[sustran] Will the real PRT please stand up

[eric britton]

Nice Dave, Couple of quick points to your observations follow: 

1.       The W/S reference on this is
http://worldstreets.wordpress.com/2011/04/29/op-ed-will-the-real-prt-please-
stand-up/ 



2.       I hope that I did not say that I thought that the M2W solution was
Nirvana, in terms of energy efficiency, emissions, driver behavior,
encumbrance, safety or whatever of these zooming beasts. What I was trying
to convey is that they are a fact, that their modal share is growing, that
people chose to go with them for their own excellent individual reasons, and
that warts and all they get their owner/passengers where they want to do,
when they want to go there, and at a price that defies all competition. I
was trying to be descriptive, neutral,  and non-judgmental. But also not
entirely blind to their reality.



3.       What I would dearly like to see now is a certain number of cities
giving the example for making what the people have voted for with their
wallets and their bottoms, a better deal all around.  This will of course
take them to matters such as size, type and performance of the engines,
provision of road space for safety and efficiency when they are moving, some
kind of rationalization when it comes to parking, and a real policy about
enforcement. 

I have often maintained  that, like it or not, that people are smarter than
government, and that the wise government will realize that and is ready to
work with the people and their expressed interests, not only as individuals
and today, but for society as a whole and for the long term.  That's our
responsibility as policy makers/advisors, and that's a job that really does
need to be done. 

 

Will the real city ready to take the lead and show the way please stand up.

 

Eric Britton

 

 

  

Eric,

 

You do like to throw out these zingers on Friday, don' t you?  

 

You make a VERY good point about bicycles and scooters being the original
PRT.  Traffic congestion in these cities is NOT being caused by scooters.  

 

That said, I think you're being too charitable calling scooter engines
"pretty efficient".   Possibly, "relatively fuel efficient" compared to a 1
or 2 ton automobile but even 100 mpg for a scooter compared to 30 mpg for a
small car doesn't seem very efficient to me (sorry all, I don't have the
Liters per 100 KM conversion).  But the worst thing that even the 4 cycle
engines pollute like crazy compared to any current generation gasoline
vehicle!

 

Given the large numbers of very similar scooter designs, it has always
baffled me that Asian governments haven't provided some incentives for some
to sell retrofit kits for the biggest selling models for electricity or at
least natural gas, and, of course, provide incentives for people to buy them
(or offer a scooter scrap program).

 

I understand that in the middle point of the economic ladder people don't
want the wind (and sun and rain) in their hair when they're traveling.  So
why aren't there aren't more partially enclosed scooter designs to serve the
lower end of the market?  

 

For better and worse, we (in every country) are constrained by the
categories of vehicles that get defined in our laws.  In the US we could use
a legal definition of a practical medium speed vehicle that could be
manufactured and sold for $6,000 - $8,000 (remember the itMoves?
http://itmoves.us/pages/product

 

That's my 2¢ for Friday!

 

Dave Brook

Portland, Oregon

Web: www.carsharing.us

Twitter: carsharing_us

 

On Apr 29, 2011, at 12:42 AM, eric britton wrote:  

Somebody wake me up on this please. 

1.       If we look on the streets of any city in the Global South, we see
PRT, personal rapid transport, all over the place.

2.       In the form of cheap motorized two wheelers with pretty
energy-efficient engines, enough road space to get the trip done,  and free
parking right next to where you want to go.

3.       There is no way that the old mid-20th century PRT folks can even
start to compete with that. 

4.       But if this is the on-street reality, which of course it is, please
show me the city or research program that is showing the way in getting the
most out of this stubborn reality.

5.       Who is making the best things about it better yet?

6.       And who is getting some kind of control of the worst? 

We need a new policy paradigm for this, let's call it, the people's PRT.  Of
course it's part of the problem, but it is also clear that it is a major
part of the solution, as anyone with even an ounce of experience and common
sense can see.  And policy makers, advisors and proponents of sustainable
cities we will continue to ignore it at our peril. 

Take the city of Kaohsiung as just one salient example: 1.5 million people,
1.2 million scooters, and something like three quarters of the modal split.
And all this in parallel with an absolutely gorgeous new state of the art
six billion dollar metro that started to go out of business on Day 1 of its
opening and ever since, because it simply cannot compete in terms of trip
time, convenient or price.  

Shouldn't we be working on this – along with the on-street reality options
such as BRT, HOV access, parking control, strategic speed control, safe
walking and cycling, and all that we know are parts of the solution --
instead of wasting our time with these long disproven, whack-a-mole PRT
proposals that clearly have no place in our cities 

How to get the message across to the policy makers and politicians?  

This has been good fun, but Brendan Finn has it right. These PRT enthusiasts
are distracting us at a time when we need all our brains and focus for the
real stuff.  Out they go. 

Eric Britton 

Some reference points:

·         Sustran list comments -
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sustran-discuss/message/6637

·         World Streets article of 26 April- http://wp.me/psKUY-1A9 

·         CityFix article of 27 April-
http://thecityfix.com/can-pod-cars-transform-traffic-in-delhi/

·         Facebook group -
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_217653324914604

·         World Streets Poll -
http://worldstreets.wordpress.com/2011/04/27/prt-proposal-for-delhi-convince
s-chief-minister-but-does-it-convince-you-see-poll-results/  

(Note on the poll results: It has in the last 24 hours been contaminated by
no less than 106 visits from a single Comcast Cable site in one city in the
United States, with the result that  exactly 65 votes have been recorded in
favor of PRT as a solution from the one site. Now that's interesting.)