BIKE: more monorail

[mike]

Why would you dismiss everything but LRT because of an article about
planning considerations / difficulties for a stretch of road in a heavily
developed portion of Seattle?  These difficulties will happen in just about
any situation where you're trying to fit something new into an urban area.  

During the Rapid Transit Project meetings for light rail 2001-2002, Cap
Metro / P&B was looking at having to rebuild nearly every intersection from
45th St to the river, including possibly having to modify the structure of
some corner lot commercial buildings to get the needed right of way.  On top
of that, South Congress Merchants heavily fought LRT because of the
disruption to business that it would cause in construction (and possibly
after completion).

>As usual, when the reality hits the road, the picture for monorail...
What about when reality continues to hit people?
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2404596 (Todays
Houston Chron)

While so far, most of the light rail v. auto accidents in Houston have been
driver related (including a Union Pacific employee), why should we have to
accept this potential for deadly incidents?  The Houston drivers have been
fortunate so far, but a distracted pedestrian or bicyclist doesn't stand a
chance.

In a Denver Post artice, March of 1995, transit spokesman Andre Hudson
commenting on the death of a pedestrian and 15 accidents over four months
said that these "accident statistics are typical for starting this type of
transportation system in a city the size of Denver."  
   
   C'mon!!

I see more than enough reason to look at other options available to Austin
as it attempts to get people around better.


Peace,

Mike Conwell   (doesn't even remotely resemble a "Road Warrior")
Austin Citizens for Personal Rapid Transit
PO Box 161972
Austin, TX  78716-1972
512.963.2778 (new number)




-----Original Message-----
From: forum-bicycleaustin.info-bounces
[mailto:forum-bicycleaustin.info-bounces]On
Behalf Of Mike Dahmus
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2004 5:11 PM
To: forum
Subject: BIKE: more monorail


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com//160701_monorail14.html

As usual, when the reality hits the road, the picture for monorail (and 
BRT, and every other competitor to LRT that the road warriors use as 
diversions) proves to be a lot messier than originally promised.


Mike Dahmus
mdahmus


_______________________________________________
Get on or off this list here:
http://lists.bicycleaustin.info/listinfo.cgi/forum-bicycleaustin.info