The Arizona Republic:
'Jetsons'-like SkyTran system is 'pipe dream'
Jerry Spellman thinks it's about time Mesa met the future.
"The future," as seen in generations of TV shows and comic books, is a time when people whisk around modernistic cities in modernistic conveyances without having to worry about traffic jams and bus or train schedules. The future is clean, energy-efficient and cheap. Spellman thinks the future should be now.
That's why the Mesa resident has spent the past decade serving without pay as the Arizona coordinator for Unimodal, a California company promoting a transit system called SkyTran.
"The technology is here. We're finally at the point where we can actually demonstrate it," Spellman said. He believes Mesa would be a great place for that because the city is not yet locked in to its long-range transit options.
Spellman is waiting for Mesa's official answer to a proposal SkyTran floated this spring to build a 25-mile line between the light-rail terminus on Main Street and Williams Gateway Airport in southeast Mesa.
The cost: $225 million.
SkyTran figured Mesa could kick in $150 million from its share of regional transportation funds, and SkyTran would dig up the rest from transit-oriented lines of credit. Spellman said the money is but a fraction of what it would cost to lay light rail along that same route.
... and the reason Skytran promoters give for being cheaper than LRT? They say... and I'm not kidding... Skytran uses a guideway-extruding robot.... and what do the professionals say?
Kyle Jones, chairman of the City Council's transportation and infrastructure committee, said the idea is more "pipe dream" than reality.
"We're always willing to take a look," Jones said. "But . . . we just can't expend money for something that's an unknown. They'll partner with us for a test deal? We just can't gamble with funds that way. People criticize us enough already."
... and...
Mike James, Mesa's senior transportation planner, said SkyTran "is an idea on the Internet, but that's about the only place it exists."
... and...
James said that probably won't happen.
"We're really focusing in on what the federal government would call proven technologies," James said.
And as far as personal transportation, he said, "We as a city already have a good personal transportation system in our road network."
I would like to hear Rep. Mark Olson explain why he thought investing millions of taxpayers' dollars in his "pipe dream" was a good idea when repairs to the existing transportation infrastructure were in desperate need of funding.
UPDATE: I contacted Jerry Spellman yesterday and requested he verify that Skytran received a grant from US DOT. This is his reply:
Dear Ken:
Who are you? What are your affiliations? And why do you want these"documents or links?" Aren't you the guy that keeps posting BS aboutSkyTran on Wikipedia? If you are, go FYS. If not, let's talk about it. SkyTran, as a private enterprise, owes nothing to you. I suggest that you contact either USDOT and/or NASA for the information you seek.
Jerry Spellman
I did a search and this is the only thing I found.
Ken Avidor blogs about Personal Rapid Transit and other gadgetbahn boondoggles like Skytran.
No comments:
Post a Comment