Rep. Ray Cox is a PRTista

From Lloydletta:

Tom Neuville R, Northfield, has been appointed to a judge position. Ray Cox is planning on running for his seat.

MN House website:

NEWS RELEASE REP. COX SAYS PERSONAL RAPID TRANSIT WILL IMPROVE JOB CLIMATE (3/19/2004)

ST. PAUL - On the heels of the recent announcement that the state deficit is falling thanks to a rise in job growth, State Representative Ray Cox (R-Northfield) is co-authoring legislation that would create more new jobs, showcases Minnesota technology, and puts consumers in the driver’s seat of public transit services.


“The February budget forecast recently noted the reason for the declining deficit is an increase in new jobs,” Cox said. “The Personal Rapid Transit project will continue this trend by providing hundreds more good-paying jobs for Minnesota workers. At a time when Minnesota is looking to expand its job base and lure new business to the state, PRT already provides all the necessary ingredients: local technology, a willing community, and an eager workforce.”

Cox said Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is a very innovative automated transit system developed right here in Minnesota, and the bill he is co-authoring would provide the Duluth Transit Authority with incentives to construct a PRT safety certification facility. It operates on demand; PRT passenger vehicles wait at stations for riders, not vice versa. As designed, PRT passengers would select an empty vehicle; swipe a pre-paid card; and enjoy a private, computer-run trip that would take them non-stop to their selected destination. The computer system automatically selects the fastest, most convenient non-stop route for passengers, and would be available 24/7. In addition, unlike any other system, PRT infrastructure and vehicles are fully mass-producible and can be quickly erected on site.

Cox said there are many benefits to PRT, including its high efficiency and low pollution rate. But Cox said the most important benefit may be a new job base.

“Once I discovered how many new jobs the project could create, co-authoring this bill became a no-brainer,” Cox said. “If we don’t act to keep PRT, this system and hundreds of jobs will most likely be exported to some other state.”



I asked Ray Cox recently if he still supports PRT and he replied that he does.

I recently received this message from a DMO reader:

I was rooting around on Lexis Nexis for info on Taxi 2000. There's very little but there was this one recent article which I paste below. You may know about this already. I also noticed that they have no registered patents ...and only registered two trademarks (skyweb express and Minnesota PRT), the second of which has been "Abandoned".

Interesting.

Discussion About PRT

They're talking about PRT on MN Speak.

Minnesota History Center's Misleading Exhibit on Transit

My Uptake video about misleading exhibit at the History Center on LRT and PRT:

Click To Play

By Ken Avidor

Rising oil and gasoline prices and the collapse of the 35W bridge have made Transportation a very important issue for the next legislative session and for the 2008 election. Northstar commuter line and the Central Corridor LRT line will likely be competing with highway projects for scarce public dollars as lesser-known transit projects such as the Southwest LRT Line get into the queue.

The exhibit on transit at the Minnesota Historical Society's History Center in Saint Paul is a musty time capsule of the debate on transit from the years leading up to the completion of the Hiawatha Light Rail Line in 2004. Much of the information in the exhibit, particularly statements in the videos about Light Rail Transit (LRT) and Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is either wrong or misleading.

In the years leading up to when the exhibit was installed, there was some debate whether LRT was going to be successful in the Twin Cities. That debate for the most part has been settled and LRT has wide support among public officials and citizens.

The portion of exhibit about Personal Rapid Transit is even more out of date and misleading. For over 30 years PRT seemed to have support in Minnesota from members of anti-transit, pro-highway groups. PRT had no support from traditional transit groups such as Transit for Livable Communities and the Sierra Club North Star, both of which have resolutions opposing the public funding of PRT.

Perhaps the high point for PRT promoters at the Capitol was the 2004 session when a PRT bonding bill for $4 million was passed by the House only to be extinguished in a conference committee. Things went quickly downhill after that.

Late in 2004, PRT "visionary" Professor J. Edward Anderson was prevented from regaining control of the Taxi 2000 Corporation from Morrie Anderson who was also the chair of the Citizen's League's Transportation Committee at that time. The Citizens League is a Minnesota organization that has traditionaly been opposed to rail transit.

A previous CEO of Taxi 2000, Sheffer Lang 1927-2003) was a strong opponent of rail transit at the Citizens League. Lang was known for fierce attacks on transit such as this statement: "The highway sets the standard. ... Behind every single one of these [rail] initiatives is a bunch of people who are convinced... that the automobile is the curse of modern civilization”. It is very likely that the strident Citizen League comment about LRT featured in the exhibit is from Lang.

Oddly, the one quote in the Skyweb Expres exhibit attributed to Sheffer Lang describes Lang as an "engineer" and does not mention that Lang was a professor of transportation at MIT and the prominent and influential role he played in public policy on transportation in Minnesota.

In 2005, the Taxi 2000 Corporation filed a lawsuit and restraining order against J. Edward Anderson and two associates. J. Edward Anderson is still trying to find a city willing to fund a testing facility for his new PRT company PRT International LLC. A recent report in the Springfield News-Leader says Anderson Anderson is trying to bring PRT to the Ozarks

Also in 2005, One of PRT's most energetic promoters, Minneapolis Councilman Dean Zimmermann, was investigated and charged by the U.S. Attorney's office with extorting bribes from a developer. Zimmermann subsequently lost his seat on the council to Robert Lilligren, a supporter of conventional transit. Zimmermann was eventually convicted and is serving his sentence in a Federal prison camp in Littleton, Colorado.

Without Zimmermann, the remaining promoters of PRT in the Minnesota legislature are mostly Republicans opposed to rail transit. PRT has lost its support among liberal and moderate Minnesota politicians. An attempt by Rep. Mark Olson to attach a PRT amendment to a bonding bill in the Minnesota House on April 12th, 2005 was voted down 26 to 107. In the 2007 legislative session, no PRT legislation was voted on.

Five days after his re-election in 2006, Rep. Mark Olson was arrested for domestic abuse and was convicted on one misdemeanor charge of domestic abuse.

The Taxi 2000 Corporation's lawsuit against J. Edward Anderson as well as Olson and Zimmermann's troubles likely sealed PRT's fate at the Capitol, however a far more likely factor was the phenomenal success of the Hiawatha Light Rail Line... unfortunately, none of this history is in the History Center's exhibit.

More information:

Complete History Center video about PRT.

Complete History Center video about LRT.

Transit for Livable Communities resolution against public funding of PRT.

Sierra Club North Star resolution against public funding of PRT .

"Personal rapid transit spending draws fire at Capitol"- Laura McCallum's MPR report about PRT legislation in 2004

Skytran Flim-Flam in Marin County

From the Novato Advance:

Maybe, but Marin County Supervisors Judy Arnold and Charles McGlashan are willing to take a look at technology designed by the southern California company UniModal Inc. that could make these traveling times a reality.

The two supervisors will host UniModal representatives as they discuss their, Sky Tran, at a community meeting Dec. 5 in the Board of Supervisors Chamber in the Civic Center from 4 to 6 p.m. The public is welcome to attend.

“We’ll all learn together. I don’t know if this would work,” Arnold said. “I don’t know enough about it, but I want to learn more.”

Don't waste your time, Judy.

This is what the so-called inventor of Skytran Douglas J. Malewicki said about Skytran on the Skytran website:

"Aaaarrrrgghh! Ain't no such animal - yet. It is still just a concept that makes a lot of theoretical sense. It needs money to tear into it properly - a lot. Why it hasn't happened yet is mostly my fault. I detest paperwork and details. I can't see myself applying for any government energy or innovation grants because of all the bureaucratic crap that I would be stuck with. If they supplied paperwork bozos along with the grants to take care of their required paperwork, it might be more appealing. I guess I also don't want to deal with all their other silly rules either. If I want to hire all black engineers (and I know a bunch of dam good practical ones), to the exclusion of Hispanics, Women, Polaks, etc. the government won't let me. I start reading the grant application forms and rules and never finish - because I toss it all in the garbage first in disgust. Basically, I'm selfish. I prefer to think and create. I have plenty of other non-hassle projects I can be involved in to feed my brain endorphins or whatever. I am definitely not the right kind of personality to carry this project to fruition in the real world!"

That statement was removed the Skytran website, but can be viewed HERE.

Skytran claims it is less expensive to build than LRT because Skytran can be built with... get this.... robots:

The light weight per foot of the track design also allows the use of a semi-automated track forming manufacturing robot (much simpler than the Robosaurus machine) that enables a two shift crew to deploy one mile of two way track per day. This can be compared with proposed monorail trains (weighing 100,000 pounds) which require guideways costing well over $40 million per mile and many years to build.

That statement was also removed the Skytran website, but can be viewed HERE.

Skytran is perhaps the most ridiculous of the PRT schemes, which is why I call it the "Smoking Gun of PRT Absurdity".

J.Edward Anderson in Branson

He's still at it... this time in Branson, Missouri.

Anderson's new company, PRT International has a domain name, but no website:

http://prtinternational.com

Registrant:

PRT International, LLC

5164 Rainier Pass NE

Fridley, MN 55421

US

Domain Name: PRTINTERNATIONAL.COM

The PDF document on the News Leader's website lists the address of PRT International as Minneapolis... in fact, it is Anderson's home in Fridley, MN.

Was Aldous Huxley a PRTista?

Really bad marketing blooper from a Vectus PRT brochure (PDF):

DAVID STROM: PRT "DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE TO ME."

FROM THE TAXPAYER LEAGUE'S RADIO SHOW 1/1/2005:

I'll give you my take on this (PRT)...First, Personal Rapid Transit already exists and it's called the automobile. Now, with that said, the argument for the PRT system that exists out there is...well...this is a great way to add capacity very rapidly without...uh...since it's elevated you don't have the same problems with having to knock down houses and various other things...uh...y'know, but if you start looking at the system, the problem is there is no system. It doesn't really... I mean, part of their argument is about how it failed somewhere else, "well, it's not really what we got here"... uh...and I say, well look, let's build it in Dubai. Let's build it where they want to throw tons of money at it... if it's so great, then we'll see. If not, uh... why should we be subsidizing it?... certainly not to the tune of 600 million bucks... that's a ton of money...uh, it just doesn't make any sense to me..

Although I disagree with David Strom on many other matters I have to admit he's consistent in his opposition to transit... even bogus, gadget transit.

Click To Play

In the Dump Mark Olson Mailbox

Email received yesterday:

Dear Mr. Ken,

Your ad hominem arguments against rep Mark Olson are boring.  To continue to discredit PRT efforts because Mark was convicted of a misdemeanor is absurd.

In light of recent evidence of humans affecting climate change, new ways of "greener" public transport should be a universal human concern - don't you think?  Does it not make your stance a mute point?

I am his nephew, and while in no way do I condone his behavior towardshis family, or support all of his political views, it would be nice to see some factual content on your site that would prove PRT to be a
'boondoggle' as you so happily assert (and you can leave the sound effects out this time).

What is your solution for a public transportation system which is economically and environmentally viable?  If you can't provide some substance to the debate, you should probably shut down your website and do something else with your time.

sincerely,

Paul S. Olson

I have always said that I'd go to any public venue in Big Lake or anywhere else in the 6th District and explain exactly why PRT is infeasible and why Northstar, LRT and other real transit intiatives are a good thing.

Steve Andrews to Challenge Rep. Mark Olson

Lawrence Schumacher in his SC Times Blog:

Olson's first challenger

Posted: 11/13/2007 at 5:32 PM

Big Lake resident Steve Andrews announced on Tuesday that he intends to seek the DFL Party endorsement for a House District 16B seat in next year's election.

Andrews, a vice-president of technology for Minneapolis-based Fintegra Financial Solutions and co-owner of Seattle Sutton's Healthy Eating of Maple Grove with his wife, Mary, becomes the first candidate to announce a run against Rep. Mark Olson, R-Big Lake.

Andrews is a former member of the Monticello Housing & Redevelopment Authority and a St. John's University graduate.

House District 16B includes the cities of Clear Lake, Becker and Big Lake.

H/T Liberal in the Land of Conservative.