Forwarded by Ken Avidor: David Shove thinks PRT is opposed to the highway industry. PRT has close ties with SEH, the 35W Excess Project engineering firm... they even share a lobbyist, Edwin Cain, (Registration Number: 9152)
http://www.state.mn.us/ebranch/epb/lobby/lbdetail/lb9152.html SEH's logo is proudly shown on the Taxi 2000/Skyweb Express website: http://www.skywebexpress.com/250_associated_firms.shtml One of the PRT bills in the last session would have given PRT an exclusive concession for transit in the 35W corridor...it doesn't take much thought to see who that would have helped and why. It certainly wouldn't have helped Scott Dibble and Frank Hornstein who are trying to get a BRT line running on 35W. Also: � Shef Lang (1927-2003) was the Chairman of the Board at Taxi 2000 until his death.�Here's a few quotes that show that Shef was anything but a foe of the highway industry. Shef hated LRT and loved highways and cars. PS: I don't have any connections to the LRT industry and building trade unions. I am an unpaid, volunteer transit, bike and pedestrian advocate. ------------------------------------------------------ http://faculty.washington.edu/%7Ejbs/itrans/lang.htm ""Marketization" is a simple concept with enormous power over the complex problems our fast-changing economy throws at us, an economy that changes so fast just because it is largely market-driven. Let the market sort it out. There is no longer goodreason to reserve so many of our transportation decisions to governments instead of letting the market sort them out. The time has come to "get with the program." We have already done some of what needs doing, but there is a lot more left to do. " http://woodrow.mpls.frb.fed.us/pubs/fedgaz/ 02-03/rail.cfm �The Washington-New York market has a little chunk of that [high-speed rail] market, and they can have it. And there are people who look at that and say, 'You know, if this were run by a private corporation instead of by this Mickey Mouse government-supported operation, mainly Amtrak, they might be able to hang in there as a private entity and do reasonably well,'� Lang said. �But this is 19th century technology�we should never forget that. It was great then, when the alternative was buggies on unpaved roads or stagecoaches or riverboats chugging along at 3 or 4 mph up and down the Mississippi. But this is no longer the case. 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.� ------------------------------------------------------ "Later I talked to a good friend of mine who is one of the foremost experts on transportation in Canada. 'Everybody says this (LRT) is the future,' he told me. 'It is kind of a monument to an idea.' Then he said, 'Better you should build pyramids. At least they don't have any operating costs.'" http://www.citypages.com/databank/19/918/article5511.asp ------------------------------------------------------ http://www.skywebexpress.com/news/news-2003-01-16-lang.shtml "....Our last visit was to Shef�s office at M.I.T. where he was Professor of Transportation. In several positions in the U. S. Government including a term as Federal Railroad Administration, he had followed the federally sponsored studies on new transit systems including PRT. The one specific thing I recall from the meeting is that he told us that he and his colleagues had calculated that if Boston ripped up all of their rail systems and replaced them with PRT with the same line and station locations it could handle the traffic carried by the rail system at substantially lower annual cost. This is an excellent example of Shef�s forthright, honest, statement of facts that many don�t want to hear and are unpopular in political circles." -J.E. Anderson ********************************************** Avidor Studios http://www.avidorstudios.com 3629 Grand Avenue Minneapolis, Minnesota 55409 612-827-0545 ===== "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[email protected] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
