Supporters range from Minneapolis City Council member Dean Zimmerman, a Green Party member, to Republican Sen. Michelle Bachmann of Stillwater. Bachmann says personal rapid transit, like many political issues, creates strange bedfellows.
"People on the right, people on the left, we have the common goal of moving people with transit, but doing it in the most cost-effective manner, in fact, in a manner that may end up costing no government subsidy, it may end up paying for itself," she says.
Reporters never bothered to ask Bachmann exactly how PRT could pay for itself. The media never bother to ask questions like that. Reporters rarely mention the long and sorry history of PRT flops and fiascos. And so, the PRT boondoggle goes on and on to waste time and money. How many chances do these PRT guys get? As far as Tim Pawlenty is concerned, they get as many chances as the taxpayers will give them. An MnDOT workshop for the pods that don't work is scheduled for August 18th.
Where is the outrage from "fiscal conservative" Tom Emmer? How about Taxpayers League President Phil Krinkie?
Both Krinkie and Emmer voted for one of Rep. Mark Olson's pod amendments (voted down 26 to 107 on April 12, 2006). Which probably explains why the Taxpayers League refuses to take a position on public funding of Pawlenty's pod boondoggle.
The latest chapter in the perennial pod farce reported in this San Francisco Chronicle July 21, 2010 article:
Alameda scrapped its contract with a developer early today to bring thousands of homes and offices to the former Navy base, sending the sprawling project back to the drawing board 14 years after the military left.
The City Council voted 4-0, with one abstention, to sever its four-year relationship with SunCal Cos. of Irvine (Orange County), which had planned to build 4,800 homes, a 60-acre sports complex, offices, parks, schools and a ferry terminal at the former Alameda Naval Air Station, which covers one-third of the island city.
Money quote:
"No matter what kind of Disneyland magic transit they talk about, I don't see how they're going to get all that traffic through two lanes of the (Posey) Tube," Johnson said. "I don't want people to come up to me in the grocery store and say, 'You're the person who ruined Alameda.' "
Here's Suncal's presentation aboout PRT at the Alameda City Council September 10, 2008:
Always the same computer-generated, fact-free, dog & pony PowerPoint presentation. And always the same result - nothing but wasted time and $$$.
In the case of Alameda, I can say I told you so:
This latest setback for the pod people is just one more I'll add to the list of recent pod flops and fiascos:
Taxi 2000 lobbyist and Bachmann pal Ed Cain also lobbied for the phony U.S. Navy Veterans Association charity.
ULTra PRT Heathrow Debut Postponed a Fourth Time.
No $25 million earmark for PRT pork project in Winona, Minnesota.
The Swedish/Korean PRT prototype malfunctioned recently in front of the media.
The Masdar PRT (actually computer-guided golf carts that follow magnets imbedded in the roadway) has been scaled way back, This setback got a mention in the NY Times and confirmed in this Bloomberg article.
The much-hyped PRT project in Daventry ended in fiasco.
The so-called Morgantown PRT (it's a mundane people-mover) was the subject of a student newspaper editorial after a malfunction created a "fireball" and filled a vehicle with smoke. The cost of fixing the Morgantown boondoggle is $93 million.
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