Citizens Say "Pods Off!" Again in Daventry

Do the pod people ever give up? Not in Duluth and not in Daventry.

The last time The Personal Rapid Transit hucksters came to Daventry, the citizens turned en masse to say "Pods Off!". Some Daventry residents even posted a Daventry anti-pod page on Facebook. The Daventry Town Council - a separate governing body than the pod-promoting Daventry District Council (DDC) agreed with the citizens, saying:

"Daventry people have not been apprised of the full extent of the infrastructure required to operate the proposed PRT system. This lack of information clearly denies them the opportunity to make reasoned judgement and comment. "

After listening to a report by a councilor who had visited Heathrow 5 and saw the much-hyped transportation revolution first-hand, the Daventry Town Council voted to reject the pods:

RESOLVED: That Daventry Town Council reject Daventry District Council’s proposals for a PRT system and/or pilot scheme in the town, on the basis that it is inappropriate for and unacceptable to the people of Daventry.

The Daventry Express (The Gusher) reports:

Council puts brakes on pod plans

DAVENTRY District Council (DDC) has told the Gusher it will not be pursuing plans to build a pod network in the town.

Despite revealing at a European transport conference last week that pods were the preferred option to “solve the town’s transport problems” DDC has now said it will be looking into the possibility of bringing cyber buses to the town.

The buses, known as group rapid transit (GRT), do not require a driver and travel ‘on demand’ in specially built lanes.

The council says this makes them more attractive, energy efficient and much cheaper than pods.

The Daventry Express has received dozens of letters from readers after Simon Bowers, the council’s corporate manager for development and property, revealed that building a pod network in Daventry would cost around £85 million.

But DDC said this week: “The council is not pursuing a PRT (pod) system because of the level of costs and in response to the concerns that have already been expressed by residents on the subject....

A sample of comments from the anti-pod letters:

"I find it incredible that DDC are reconsidering reinstatement of the PRT pods after the tsunami of opposition from what seems like the entire population of Daventry."

"Seriously, I would like to know if an assessment survey has been carried out to predict what impact the pods will have and I would also like to know, and I don't think I am alone here, how much money has already been spent on this idea and how much more will be squandered in the future if this comes to fruition?"

"Come on DDC – wake up! We cannot afford the pod system. Look at the original figures that were discussed (presented in a very optimistic manner that will probably have to be multiplied by a factor four or five for a much more limited service than linking to Long Buckby rail station)."

"It is evident if you speak to people on the street in Daventry the majority think the pods/PRT are a complete waste of money for a town the size of Daventry."

Recent news about the ongoing, worldwide pod boondoggle:

Duluth News Tribune article about Taxi 2000 trying to restart Duluth pod project - hilarious comments.

PRT is so not happening at Heathrow.

Pod people invade Newport News ( the article quotes retired professor Vukan Vuchic)

Bizarre hearing for wacky Jpods proposal for Hull, Massachusetts. Video: Bill James Pitches Jpods Resolution to Hennepin County.

Taxi 2000 Corporation spent nearly $80K on lobbying in Minnesota in 5 years. Taxi 2000 lobbyist and Bachmann pal Ed Cain also lobbied for the phony U.S. Navy Veterans Association charity.

The Swedish/Korean PRT prototype malfunctioned in front of the media.

The Masdar PRT (actually computer-guided golf carts that follow magnets imbedded in the roadway) has been scaled way back, This setback got a mention in the NY Times and confirmed in this Bloomberg article.

The so-called Morgantown PRT (it's a mundane people-mover) was the subject of a student newspaper editorial after a malfunction created a "fireball" and filled a vehicle with smoke. The cost of fixing the Morgantown boondoggle is $93 million. Twitter Reveals Morgantown WVU Personal Rapid Transit's Frequent Breakdowns.

Taxi 2000 Corporation Spent Nearly $80K Since 2004 Lobbying in Minnesota

Taxi 2000 Corp. Lobbying expenditures:

2009 - $5,200.00
2008 - $0.00
2007 - $14,086.00
2006 - $0.00
2005 - $20,000.00
2004 - $40,000.00
_________________

Total - $79,286.00



Recent news about the ongoing, worldwide pod boondoggle:

Duluth News Tribune article about Taxi 2000 trying to restart Duluth pod project - hilarious comments.

PRT is so not happening at Heathrow.

Pod people invade Newport News ( the article quotes retired professor Vukan Vuchic)

Bizarre hearing for wacky Jpods proposal for Hull, Massachusetts. Video: Bill James Pitches Jpods Resolution to Hennepin County.

Daventry says "Pods Off!". also see the Daventry anti-pod Facebook page.

Taxi 2000 lobbyist and Bachmann pal Ed Cain also lobbied for the phony U.S. Navy Veterans Association charity.

The Swedish/Korean PRT prototype malfunctioned in front of the media.

The Masdar PRT (actually computer-guided golf carts that follow magnets imbedded in the roadway) has been scaled way back, This setback got a mention in the NY Times and confirmed in this Bloomberg article.

The so-called Morgantown PRT (it's a mundane people-mover) was the subject of a student newspaper editorial after a malfunction created a "fireball" and filled a vehicle with smoke. The cost of fixing the Morgantown boondoggle is $93 million. Twitter Reveals Morgantown WVU Personal Rapid Transit's Frequent Breakdowns.

Layman's Law About the Internet & Gadgetbahn

Richard Layman has come up with the gadgetbahner equivalent of Godwin's Law in the Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space blog:

Layman's Law for Discussions about Transit is:

"As an online discussion about transit grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving monorails or personal rapid transit systems approaches 1." In other words, given enough time, in any online discussion about fixed rail transit, someone inevitably criticizes some point made in the discussion by declaring the technology obsolete, offering the example of monorail and/or personal rapid transit systems as more advanced and superior technologies.

Recent news about the ongoing, worldwide pod boondoggle:

Duluth News Tribune article about Taxi 2000 trying to restart Duluth pod project - hilarious comments.

PRT is so not happening at Heathrow.

Pod people invade Newport News ( the article quotes retired professor Vukan Vuchic)

Bizarre hearing for wacky Jpods proposal for Hull, Massachusetts. Video: Bill James Pitches Jpods Resolution to Hennepin County.

Daventry says "Pods Off!". also see the Daventry anti-pod Facebook page.

Taxi 2000 lobbyist and Bachmann pal Ed Cain also lobbied for the phony U.S. Navy Veterans Association charity.

The Swedish/Korean PRT prototype malfunctioned in front of the media.

The Masdar PRT (actually computer-guided golf carts that follow magnets imbedded in the roadway) has been scaled way back, This setback got a mention in the NY Times and confirmed in this Bloomberg article.

The so-called Morgantown PRT (it's a mundane people-mover) was the subject of a student newspaper editorial after a malfunction created a "fireball" and filled a vehicle with smoke. The cost of fixing the Morgantown boondoggle is $93 million. Twitter Reveals Morgantown WVU Personal Rapid Transit's Frequent Breakdowns.

The Duluth News Tribune: "Remember that Duluth monorail idea? It's back"

Peter Passi writes in The Duluth News Tribune:

Ideas to redevelop the former Lafarge cement terminal property have resurrected talk of another ambitious project.

Remember Taxi 2000 Corp. — the outfit that pitched building a monorail-type transit project in Duluth seven years ago?

That project fizzled when the city lost its bid to nab $24 million in state bonding money to jump-start the personal rapid transit, or PRT, system. But talk of bringing Taxi 2000 to town is back, thanks to Sandy Hoff and Alessandro Giuliani, two would-be developers of the former Lafarge site.

Giuliani and Hoff said they have been in discussions with Taxi 2000 recently about how Duluth could become the first community in the nation to demonstrate how the Fridley, Minn.-based company’s Skyweb Express system would work in the field.

It's a good article, read the whole thing.... the article has quotes from Michael Setty who wrote an excellent white paper about PRT in Winona.

Taxi 2000 was the would-be pod vendor Michele Bachmann was talking about when she told MPR back in 2004:

Supporters range from Minneapolis City Council member Dean Zimmerman, a Green Party member, to Republican Sen. Michelle Bachmann of Stillwater. Bachmann says personal rapid transit, like many political issues, creates strange bedfellows.

"People on the right, people on the left, we have the common goal of moving people with transit, but doing it in the most cost-effective manner, in fact, in a manner that may end up costing no government subsidy, it may end up paying for itself," she says.

Reporters never bothered to ask Bachmann exactly how PRT could pay for itself. The media never bothered to ask questions like that. Reporters rarely mention the long and sorry history of PRT flops and fiascos. And so, the PRT boondoggle goes on and on to waste time and money. How many chances do these PRT guys get? As far as Tim Pawlenty was concerned, they get as many chances as the taxpayers will give them. MnDOT's workshop for the pods August 18th, 2010 was a big fiasco that included disgraced, former Mpls councilman Dean Zimmermann.

Of course, if Taxi 2000's grab last year for a taxpayer subsidy is any guide, this Duluth project will likely include a request for local bonding or other government pork subsidy .

The Pawlenty administration wasted at least $150,000 on personal rapid transit . Will there be outrage from "fiscal conservative" GOP/Tea Partiers to public funding for the pod boondoggle in Duluth? Will Rep. Chip Cravaak support the pod project in Duluth? How about Taxpayers League President Phil Krinkie? Will Lieutenant Governor Yvonne Prettner Solon support public funding for the Duluth pod project as she did when she co-sponsored Bachmann's pod bill in 2004? Here's a hilarious video of Prettner Solon & the pod people at a senate hearing on the pods. I've written and called Prettner-Solon's office about whether she will support public funding for the Duluth pod project - no reply.

Both Krinkie and and former gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer voted for one of Rep. Mark Olson's pod amendments (voted down 26 to 107 on April 12, 2006). Which probably explains why the Taxpayers League refuses to take a position on public funding of the pod boondoggle.

The perennial pod farce will end in fiasco as it always does - a bunch of money and/or time wasted for absolutely nothing. This Duluth project sounds a lot like the Alameda project that was also supposed to have pods:

San Francisco Chronicle July 21, 2010 article:

Alameda scrapped its contract with a developer early today to bring thousands of homes and offices to the former Navy base, sending the sprawling project back to the drawing board 14 years after the military left.

The City Council voted 4-0, with one abstention, to sever its four-year relationship with SunCal Cos. of Irvine (Orange County), which had planned to build 4,800 homes, a 60-acre sports complex, offices, parks, schools and a ferry terminal at the former Alameda Naval Air Station, which covers one-third of the island city.

Money quote:

"No matter what kind of Disneyland magic transit they talk about, I don't see how they're going to get all that traffic through two lanes of the (Posey) Tube," Johnson said. "I don't want people to come up to me in the grocery store and say, 'You're the person who ruined Alameda.' "

In the case of Alameda, I can say I told you so:

Ken Avidor, a Minnesota transit advocate and critic of similarly proposed systems, called the project the latest iteration of "gadgetbahn," a play on "autobahn" the German word for freeway. Gadgetbahn refers to highly technological transport systems relying on untried innovations. "All of these gadgetbahn projects always rely on totally unrealistic cost estimates," he said. "A lot of the public officials today are baby boomers. They saw the Jetsons. And it has a lot of appeal," Avidor said. After rattling off a list of failed proposals, including one where proponents claimed to keep costs low by having elevated structures built by machine, Avidor accused PRT supporters of wowing people with technology to block realistic alternatives. "It's a stalking horse for people who don't want light rail," he said.

A list of recent pod flops and fiascos:

PRT is so not happening at Heathrow.

Pod people invade Newport News ( the article quotes retired professor Vukan Vuchic)

Bizarre hearing for wacky Jpods proposal for Hull, Massachusetts. Video: Bill James Pitches Jpods Resolution to Hennepin County.

Daventry says "Pods Off!". also see the Daventry anti-pod Facebook page.

Taxi 2000 lobbyist and Bachmann pal Ed Cain also lobbied for the phony U.S. Navy Veterans Association charity.

The Swedish/Korean PRT prototype malfunctioned in front of the media.

The Masdar PRT (actually computer-guided golf carts that follow magnets imbedded in the roadway) has been scaled way back, This setback got a mention in the NY Times and confirmed in this Bloomberg article.

The so-called Morgantown PRT (it's a mundane people-mover) was the subject of a student newspaper editorial after a malfunction created a "fireball" and filled a vehicle with smoke. The cost of fixing the Morgantown boondoggle is $93 million. Twitter Reveals Morgantown WVU Personal Rapid Transit's Frequent Breakdowns.

Cross-posted at Dump Bachmann.

Real Estate Developer Proposes PRT for Duluth Waterfront Project

Many years ago, there was a lot of talk and some bills in the legislature about PRT in Duluth, but it never happened. But, after striking out in Winona last year, they're back in Duluth:

There has also been a lot of discussion about developing a marina, along with a transportation system called Skyweb Express.

"It's a pod car that moves on a rail and could be connected through the waterfront district and end up right inside a hotel lobby," says Hoff.

Sound expensive?

It would be but Hoff says there are opportunities to receive funding through bank financing and private equity firms.

Well, those banks and private equity firms are going to have a lot of fun figuring out exactly how much PRT costs.

Joe Lawlor at the Newport News Daily Press wrote an article about figuring the cost of PRT:

"Cost of pod cars not easy to find"

In my Friday story about Personal Rapid Transit, a pod-car system touted for Newport News and the Peninsula, I didn’t go into great detail about the cost aspect, except to say that an advocate estimated it would be 75 percent less costly than light rail.
If you didn’t read the story, the gist is that pod cars, carrying three to six people on a raised guideway, would zip to key locations on the Peninsula, as an alternative to buses and cars. The advantage of the pod car idea, according to advocates, is that it would take you where you want to go, without stopping or sitting next to people you don’t know.

Councilwoman Pat Woodbury is advocating the idea, pointing out that it would cost a lot less money than light rail, which is far off in the future for the Peninsula anyway.

Trying to find cost estimates on something that’s mostly theoretical like PRT is difficult. However, we’re going to try.

Read the whole thing.