[Mpls] "brt"?

[Steve Nelson]

> David Greene
> The Wedge
wrote
> As for PRT, there are several sites out there that cover it.
> Steve Nelson does a good job explaining why we should _not_
> build it.  He calls it equivalent to the automobile, which I
> would agree with in all the worst ways.  What has our automobile
> culture done to our cities?  What has this culture of
> hyper-individualism and isolation done to our neighborhoods?
> Read the literature from Taxi 2000.  One of their biggest
> marketing points is that you don't have to ride with "those"
> scary and dangerous bus people.

While it is true that there are similarities to our automobile in its 
on-demand and non-stop features which apparently are so important to us that 
we continue to choose autos over mass transit in big numbers, there are big 
differences in that we can eliminate the need for a lot of parking and, 
since most PRT models are electric, pollution can be controlled at the 
source or eliminated all together through the use of solar, wind or similar 
renewable source production.

I am not a big fan of our continuing down the road of more roads and more 
parking lots but as a culture we apparently have decided we love our cars. 
If we are to get a system that is going to work--and work in areas other 
than a high volume corridor like Hiawatha with Downtown at one end and MOA 
at the other--then we have to come up with something that will lure us into 
leaving behind our cars are relying on SOME form of public transportation.

As for THOSE people, I was not aware that it was the function of public 
transportation to act as a social engineering engine.  It may well be a 
by-product but that is NOT what the system is designed to do.  PRT may not 
mix people up in the vehicle itself but the stations would not be segregated 
and you would have to wait in line for the next car with THOSE people just 
like you would have to rub shoulders with them on the train or bus.  I have 
never had a problem riding with THOSE people because I guess I have never 
met them.  Every time I have been on a bus or ridden the train I have been 
with PEOPLE--PEOPLE in all sorts of various sizes, shapes and external signs 
of differing degrees of affluence.

But like I said before, I get on the bus to go somewhere because I need to 
get there NOT as a replacement for singles bars or lonely hearts clubs.  If 
I can get there with as few stops or none at all so much the better since 
that is what TRANSPORTATION is all about.

Steve Nelson
Willard Hay