The PRT system you mention in Cardiff [“My Pod,” The Rakish Angle, April] has never been built (and won’t be). It is one example of the many half-truths and outright lies that Ed Anderson and PRT proponents tell elected officials and the public. The PRT advocates would have you believe that their system is more energy-, time-, maintenance- and cost-effective than light rail or buses. Plenty of reputable studies show they’d use more energy, cost far more money, be more susceptible to breakdowns, and would pose serious safety hazards. This is why, in thirty years, no other city has been willing to build a PRT system. The city of Minneapolis and state of Minnesota are about to give six million dollars to a private company—Taxi 2000—to build a test track for a completely unproven business venture. Giving Ed Anderson millions of taxpayer dollars to play with their high-tech toys would be pure corporate welfare, just like building new sports stadiums, the I-35 Access project, or any other city-financed boondoggle. Worst of all, the city and state are spending this money at a time when they are cutting after-school programs, proposing to close schools, and cutting benefits to transit workers and other civil servants. I can’t believe Dean Zimmermann or any other elected official would support PRT. It’s a big, unamusing joke!
Andrew Singer
St. Paul
The Cardiff “Ultra” PRT project was denied funding. Like a lot of PRT projects, it’s a flop in a long series of flops. Six million dollars in city funding and eighteen million in state funds for City Council member Dean Zimmermann and Rep. Mark Olson’s PRT test facility is just plain ridiculous. Other Cities have studied PRT and decided it wasn’t worth it. Cincinnati spent $625,000 on a study of PRT (the OKI Central Loop study in 2001) and passed on it. Why don’t we just borrow their study and save ourselves the money? I liked the bus system we had. I find that the people who most complain about buses and trains aren’t the people who ride them. My daughter goes to Ramsey Middle School. They’re looking at thirty percent reductions in their budget. That will probably bring the curtain down on the wonderful musical program at Ramsey. My daughter plays in two orchestras and the chamber quartet. You want to take that away from her so Dean and Mark can play with their little monorail fantasy? To learn what PRT is really about, see: www.roadkillbill.com/PRTisaJoke.html
Ken Avidor
Minneapolis
Several agitated readers wrote not only to voice their opposition to PRT, but to say the Cardiff PRT “was never built.” To clarify: A test track was, in fact, built and operated there in January 2003. Full funding for the city-wide proposal was denied later that same month by Welsh officials. We were wrong, though, when we said, “Everyone is happy about PRT except Betsy Barnum.”—Eds.
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