BIKE: Re: Mass Transit: we want it, hence argue about it.

[Nawdry]

At 2/26/04 13:10, Patrick Goetz wrote:
>Comments like this indicate a clear psychopathology, one which is not
>helpful in improving mass transit in Austin.  Seattle is having problems
>making the numbers work out, in part because the revenues aren't as high
>as anticipated, largely because Seattle's own road warriors have figured
>out how to get around paying the luxury motor vehicle tax which is the
>proposed system's primary source of construction revenue.


Well, I don't care to get into debates about psychoanalytical 
issues.  Patrick obviously went to a great deal of trouble to write a long 
essay, with lots of valuable information, but in my judgement neither here 
nor there in terms of resolving any issues on the monorail vs. other rail 
question.

The Seattle Popular Monorail Authority are indeed having loads of problems 
with their project.  Revenue projections publicized for the 2002 election 
have proven to be significantly overstated, forcing a substantial 
downscaling of project design.  This includes significant sections of 
single-track beamway rather than full double-beamways.  There is concern 
that this will prove to be a constraint on capacity.  Furthermore, 
escalators are being discarded from the design of some, possibly most, 
stations.  In addition, considerable community dissatisfaction and 
opposition have emerged, including an effort to petition for a revote of 
the project.  Whether this petition will go anywhere I don't know.  In any 
case, there is currently a huge controversy over how to construct the 
monorail on Second Ave., as residents and office-dwellers object to having 
monorail trains passing 6 to 8 feet outside their windows, and others 
object to either taking big swaths of sidewalks for support piers or a lane 
of street capacity (violating more promises made in the 2002 election).

All in all, the current troubles of the Seattle monorail project don't 
demonstrate that monorail is unworkable, but they do demonstrate that 
original rosy projections of many aspects were false.

The Las Vegas project, of course, is on schedule and under budget, and due 
for imminent opening (March 1st I think), but the proposed extension has 
encountered some design problems of its own.  And a peoplemover connecting 
casinos along the Vegas Strip is hardly a typical installation for an urban 
rapid transit system.

Yes, there are little monorail proposals emerging here or there ~ there 
have been for decades, and there will undoubtedly continue to be.  In the 
scheme of things, by and large monorails remain suitable for a very small 
"niche" of applications where they have some advantage (as in narrow 
congested urban corridors in Japan, especially connecting much 
heavier-traffic railway lines).

The tiny Moscow monorail is a good case in point ~ 5 km (3 miles) of 
monorail line in a city with 256 km of metro and 220 km of light rail 
tramways.  I believe this tends to corroborate my previous statements about 
the real role of monorails and similar AGT systems.

LH