»In which we ride a white elephant

I wrote about the Personal Rapid Transit system at West Virginia University a few weeks ago; today's New York Times has a piece on ditto, with the headline City’s White Elephant Now Looks Like a Transit Workhorse. The long-term development of the PRT system, now in its thirty-second year, has allowed for quick expansion of the city around the University, and for the Uni itself to spread out.

Like something out of The Jetsons, the PRT is a technological oddity: "Riders can push a button and select which of the five stops they want on the system’s 3.6-mile route; it is like a horizontal elevator that can go 30 miles per hour. The driverless, 21-passenger fiberglass cars, gliding on rubber wheels and powered by electric motors, pick up riders and deliver them to their stops quickly, bypassing intermediate stations along the concrete and steel guide way. It is this individualized destination option that sets it apart from other cities’ systems."

The system does not expect to receive more federal funding, however, even as it seeks to expand: at $30m per mile, it is not cheap. The system receives much of its operating expenses through the University; it is closed when school is not in session (how odd!). It has a remarkable 98% uptime record, which sure beats MUNI.