Monday, October 13, 2008

Podcars in Raleigh??

I read this earlier today, about Ithaca, NY possibly getting a podcar system. For those that may not know, a podcar is kind of like a monorail, except with many small 4 passenger maximum cars. It's described a lot of times like an elevator, only it goes horizontal. It is fully electric and very efficient (they also say that a single rail system would be the equivalent of a 3 lane highway). It got me thinking, why not in the triangle? Public transit systems have notoriously been doomed around here, partially because of just how spread out things are, but also the overall traffic on the roads, but most importantly the price. If this truly is about 10% as expensive as a light rail system or a subway, it is definitely worth a look. Here is the Unimodal website (the company mentioned in the article). This just looks SOOOO cool. I've been trying to imagine just how awesome it would be to see this in the triangle all day. Anyone have any great ideas on how we can make it happen?
 
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