to %#$@ Off


Larry Fabian would eat his words when days later, Olson was arrested for beating his wife. Fabian's other winning Minnesota PRTista, Michele Bachmann stepped into Kitty Harris's crazy shoes as the Republican party's leading lady lunatic when she sexually assaulted President Bush at the State of the Union function early this year. Bachmann hasn't said a word about PRT since she was elected and I doubt she will.

Although Olson has managed to stay in the legislature, he has no chance of passing a PRT bill this session. Olson faces a bi-partisan effort to eject him from the legislature at the beginning of the next session if he is convicted next month.

How pathetic that Larry Fabian and ATRA went on a pilgrimage to the hills of West Virginia to praise the Nixon-era gadgetbahn boondoggle, the Morgantown PRT.

ATRA's Fabian poured the PRTista Kool-aid....

Fabian, one of the seminar’s featured speakers, considers the seminar “an exploration of possibilities.”

“There’s a much higher level of interest [in personal rapid transit] in Europe and in Korea,” he said.

Other talk should center on possible expansion of Morgantown’s PRT, Fabian said.


... but, the guy in charge of the troubled WVU PRT wasn't drinking it:

“That is a possibility, but it is an expensive proposition,” said Robert Hendershot, assistant director for PRT operations at WVU.

A more scaled-down “feeder system” might be more practical, Hendershot said. That could use small cars to transport five people or less. PRT cars seat eight, but can fit many more.


There you have it from the guy in charge... "too expensive".

Also notice that the Morgantown PRT seats eight passengers which means it does not fit the PRTista's definition of PRT (small, lightweight vehicles seating 4 people or less). The WVU "PRT" is really an early version of the prosaic, automated people movers that operate in many airports.

So much for J. Edward Anderson's "disruptive technology"... more about the Morgantown PRT boondoggle here.

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Ken Avidor blogs about Personal Rapid Transit and other gadgetbahn scams.

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