Responding to Mel Gregerson:
PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) is a lousy solution to our car-dependant
transportation
system.
There are no large-scale PRT systems in existence so all the claims about cost and
efficiency are speculative.
When you get past the Gee-Whiz-Buck Rogers fantasy of PRT, there are some real,
down-to-earth problems that would plague a large-scale PRT system.
Any person who wanted to , could use a PRT vehicle as a mobile drug-shooting
gallery ,
crack-house, hooker-motel room or for any other illegal activity that requires a
cheap ,
short-term, private room .
PRT would be a huge securtity problem. A terrorist could put a bomb on the seat
of a
vehicle, set the destination on the console and step out of the vehicle, turning the
PRT
into a guided missle aimed at the interior of buildings where the devastation would be
greater than what happened at Oklahoma City.
Then there is vandalism, litter and grafitti, that need regular fixing and
cleaning.
Scheduling all those little cars for cleaning would be a nightmare.
During an event such as a fireworks show, PRT woud have the same problems private
automobiles have in getting a lot of people to a single destination , only worse
because
it would be a single track up in the air.
Imagine all those ugly pylons everywhere ( all with grafitti)
When a bus or a trolley breaks down , people don't need cherry-pickers to extract
them.
I could go on and on...exccept to ask PRT supporters: what is so bad about riding
with"strangers"? I LIKE riding with people I don't know!!! I like people-watching on
subways and buses! I like over-hearing their conversations. I like crowds and the
audiences at plays, movies and concerts and ballgames, and parks and museums and the
State
Fair . Crowds of strange people are a unique feature of urban life that I ENJOY!!!!
jeez
, why else would I live in a city!!!
-Avidor
Kingfield
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