Personal Rapid Transit Proponents Still Spreading Disinformation About Rail Transit

In an earlier post I quoted Advanced Transit Association (ATRA) President Jeral Poskey saying the following on the Transport-Innovators Google Group:

For 30 years, almost all the PRT advocates have done 
the opposite of play nice.  We have been proud of the fact that we're 
"proving the status quo wrong," "showing the ridiculousness of their 
arguments" and showing up at meetings talking about how great PRT is and 
what a waste technology X would be.  We haven't educated ourselves on the 
funding process they go through.  Very few advocates understand and can 
emphasize with the conflicting political environment most agencies operate 
in.  All in all, we haven't been very nice.  Oh, and I'd say that we've been guilty of our own level of ignorance, arrogance and sometimes even misrepresentation, albeit with the best goals in mind.

... Here's ATRA Board member Tad Winiecki commenting recently that LRT is a "well-proven failure":

As a designer and advocate of personal rapid transit I and my fellow Advanced Transit Association members have been accused of being part of the highway lobby because we would prefer new automated transport to the well-proven failure of light rail transit.

Mr. Winiecki is the "designer" of the faith-based Higherway PRT which exists (like all PRT systems) only in the realm of imagination and cyberspace.

Is PRT part of the highway lobby?

You decide!

Here's one example; the Taxi 2000 Corporation was funded by the highway engineering firm Short Elliot Hendrickson (SEH). SEH shares a lobbyist, Ed Cain with Taxi 2000. Here's Michele Bachmann's pal Ed Cain talking about PRT:


Ken Avidor blogs about Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) and other anti-rail transit scams.

Another PRT Puff Piece

The publicity barage continues. This puff piece in CNN Money.com reads like it's transcribed from the same press release as the others.

I thought this was interesting:

So why aren't cities already filled with PRT tracks and pods? "The real problem was political, not technical," recalls John Edward Anderson, a former professor at Boston University who has worked on PRT for almost 40 years. Chicago, Minneapolis, and Seattle killed PRT projects, fearing opposition from transit drivers and the embarrassment of failing with an untested system.

So, Anderson isn't saying he was a professor at the U of M anymore?

Anderson forgets a few more things. He fails to mention Raytheon going way over budget, that he was sued by his own company, that he picked three of worst politicians in Minnesota to lobby for Taxi 2000... maybe he's going senile?



Ken Avidor blogs all about Personal Rapid Transit

Rep. Mark Olson... "English First"

From Olson's campaign website:



...from his campaign lit, the ninth item:


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

Was Rep. Mark Olson's Wikipedia Page Edited by Resident Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute?

Wikipedia user TedFrank who claims to be "a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute" has joined MN GOP 6th CD Chair Mark Swanson in whitewashing Rep. Mark Olson's Wikipedia page.


Ken Avidor blogs about politicians and others who promoted Personal Rapid Transit and other gadgetbahn scams.

PRT Conference in Minnesota in September

Will Rep. Mark Olson be at this?.... an ATRA Conference called "Standards for PRT":

A day of ATRA technical talks organized on STANDARDS FOR PRT will take place outside Minneapolis September 19. The program is in development. Early bird registration rates ($52 or $37 for ATRA members) will expire August 1. Taxi 2000 will host and unveil its new scale model network.

The Taxi 2000 Corporation which hasn't posted any news on its website since 2004, posted a little video of their goofy "Alpha system" back in April. Here's the video showing a goofy model test track with toy PRT pods bumping into each other... enjoy:



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

"Green Party" PRT Movie Premiere in Santa Cruz

From a Santa Cruz blog:

PERSONAL RAPID TRANSIT (PRT) GOES TO GREEN.

The Santa Cruz Green Party invites the public to join them at a free screening and presentation of the new Santa Cruz PRT film. This film shows all the possibilities of having PRT in Santa Cruz and answers all the questions about how and why it should happen here. The film and presentation is from Santa Cruzans for Personal Rapid Transit. There'll be a Q & A session afterwards. It happens Monday June 18, 7p.m. at London Nelson Community Center.

I checked over at the Santa Cruz Green Party website to see if they also had an announcement and discovered that the Santa Cruz Green Party hasn't posted any press releases since 2003.



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

ATRA President: "For 30 Years, PRT Advocates Have Done the Opposite of Play Nice."

Jeral Poskey, the President of the Advanced Transit Association had this to say on the Transport-Innovators Google Group in response to CETA member and would-be militant PRT fanatic Mike Weidler:

For 30 years, almost all the PRT advocates have done 
the opposite of play nice.  We have been proud of the fact that we're 
"proving the status quo wrong," "showing the ridiculousness of their 
arguments" and showing up at meetings talking about how great PRT is and 
what a waste technology X would be.  We haven't educated ourselves on the 
funding process they go through.  Very few advocates understand and can 
emphasize with the conflicting political environment most agencies operate 
in.  All in all, we haven't been very nice.  Oh, and I'd say that we've been guilty of our own level of ignorance, arrogance and sometimes even misrepresentation, albeit with the best goals in mind.

I have witnessed first-hand how PRT fanatics disrupted meetings about transit:

I have encountered more of these fanatics who insist that PRT was “faster, cheaper, better” than trolleys and buses. In one memorable encounter, a deranged man interrupted a workshop my wife and I were giving at Macalester College, shouting that PRT is the “only transportation solution", threw a dozen Taxi 2000 Corporation brochures at us and stormed out.

PRT has not only been a big waste of time for public officials and citizens, it's apparently been a waste of Poskey's time as well... Poskey is working for Google now.


Ken Avidor will blog about Personal Rapid Transit and other gadgetbahn scams.

New York Times Publishes Puff Piece on the WVU PRT

In May, I predicted that Mark Olson's pals at the Advanced Transit Association (ATRA) would crank up the PRT publicity machine as a preemptive whitewash for Olson's role in the PRT scam in time for his upcoming trial.

Today, the New York Times published yet another puff piece about the Morgantown PRT... Google News has links to the others.

The Morgantown PRT is an expensive flop. I have collected stories about how students and faculty hate the Morgantown PRT because it is so unreliable and it fries squirrels.

Here's the Times article:

City’s White Elephant Now Looks Like a Transit Workhorse

By SEAN D. HAMILL

MORGANTOWN, W.Va., June 4 — During its troubled years of construction and testing in the early 1970s, the Personal Rapid Transit system that snakes through this hilly college town was derided as a fiasco and a waste of money that perhaps should be dynamited rather than finished.

...the article should have stopped there, but it continues with the traditional fluff we've seen in articles about PRT over the years... let's skip to Larry Fabian's quote in the Times:

“This is the only operating P.R.T. system in the world,” said Larry Fabian, treasurer of the Advanced Transit Association, an organization based in Virginia that promotes advanced rapid transit technologies and held a conference in May in Morgantown. “After more than 30 years, it’s still unique.”

... The Times says Fabian is the treasuerer for ATRA, but in a similar, May 31st puff piece, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, said Fabian was the "director" of ATRA:

"There are 130 automated systems worldwide, but only one like this," said Lawrence Fabian of Boston, director of the Advanced Transit Association, which deals with futuristic transit programs. "Its characteristics are unique,"

...and why is the WVU Morgantown PRT "unique"? The Times has part of the the answer:

But it is also expensive.

University and local government officials realize they are not likely to get the federal government to finance the expansion, as it did the original project. They are talking about coming up with local and state financing.

... can't get Federal money? That's pathetic when you consider that the Senator representing West Virginia is Robert Byrd.... it's probably more like hardly any transportation experts think the WVU PRT is worth expanding... the Times quotes one expert saying that:

“The infrastructure requirements are such that it is not realistic to think it could be adopted in highly developed U.S. cities,” Jonathan E. D. Richmond, a transportation expert, said in an e-mail message from Singapore, where he is advising the government.

...there's more fluff in the Times article about ridership etc. and then there's this bit of reality thrown in at the end:

Still, it does not run often enough for people who do not attend the university or work there.

“There’s a real problem,” said Bruce Summers, 64, who has lived in Morgantown for 34 years and works downtown. “When the university is not in session, it’s closed. You can’t rely on it. If you want to get downtown people to use it, you’ve got to do it another way.”

... wait, didn't the article start off by saying the Morgantown PRT was reliable? Recently, the new Mayor of Kansas City had this to say about the Morgantown PRT:

Mark Funkhouser used to ride West Virginia University's Personal Rapid Transit system, which he recalled "was broken down half the time."

Now he'll help develop a light rail system for Kansas City, Mo., population 450,000.

...Funkhouser was also quoted saying the WVU PRT "wasn't really mass transit".

So, why did the Times run this puff piece for PRT? Does all this recent PRT publicity have something to do with Rep. Mark Olson's trial?

ATRA's Larry Fabian, who is quoted in these puff pieces sent me a gloating e-mail after Rep. Mark Olson and Michele Bachmann won last November:

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 has a company that promotes various silly PRT projects like Higherway PRT and Ed Anderson's PRT International (no website yet).

Is it possible that Olson delayed his trial until all this favorable publicity aboout his pet project was published?


Ken Avidor agrees with professionals who say that WVU PRT isn't Personal Rapid Transit but AGT (automated Group Transport.

Is GOP 6 CD Chair Mark Swanson Attempting to Affect Olson Trial Outcome?

According to Wikipedia:

If you are involved in a court case, or close to one of the litigants, you would find it very hard to demonstrate that what you wrote about a party or a law firm associated with the case, or a related area of law, was entirely objective. Even a minor slip up in neutrality in a court-case article on Wikipedia for an active case-in-progress could potentially be noticed by the courts and/or their parties, and this could potentially cause real-world harm, not just harm to Wikipedia. Because of this, we strongly discourage editing when this type of conflict exists.

Swanson continues to defend his wiki-editing on MN Publius HERE.

Swanson may be trying to affect another high-profile legal battle .... on another thread at Mn Publius, Swanson makes this statement:

“…the attorney scandal –no scandal here…”

Hmmmm....

Former USA Tom Heffelfinger’s last corruption investigation was Gary Dean Zimmermann who worked closely with Rep. Mark Olson at Mpls. City Hall and the MN Legislature. It's very likely that Zimmermann and Olson e-mailed each other. That exchange of e-mails may have been on the computer seized in the FBI raid on the Zimmermann home back in 2005.

It's also possible that other evidence linking Zimmermann to prominent Republicans was found on Zimmermann's hard drive.



Ken Avidor writes about Personal Rapid Transit and other scams.

More About How J. Edward Anderson Stopped Rail Transit in the 1970's

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."

Read a U.S. Congressional report on how Anderson and his pals stopped planning for rail transit in the 1970's in the Twin Cities.
Ken Avidor blogs about how Personal Rapid Transit was used to stop transit for over thirty years.

How J. Edward Anderson Used PRT to Stop Rail Transit in the 1970's

The entire report in PDF form HERE.

The timeline summarizes how Anderson, with the help of his anti-transit buddies at the Citizens League and the University of Minnesota used PRT to confuse public officials about real transit choices:

1958- The Minnesota Highway Department initiated the area’s first metropolitan transportation planning effort, the Twin Cities Area Transportation Study.

1962- The Joint Program was established, consisting of the Metropolitan Planning Commission, the Minnesota Highway Department, and other planning and governmental bodies. It undertook a major transportation and land use study in the metropolitan area.

1967- In mid-1967, the Minnesota State Legislature established the Metropolitan Transit Commission. The Commission began in 1968 with a series of long-range planning studies. A few days later, the State legislature created a new regional governmental body, the Metropolitan Council. The Council set up a Transportation Planning Program to facilitate coordinated transportation planning.

1969- Upon completion of the long-range planning study done for the Transit Commission by Alan M. Voorhees, a joint Commission-Council staff report was prepared, setting forth the major components of a metropolitan transit planning program for 1970-71. The report recommended a “family of vehicles” concept that would use a variety of transportation modes, including fixed-guideway and bus service.

1970- Late in the year, the Metropolitan Council approved a Federal grant to the Transit Commission for preliminary engineering on a fixed-guideway system. The subsequent study proposed a fixed-guideway system utilizing a 40- passenger vehicle as the backbone of a regional system.

1971- The legislature further defined the role of the Transit Commission; it was to implement the development guide pre- pared by the Metropolitan Council.

1972- In the fall, the Metropolitan Council declined to review the Metropolitan Transit Commission’s transit plan on the grounds that the Council had exclusive authority to determine long- range transit plans. Meanwhile, the Council hired Barton Aschman, Inc., to study a bus approach to regional mass transit.

During the same period, further consideration of a personal rapid transit (PRT) system was advocated by University of Minnesota professor Edward Anderson.

1973- On November 15, the legislature’s Subcommittee on Mass Transit published a report called “The Metropolitan Mass Transit Need,” which favored elements of the Council’s bus proposal and the Commission’s fixed-guideway plan, as well as selective use of PRT.

1974- The legislature passed the Metropolitan Reorganization Act, directing the Transit Commission to complete by January 1, 1975, a plan for an automated small-vehicle fixed-guideway system within the metropolitan transit taxing district. The Council was to provide policy guidance.

Work began in August 1974 guided by a management committee composed equally of Commission and Council members. The consultant’s first report compared the Commission’s recommended 40-passenger vehicle
system with other alternatives.

The Commission and the Council drew conflicting findings from the study. The Commission recommended a fixed- guideway system other than a concentional[sic] rail transit, based on a n-seat vehicle. The Metropolitan Council opposed any fixed-guideway system and continued to support a regional bus system.

1975- No decision has been made on a long-range public transit plan. However, agreeement has been reached to concentrate on short-term improvements to the bus system.

PRT promoters did the same thing in Denver (PDF HERE) about the same time. In that case, a sales tax was levied to pay for the PRT:

Technically the issue before the voters at referendum was RTD’s request to levy the one-half cent sales tax. However, the tax was linked closely to a promotional campaign for the PRTs system. The RTD literature made direct reference to PRT, and a few weeks before the vote several firms displayed their PRT vehicles in Denver. In addition, the RTD board promised to consult the people again if the transit system finally selected was substantially different from PRT. The campaign strategy was successful, and on September 7, 1973, 57 percent of Denver region voters registered approval.

UMTA began backing away from its early enthusiasm for the Denver PRT proposal in 1974. Embarrassing cost overruns in the demonstration project in Morgantown, W. Va. had cast doubt on the financial and technical feasibility of a PRT system similar to the one proposed in Denver. In addition, the Airtrans System at the Dallas-FortWorth Airport—like Morgantown’s PRT, a technological predecessor of the proposed Denver system—was not performing up to specifications.

In the Twin Cities and Denver, PRT was so effective in the 1970's in blocking rail transit planning, J. Edward Anderson, Sheffer Lang, the anti-transit lobby, pro-highway legislators like Rep. Mark Olson and Michele Bachmann thought Anderson could do it again years later.



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

Inmate # 12696-041's Blog Mentions Personal Rapid Transit

Zimmermann mentions Personal Rapid Transit on his prison blog.

More about Rep. Mark Olson's old PRT pal at Minneapolis Confidential.

I posted a link to the convicted felon's blog at Mn Speak.



Ken Avidor writes about Personal Rapid Transit and how corrupt politicians used it to stop real transit.

Swedes and Koreans Put a Happy Face on Vectus PRT

The Vectus PRT testing facility takes shape on Swedish television. Here are some stills:



...note the massive steel pipe at the center of the guideway:



... looks just like the Raytheon PRT guideway. Also notice that it's mounted on slim posts close to the ground. Why? Because G-forces would require heavier posts if it were up higher. Here's the Raytheon PRT guideway with the massive posts that I Photoshopped over a typical street in Minneapolis:



If Vectus is just like the Raytheon PRT (which flopped) why the heck are they doing it again? For a clue to what the Vectus testing facility is really about, look at the flag posts:



It's phony prop for the media... a futurist Potemkin village.

It won't be long before we start seeing and hearing a publicity barrage about how Vectus is Sweden's and Korea's technological answer to Global Warming and Peak Oil. In October, there's going to be a PRT Conference in Uppsala, Sweden.

The same thing almost happened here in Minnesota.

Speaking of PRT in Minnesota, what's new with the Taxi 2000 Corporation? Nothing since 2004.

Remember the breathless publicity barrage for Taxi 2000's unveiling of the Skyweb Express model at their Fridley office and at the Minnesota Stae Fair?? Watch the video of the Fridley fiasco with Rep. Mark Olson (trial in July) showing off for the cameras:

"PRT is clearly in the future of transit. It is Jetson-esque but not a cartoon. It is the Microsoft of public transit!" -Rep. Mark Olson.



Ken Avidor says Vectus will likely end up on the trash heap like all the other Personal Rapid Transit projects.

Another Delay in Rep. Mark Olson's Trial?

UPDATE: I just called the Sherburne County Court and confirmed that Olson's rescheduled for July.

A DMO reader sent me the following tip:

The trial has now been rescheduled from June 11th to July 9th.

What are all these delays costing Sherburne County?

Keep in mind that Olson is charged with two gross misdemeanor counts. Olson demanded a jury trial on a misdemeanor!!!

When Olson notified the court that he fired his attorney on Friday, the court administrator probably had to work over the weekend contacting jurors and witnesses.

After the trial, I hope we learn what Olson's antics cost the taxpayers of Sherburne County.


Ken Avidor asks; "What has Mark Olson's Personal Rapid Transit scam cost Minnesota taxpayers?"

Rep. Mark Olson Trial Scheduled for June 11

SC Times:

ELK RIVER — State Rep. Mark Olson will be back in court June 11 to face domestic assault charges.

Olson, a Republican, asked for a continuance today in his trial on charges that he assaulted his wife in November in their Big Lake Township home.

Judge Alan Pendleton granted the continuance and rescheduled for 8:30 a.m. June 11. Olson said he asked for the continuance because he is changing attorneys.

Ken Avidor blogs about Personal Rapid Transit

Rep. Mark Olson Is Getting a Divorce

The Saint Cloud Times confirms that Olson, fired his attorney and asked for a postponement of his trial:

ELK RIVER — State Rep. Mark Olson expects a judge to approve a continuance Monday in his trial on charges that he assaulted his wife in November at their Big Lake Township home.

The delay is the second in the case, which was scheduled to begin Monday morning.

Olson said Sunday that he asked for the continuance from Judge Alan Pendleton because he is changing attorneys. He said the judge approved the move in chambers, but formal approval will be necessary in court because a court reporter was not present.

“It will be just a moment of process,” Olson said of today’s proceedings.

Sherburne County Attorney Kathleen Heaney confirmed the change Sunday. Her office was notified on Friday and notified witnesses, she said.

A new date for Olson’s trial will depend on what’s available on the calendar, Heaney said.

Olson declined to name his new attorney, saying he has not yet signed the agreement with the attorney.

Olson has pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of domestic assault. The charges stem from an incident Nov. 12 at the Olsons’ home. Olson’s wife told Sherburne County deputies that she and Mark Olson had argued and that he had pushed her to the ground three times.

Olson was scheduled to stand trial May 7, but a state law prohibits a sitting member of the Legislature to stand trial in a civil or criminal case during the legislative session. The session ended May 21.

Court records show that, since Mark Olson was charged, he and his wife have started divorce proceedings.

The House Republican caucus suspended Olson after his arrest, and some members called for his resignation. Olson vowed to continue serving his constituents in District 16B, which includes Big Lake, Becker, Zimmerman and Clear Lake.

When that divorce becomes final, Olson can resume his carefree, bachelor life:



Meanwhile GOP 6th CD Chair, Mark Swanson is still commenting at MN Publius:

What is the worry?? That people (like Mr. Avidor) distort the truth in their natural bias. You will see that Mr. Avidor himself admits his bias on the comment page and has refrained from editing the entry due to this bias.
If you believe any of my edits are untruthful or in any way change the the facts, please identify them and I will gladly edit them to correct.

As to his question above, I don’t know of the current status for Rep. Olson’s trial, maybe your politically motivated source would care to elaborate??

As far as corrections to your mis-statements, don’t worry as you have A Transportation Expert (ATE) on your trail to correct your inaccuracies (and bias) on PRT there are many of us out there to maintain the neutrality of sites like Wikipedia.

So, Mark Swanson, the GOP 6th CD Chair didn't know at 7:55 PM, Sunday that Rep. Mark Olson had pulled a fast one on the Sherburne County Court two days earlier?

That's pathetic.
Ken Avidor blogs about Rep. Mark Olson and Personal Rapid Transit.

GOP 6th CD Chair's Wikipedia User Page Blanked

Someone with the IP address (208.38.99.19) has blanked Mark Swanson's Wikipedia user page.

The IP address traces to Big Lake, Minnesota.



Ken Avidor has written about Personal Rapid Transit and other gadgetbahn scams.

Rep. Mark Olson Trial Delayed... Again?

I just received the following tip from a DO reader:

Thought it would interest you to hear that Olson has fired his attorney so his trial will be rescheduled to another date. They will be in court tomorrow morning to take care of that.

I've lost track. How many times has Olson delayed his trial?





Ken Avidor blogs about the scoundrels who promoted Personal Rapid Transit (PRT).

Mark Swanson Admits He Edited Olson's Wikipedia Page

GOP 6 CD Chair Mark Swanson defends himself in the comments at MN Publius:

"What I changed is actually the unbiased truth and more accurate as required by the neutrality rules that are well established on Wikipedia."

Mark Swanson seems to be unaware that other folks have been caught trying to whitewash their favorite politician's Wikipedia page... for instance the staff of Norm Coleman in January of 2006 :

Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia's founder, criticized the changes made by Coleman's staff. 



"It appears to be a major rewrite of the article to make it more favorable," Wales said. "If they're trying to edit in such a way to change the public record, that's a problem."

Olson goes on trial Monday, June 4th at the Sherburne County Government Center.


Ken Avidor blogs about supporters of Personal Rapid Transit in the 6th CD.

Correction: Rep. Mark Olson's Trial is Monday, June 4th

A DO reader wrote to inform me that Olson's trial is this Monday, June 4th.

It's a jury trial.

8:30 AM at the Sherburne County Courthouse.


Ken Avidor blogs about the trials of politicians who promote Personal Rapid Transit.