BIKE: KUT yesterday morning: TXDOT Monorail

[David Dobbs]

That historically transit-hostile auto uber alles TxDot speaks 
favorably about Monorail's possible appeal to Austin speaks volumes 
about this technology's flexibility and universal applicability as an 
alternative to automobiles in the real world.

Dave Dobbs
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Texas Association for Public Transportation
9702 Swansons Ranch Road
Austin, Texas 78748
Ph 512.282.1149

Visit our website at  http://www.lightrailnow.org
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

At 18:32 -0600 2/24/04, Patrick Goetz wrote:
>I can't resist posting this to the list.  While Capital Metro continues to
>eat the daily stupid pill (first LRT was the answer, then DMU, now BRT),
>even TxDOT officials in Austin are acknowledging that monorail would
>actually be a good solution for Austin.  (See below.)
>
>As a chronic and frequent critic of TxDOT, it sure is hard for me to
>swallow that the white hats and black hats are slowly but surely being
>reversed, with the puppeteers who pull the strings at Cap Metro looking
>increasingly more evil and TxDOT moving towards a more rational
>transportation policy.  About a year ago, the Austin Monorail Project did
>a presentation for the Capital Metro board.  Afterwards Lee Walker, Cap
>Metro Board President, gave me a 15 minute, no-punches-pulled
>you're-the-lowest-scum-on-the-planet-earth tongue-lashing because of this:
>
>   1. we obtained an official Capital Metro document
>      using the Freedom of Information Act
>   2. reproduced it on a viewgraph
>   3. circled a paragraph contained in this document
>      with a red highlighter
> and
>   4. showed it on an overhead projector
>
>sure, the document demonstrated a high level of corruption and misuse of
>public funds to insure that LRT would "win" the rapid transit project
>search, but does this mean that I'm evil for pointing this out to the
>public?  The message I came away with was, as far as the Cap Metro board
>is concerned (or at the very least Lee Walker), corruption is A-OK as long
>as
>
>  A) it's your friends that are doing it
>  B) no one finds out
>
>but I digress.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Elliot Kralj RIO LIMPIO INC. [mailto:ek]
>Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 11:08 AM
>To: info
>Subject: KUT this morn TXDOT Monorail
>
>http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kut/news.newsmain?action=article&AR 
>TICLE_ID=607230
>
>
>Fixing I-35
>
>AUSTIN, TX. (2004-02-23) It's Monday morning. Time to rush out the door,
>start the car, hit I-35 and sit there. And if you plan to drive near M.L.K
>expect to sit even longer. Every year commuters sit for a total of 4.4
>million hours on that part of I-35. That's why the American Highway Users
>Alliance has ranked it as the thirty-ninth most congested bottleneck in
>the country.  The Texas Department of Transportation is constantly
>struggling to come up with ways to ease congestion on 35 through Austin.
>
>But any project would have a few barriers. Assistant Public Affairs Officer
>for Tex-Dot, Chris Bishop, says, "We have restrictions on height,
>restrictions on cost, we've got the river as a water barrier. Do you go
>under it, do you go through it, do you go over it. And that all would have
>to fit with the topography of the road."
>
>Other ideas to fix the congestion include expansion of the road, the
>addition of high occupancy lanes and even toll lanes. Bishop thinks those
>ideas are a great place to start, but he's got his own ideas.
>
>"I think Austin would go for a monorail, just cause it's weird enough ha,
>ha, ha you know..it doesn't take up a lot of space, it's kind of futuristic,
>it's kind of the way Austin thinks of itself." says Bishop.
>
>Don't expect a monorail anytime soon. But Capital Metro will begin laying
>out proposals for a new transportation plan in the spring. The ideas include
>light rail, commuter rail and even rapid bus lanes. A plan could end up on
>the November ballot. Beyond that, a couple of current projects are expected
>to help the daily commute -- State Highway 130 and 45 are scheduled for
>completion by the end of 2007.
>
>
>
>http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kut/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_I
>D=607230
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