End of the world for the anti-PRTeabagger?

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Ken Avidor has injected himself into a lot of public PRT discussions over the years. Alameda, Santa Cruz, Seattle, Heathrow, Daventry, Ithaca -- if the local language is English he's been there, sowing his little bitter seeds of fear and hate. Like Johnny Rottenappleseed.

If, however, there was one place where pods could find no fertile soil, you would expect it would be Avidor's home field of Minnesota. He has spent years pouring poison into that soil, depriving it of water and light, shoveling-in too much of the wrong fertilizer.

So it's got to be a shock to everyone, no matter what side you're on, that the State of Minnesota is going to have a symposium about personal rapid transit!



Certainly Avidor must be beside himself with inarticulate (what else) rage, because all he can do is cite the press release and sputter "Bill James" (whoa, wash his mouth out!).

The takeaway message today: This can only be seen as a humiliating loss for Ken Avidor. After years of guilt-by-associating PRT with Bachmann and Mark Olson, after years of attacking CPRT, after years of harrassing any local candidate of any party who dared to not oppose PRT -- only to have podcars rise from that dead earth in time for Halloween? Instigated by the state DOT no less!

We're talking apocalypse-level, end of the world, Bill Buckner/Game 6 of the 1986 World Series FAIL for Team Avidor.

Even the spin in today's PRT Moondoggie headline is lame: "Pawlenty's MnDOT"??? Leave it to Kiln Ovendoor (did you miss those?) to ignore Transportation Commissioner Thomas K. Sorel, in favor of guilt-by-associating the symposium to a handy Resmuglican.

You really have to laugh. So I will: "Mua ha ha ha ha ha! Aha ha ha ha ha- *cough* "

Sorel unanimously confirmed by Senate (1/15/2009)

gPRT
"FHWA," Ken. You're not even trying.

More about the size of his n

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Wait, I had something else lying around needing to be debunked. Ah, here we go:

Citizens on Both Sides of the Atlantic Say No to Personal Rapid Transit

Almost a year ago, Chris Millar leader of the Daventry District Council told the Daventry Express, "The eyes of the world are on Daventry with this project." The project he was talking about was a plan to install a futuristic "Personal Rapid Transit" (PRT, Podcars) system in the quiet market town of Daventry, England, population 22,36. [sic]

Now, it appears the plan to bring the much-hyped "revolution in sustainable public transport" to Daventry has been called off... what happened? [ellipsis in original]

Source

"Citizens on Both Sides of the Atlantic." Man; how many people are required to take a position before you start generalizing like that?

Fast forward to the April, 2009 when The Gusher published an article titled "Pod Off! Residents oppose Daventry PRT scheme"

More than 100 Daventry townspeople voiced their opposition to proposals for a pod transport network in the town at a public meeting on Monday night.

100 people out of the 22,367 who live in Daventry (town)? Why, that's a sample size of four tenths of a percent (0.004). And one tenth of a percent (0.001) of the population of the wider Daventry district.

I only mention this now because, recently, I helpfully tried to bring this to Kenny-Boy's attention! I placed this comment on the Daventry article he posted on his Viropop stalkblog (the one he set up after I started blogging on Viropop):

Population of Daventry District: 71838
Population of Daventry Town: 22367
Number of members of "Stop the Daventry POD"*: 70

Awww, but Avidor censored it.

So when Ken writes "both sides of the Atlantic," alert readers are probably wondering, Daventry is just one side of the Atlantic -- what about the other side? How many citizens in the U.S. said No to PRT? Ken only bothers to mention Peg Tully in Ithaca, New York. A sample size of 1 out 304 million Americans is 0.00000000329 (0.00000000296 if you include 34 million Canadians).


*A Facebook page

This just in: PRT Is a Joke IS A JOKE is the #2 Ken Avidor site on the web!

Fun comparison:

• Number of active PRT-haters: 4
• Number of Alan Keyes for President voters, 2008: 47,694

gPRT

n=1

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Y'all remember your college statistics, right? Then you know what n is. Ssshh! Don't tell Ken, he went to art college.

The bigger your n, the more confidence you can have in your results. Therefore, when Ken Avidor generalizes about Ithaca, New York, using a sample size of just one (Ms. Peg Tully), there can be little confidence in the results. You can't say "there is little enthusiasm for the pods among Ithacans" based on one person's opinion.

Whereas if you refer to the PRT Is a Joke IS A JOKE coverage of Avidor and Ithaca from last September, you can see for yourself the number of Ithaca organizations who support Personal Rapid Transit -- including the mayor!

PRT's n is bigger than yours, Ken. Your n is really small; tiny; shriveled; like a peanut. Your n has shrinkage.

Read our coverage of Avidor's Ithaca blogging

Read the Los Angeles Times comment thread in which I refuted the smear of Jake Roberts

I see your Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (n=1), Ken, and raise you BioRegional and World Wildlife Fund (n=2)!

gPRT
Now he's copying my Google Translate links from Twitter -- Ken IS copying everything I do!

Propagandist undercuts his own position

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Ken Avidor's editorial policy at the PRT Moondoggie blog is not only to copy multimedia embedded on PRT Is a Joke IS A JOKE, Get On Board!PRT and GetThereFast. His (currently frenzied) pattern is also re-posting old propaganda -- whether it makes sense or not! Let's examine the items in his 'latest' posts:

Post 1: Personal Rapid Transit Hucksters to Offer Non-Solutions During Cop 15 [sic]

Apparently, SkyTran is the only PRT system worth discussing -- 1,900 words worth (after promising a "quick answer to any questions about podcars"!). It's all there -- Doug Malewicki's "Aaaarrrrgghh!" quote, the Robosaurus, the guideway building robot. No need to read any of it -- all have been previously posted by Avidor, numerous times:

• "Aaaarrrrgghh!" quote. Posted by Ken at least six other places on the internet. It's a relatively antique statement that was on the SkyTran website as early as May 11, 2000 (click through to item 14 in the Technical section)-- yet Avidor manages to omit the fact and let readers think it reflects SkyTran's current status.
  
  And funny that he wants to call attention to Malewicki's statement, "If I want to hire all black engineers (and I know a bunch of dam [sic] good practical ones), to the exclusion of Hispanics, Women, Polaks, etc. the government won't let me" (as if that's supposed to be 'shocking' -- 'Malewicki' is Polish). Funny, because Ken slurred Poles only two weeks ago:

"Polish PRT?"

Ken Avidor (@Daily Kos)
PRTJJ coverage

• Phoenix New Times article about SkyTran. Posted by Avidor two places on the internet.
• Arizona Republic article about SkyTran. Posted by Kennine places on the internet.
  

Post 2: Will San José [sic] Pimp Their Own Pods?

• Eleven month old report from KGO-TV San Francisco. Gotta brush up your HTML, Ken! Then the embedded player might work. I'd be happy to give you some pointers.
  
  
• "ULTra is featured zooming around in computer-generated videos... [ellipsis in original] no mention that the launch of ULTra at Heathrow 5 has been postponed twice." Because that eleven month old report came out before the reschedulings!!!
  
  
• "Pimp your own pod" video. Posted by Ken at least 14 other places on the internet.
  
  
• Video with Barbara Johnson in JPod. Posted by Avidor at least 4 other places on the internet.
  
  
• "Barbara Johnson's pod-praising letter to Bill James from the Jpod website."

Yes. What about Barbara A. Johnson, President of the Minneapolis City Council, representing Ward 1? She was elected in 1997, succeeding her mother, Alice Rainville, who was the city's first woman Council President. Mrs. Rainville served for 22 years; she only passed away this past March. In other words, Ken Avidor is sneering at a woman who is carrying on a family tradition of public service. And only because she supports PRT. Klassy* again, Ken!

And you know what else? BARBARA A. JOHNSON IS A DEMOCRAT! Endorsed with an "A" rating by Stonewall DFL! But- but- Ken Avidor claims only right wing Republicans like Michele Bachmann support PRT!!!

I guess Ken Avidor is wrong. Again.



* BTW Ken, I notice you're using "klassy" too. Get your own shtick.

gPRT
This is too easy Ken, you gotta put some effort into it

Mr. No Research

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Again a Kena Wei (Ken Avidor) post that shows he does no research!

Campaign to Protect Rural England Opposes Personal Rapid Transit

From the CPRE's paper (PDF) "Eco-towns: living a greener future - CPRE's response" that can be downloaded HERE:

an integrated approach to transport, across a district as a whole, should be taken to maximise potential for journeys to and from eco-towns to be made in a sustainable fashion, rather than relying on unproven technologies such as Personal Rapid Transit

Aside from the fact that this is another example of advocacy -- remember, it doesn't determine policy -- and CPRE is perfectly entitled to take this position, there are some oddities.

1. The CPRE is responding to this consultation paper from the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG). It does not mention PRT or podcars.


2. What DCLG does mention are:

• frequent, reliable and easily accessible public transport for longer journeys, that residents are encouraged to use to ensure that they are well connected to key destinations within the ecotown and with nearby settlements and local supply networks. This may include such measures as bus priority schemes, car clubs and additional provision of community transport, as well as good access to information on transport options, including real time information in the home and personalised travel planning for every resident.

Ooooh, how pie-in-the-sky!

What is the plan right now for using PRT in rural England? Let's see, in rural-ish Daventry, it would be a local network, eventually connecting to the train station. Is this not an "integrated approach," local, but also connecting people to "nearby settlements"?

But the point is, PRT is not being put forward for the service niche CPRE is concerned about, transit "across a district as a whole." English districts (below), or 'shire counties', are pretty big, Ken. No one is talking about PRT "across" districts.



(Note to readers: Expert recommendations DCLG has received about PRT are: (a) consider PRT as a way to avoid building a new highway, and (b) consider trams and PRT as a way to avoid creating more local congestion. And these were not general recommendations, but rather specific to two of the proposed eco-towns.)

What you should have researched and written about, Ken, is the question -- what was CPRE actually responding to?

Maybe they were motivated by this kind of thinking:

Critics characterise CPRE as

• proponents of a drawbridge mentality (i.e. "I've moved to the countryside but I don't want others to do likewise")
• motivated by luddite nostalgia, or
• motivated by an egotist NIMBY stance^[4]

In December 2008 George Monbiot of The Guardian interviewed CPRE head, Shaun Spiers, about the organisation's opposition to wind farms but not opencast [open pit] coal mines. George Monbiot asked why he couldn't find any opposition of the CPRE to surface coal mining over the past five years, and pointed out that the negative effects that coal mines cause by removing the soil from large areas are much greater than the negative effects wind energy might have on the countryside. ^[5]

Source

One Guardian reader commented about the Monbiot interview:

Let's face it- the CPRE are there to protect the few who enjoy the country life. Not the countryside itself. Not the biodiversity. But the pretty 'midsomer murders'/'vicar of dibley' version of rolling peaceful England and the privileged few who are allowed to enjoy it.

Source

So -- non-inclusive, upper-class, anti-technology, against new alternative energy, and OK with open pit coal mining. Good to know who Ken Avidor supports!

* * *

Ken Avidor and friends enjoy the English countryside:

"Polish PRT?"

Ken Avidor (@Daily Kos)
PRTJJ coverage

gPRT

Is PRT an issue in Minneapolis Council Ward 9 race?

It is, if you believe anti-PRTeabagger Ken Avidor:

Dave Bicking is your garden-variety PRT-promoting politician.

Source

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But is Bicking talking about PRT?



How about Democrat Gary Schiff?



The Independence Party's Todd Eberhardy?



So why is Ken Avidor injecting non-issue personal rapid transit into this race? Why? WHY???

Update: His response to this post? To rehash four year old non-news!
(Kena Wei, how much should a first prototype cost -- one that worked "exactly as designed"?

"Polish PRT?"

Ken Avidor (@Daily Kos)
PRTJJ coverage

gPRT

Mock Journalist, Part VI

("Duck, duck, canard!")

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Exclusive!
©2009 Get On Board PRT News & Wiseline Institute and Center For The Secular Humorism

Recently, Ken Avidor lobbed the following bon mot at the MIST-ER personal rapid transit company:

"Polish PRT?"

Source (@Daily Kos)
PRTJJ coverage

Hopefully this ethnic slur was unintentional. 'Hopefully' because, so far, he has refused to explain himself.

So it's a kinda breathtaking example of chutzpah that he would almost simultaneously put forward the claim that PRT appeals to one of the worst human impulses. In the comment thread accompanying the same Daily Kos post, Ken manages to stir one reader's outrage:

Greendem: Pods are safer because you don't have to ride with scary brown people.
Pod people should just stay in their cars.

Avidor: That's what the [sic] used to say... [ellipsis in original]



Greendem: Exactly
It's "public transit" for racists.

Yeah, I know -- the brochure doesn't mention race. What was racist when only Whites could ride in the front of buses? The buses, or Jim Crow and its supporters?

This Tuesday Avidor went after Bill Mego, a columnist for the Naperville, Illinois, Sun. Mego's October 20 column advocated for PRT in Naperville. No public funds were spent because of it, but as regular "PRT Is a Joke" IS A JOKE! readers probably expect, Mego's mere advocacy for PRT was enough to send Ken searching Mego's archives for a gotcha.

Last week, Bill Mego of the Naperville Sun wrote a column titled; "Public transportation is going away in U.S.".

It will have to be safe and private. Naperville people don't want to travel in groups or mingle with the lower classes or the homeless.

So, to be successful, public transportation will have to be less than a fifth as expensive as light rail, not need a right of way, and run on a very small amount of electricity. Its cars will have to be safe and private, have essentially no moving parts that require maintenance, and not need a driver. So is there such a system? Yes, fortunately there is, but the "experts" aren't considering it.

I'll explain next week what it is.

Right.. [sic] the old, you don't want to ride with scary (fill in the blank) people, anti-transit canard.

Source

Link that to this week's PRT column and -- "GOTCHA!" Chalk one up for Avidor's position, right?

Sorry, no. Because this is another example of Ken Avidor's tendency to not ask questions and rely on guesswork.

His mistake this time was to not seek out the local context.

The Local Context

What you need to know is that Naperville (pop. 145,000) is a suburb west of Chicago, and calls itself a--

"vibrant, thriving city consistently ranks as a top community in the nation in which to live, raise children and retire. The city is home to acclaimed public and parochial schools, the best public library system in the country, an array of healthcare options and an exceptionally low crime rate."

What is Naperville like? You be the judge. Thumbnail sketch: Naperville's median home price is $311,2005 (higher than Chicago and Bloomingdale). The average family income is $149,352, and 80.7% of residents are White (2005). Only 2.8% are below the poverty line.

There is also an ongoing controversy about an ordinance making it illegal to sleep on a "public way," directed at the homeless. One outspoken and mediagenic homeless man, Scott Huber, seems to be a particular target of the ordinance.^{1, 2, 3, 4}

My opinion? Naperville seems like a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to be homeless there.

Which, it turns out, was the point of Bill Mego's Oct. 13 column. As Mego explained to me (Yes! I contact total strangers and ask questions like a real writer!), Naperville has trouble getting people to ride the bus.



Those routes only carry an average of 46, 38, 36, 34, and 12 riders, respectively, per day.

"We have been having problems getting enough riders on our buses," says Mego. "One of the reasons people give is that the Mexicans from a neighboring town, who travel through and who work in our downtown restaurants, make riding the buses dangerous."

That's part of the background. The law aimed at Huber, in Mego's words, "makes it illegal to sleep on a public way. Yes, it makes it against the law to nap in the park, fall asleep during a parade, and let your baby sleep it its buggy."

The Denouement

Pay attention now, Ken! This is where I tell you, if you haven't guessed: Mego doesn't like the ordinance, saying about its backers: "They passed this foolish law because we have a homeless man who has been living alongside a parking garage for the last eight years, and people are now saying 'I didn't move to Naperville to see slovenly homeless people'."

Mego added: "The Sun is a local paper, and our readers know I've written often, defending the man [Huber]. They understood that that statement [about group travel and mingling with lower classes] referred specifically to that situation, and was a sarcastic comment on some of our citizens' intolerance."

* * *

I think Mego's motivation in suggesting PRT can be characterized as 'irritated realism.' Something like, you idiots, so you don't want to use transit? Well how about PRT, would you use that?

The implicit answer is 'No.' Mego's final point in the column was, and I quote, "the 'experts' aren't considering it."

The town that passed an ordinance against sleeping on the street isn't considering PRT. Some gotcha for Ken Avidor

The people of the Chicagoland area are going
to LOVE Avidor's "Polish PRT? " slur!

Zoom

(that about wraps it up for Ken Avidor in Naperville!)



Read: Mock Journalist- The Series

gPRT

Today's Secret Word is: "Hilarious"

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1. Over at Streetsblog LA last weekend, one of the many fulminations emanating from Ken Avidor was "just do it already." He was saying stop mocking me and get on with PRT.

Well OK, someone who is getting on with it is Richard Garriott. But is Ken cheering him on? Uh, no. Ken -- who is often wringing his hands about wasting public money -- is attacking Garriott, an astronaut who went into space on his own dime. Ken finds even the effort of starting a PRT project to be "hilarious" and worth ridiculing.

But Ken, Garriott is only trying to "just do it," as you request. Do it? Don't do it? Make up your mind.

2. Ken also thinks this is hilarious:

This is even more hilarious [see?]... [ellipsis in original] from November 16th, 2005 - "PRT is a Joke":

An effort in search engine optimization. Road Kill Bill (Ken Avidor) is an unfortunately effective (if ill-informed) opponent of personal rapid transit. But he’s showing up as the third entry on Google when someone searches for Personal Rapid Transit. So... the question is, what do we do about it? I think there’s a case for libel, but I don’t have the money to pursue it. But I do have one idea... stay tuned. If you really want to learn more, contact me at the phone number on my main web page. [ellipses in original]

Ssssh! Don't tell Ken, but today, 4 years later, despite his investment of hundreds and hundreds of hours of blogging and link spamming, "PRT Is a Joke" has fallen from third to the sixth top-level result. At number one: Wikipedia, site of so many of Ken's defeats.



Half as popular -- or twice as unpopular.

Not so hilarious:
Avidor 'unmasks' Atren? Which proves- what, exactly?

OK, this is hilarious: "He Really Believes He's a Sleuth"

gPRT

Shiny PRT?

(Updated) Regarding incidents at Streetsblog LA and Daily Kos

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Time for another installment of: What We Learned!

1. Multi-cartoonist Kena Wei (Ken Avidor) didn't know the difference between policy and advocacy -- until I told him. I say it here:

"advocacy of any transportation technology, by anyone, does not determine how a government would use it in the real world. Advocacy outlines the stakes, but does not decide, public policy."

and it comes out here:

"Nothing but rail" is not my "position".

But, it doesn't matter what my "position" is.

It's up to citizens and public officials to decide what transportation is right for their community.

2. Ken doesn't know the difference between advocacy and engineering.

If the PRT guys were really intent on creating their "revolution in sustainable transport", they would put more time into proving it could work instead of arguing at transportation forums and blogs or putting out tons of hype and CGI videos on the web... just do it already. [ellipsis in original]

PRT engineers don't have time to blog and go to transportation forums in the USA. They are doing "it" -- at Heathrow, Uppsala and Masdar. And Ken is not cheering them on every step of the way.

3. He likes how "straw man" sounds, but may not know what one is.

Wow... that big heap of straw men keeps getting bigger and bigger. [ellipsis in original]

Whenever anyone tries to inject some reality into a discussion about PRT, the handful of PRT true believers attack the messengers

Asking him to explain things he wrote are straw men??? And Ken has attacked so many messengers, there's a Wanted poster of him at every UPS Store in America.

4. Ken thinks he is clairvoyant.

And the argument that a city can be served better by PRT than conventional transit could be tested with a peer-reviewed computer model... but, the PRT guys won't do that because such a model would prove that real world circumstances (vandalism, weather etc.) would make a complex system such as PRT infeasible in an urban area. [ellipsis in original]

In order to know this, wouldn't Ken had to have already run such a model himself? That's rhetorical.


5. You be the judge! Here are remarks Ken made about a number of PRT systems, in context.

Zoom

Now take the poll!


Seriously: if Ken Avidor meant "Polish PRT?" as an innocent comment, why is he evading giving any explanation?

History: What Ken once said about a different place in the world -- "Strange place Dubai... lot's [sic] of weird stuff happens there" [ellipsis in original] (sneering at a plan for an indoor ski slope -- that was actually built!)

Plus, he got Dubai mixed up with Abu Dhabi.

gPRT

About the anti-PRTeabagger

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Why does multi-cartoonist Kena Wei (Ken Avidor) insist on guilt by associating a TECHNOLOGY with disreputable/questionable people who happen to say they support it? Pure-form advocacy of any transportation technology, by anyone, does not determine how a government would use it in the real world. For example:

Light rail advocacy: "Light rail ONLY! PRT is a joke!"
PRT advocacy: "Light rail is old! PRT is the future!"
Reality: LRT and PRT working together
Advocacy outlines the stakes -- but does not decide -- public policy. If PRT doesn't work, if it's technically impossible as Ken Avidor has claimed, it wouldn't have any credibility in the transportation field. It would be prima facie a non-starter.

Scientists wouldn't keep trying to develop it, regulators wouldn't keep safety approving it, entities like the EU and Swedish Rail wouldn't be working on it, interests like World Wildlife Fund wouldn't endorse it, companies of all sizes (big ones like BAA, POSCO and Masdar) wouldn't keep investing in it, and firms like Arup and CH2M Hill wouldn't be trying to build it.

Politics is only relevant to policy that would implement PRT, not to the feasibility of the technology. You shouldn't oppose PRT because Dean Zimmermann is for it, any more than you should support PRT because the concept (as we know it today) was created by a liberal Democrat (the late Donn Fichter).

Ken Avidor does what he does because he hates PRT, and hopes cooties from Dean Zimmermann -- and Michele Bachmann and Mark Olson -- will taint it in the minds of a critical mass of people.

Regarding a thread at Streetsblog

gPRT

Please Use Visio

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Multi-cartoonist Kena Wei (Ken Avidor) doesn't allow comments on his PRT Moondoggie blog, so I guess I'll just have to comment here!

Discovery's Insane Video About Personal Rapid Transit

"Insane"? What, is he a mental health professional now? Come on, it's the Discovery Channel (he calls it "Discovery Company") -- not the Discovery Institute. 'Insane' goes in his lexicon now, I suppose. Is Larry Page 'insane,' Ken?

Here's two stills from the video showing elevated pod guide-ways desecrating historic buildings and public places in Washington DC. Does any sane person think this could ever happen?

Say, that appears to be a 9-lane avenue past John Marshall Place--




Don't tell me Kena Wei prefers a busy car-choked street to a grassy pedestrian zone, transit zipping by overhead? Yeah, no one wants modern transit technology next to landmarks. Hey, isn't that the 9th-10th century Baptistery in Florence?→

"skull-like PRT pod"

"The narrator on this clip explains that a pod plan for Washington DC would require highways "two to three times wider" "

Hey Kena Wei, mull this over -- who created TDC's animations? They look like no other podcar design heretofore (more later).

"This segment is all about the threat of terrorism to an automated pod system and how it would be prevented by... what else... adding more automated, complex gadgets" [ellipses in original]

Uh, what are the ways we try to prevent terrorism ANYWHERE? Isn't technology one of the ways? Maybe Kena prefers body cavity searches ('Metal Detectors are a Joke'?).

"The narrator says the ULTra pod is run by "a laptop"... which may be another reason why the launch of ULTRA [sic] has been postponed" [ellipsis in original]

Right! Laptops can't do anything complex. The words of a real Luddite!

"The Pod People have applied for millions of Federal dollars"

And if their application isn't worthy, the evaluation panel won't approve it! Unless you think the Obama Administration is part of the PRT scam -- you don't -- do ya, Kena Wei? Ya don't think PRT is Fascist, do ya?




In fact, what does the entire five-decade long PRT conspiracy look like in your mind? We'd really appreciate it if you would chart it for us, in detail.

Also today: Is the editorial policy at PRT Moondoggie simply "copy whatever is posted at PRT Is a Joke IS A JOKE"?

Does anyone else find it hilariously ironic that Ken is associated with a publication called False Witness??

gPRT

I win

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I've finally found the final, ultimate, conclusive, definitive proof that PRT Is a Joke IS A JOKE is vastly superior to Ken Avidor's PRT Is a Joke.

As you know, Ken went to art school and became a cartoonist.

Whereas, I studied Public Policy -- and guess who has left Hollywood (at least temporarily) to study Public Policy at Harvard's Kennedy School? Yeah, that's right:



How many big-time movie stars have decided to take a break from Tinseltown to study cartooning? No, I can't think of any either.

New-Used Today--

Kena Wei has a new-used blog, The PRT Moondoggie! Surf on over and say Aloha, Haole!

Go ahead, Kena, get it out of your system

gPRTPRT Boondoggle ?

Fun with Google Translate

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Google Translate keeps improving all the time. The following is translated from an article written in Chinese:

Exclusive a suburban
Occupy an entire section on a suburban train directly to office? "Personal Rapid Transit" is to achieve this dream.

Wen | Cheng Ge

Are not you waiting for the suburban railway, but the suburban railway at home waiting for you. This is the light-rail-and-coming urban-based "personal rapid transit" (PRT). As long as drilling a single section of the suburban railway carriages, it will be directly taken along the track you want to go to office buildings, off-line automatic Guairu side of the site, you are to lay down their car.


Roller coaster embodiment of urban light rail

West Virginia University student Matt (Matt) and his companions take the PRT had a short trip on the road did not encounter any traffic jams, but also want the flexibility to go to any place, the same as by car. They take such a transport system in the U.S. city of Morgantown. This is the first building of its kind around the world transportation system, it cuts across the urban Morganton, West Virginia University campus and Medical Center and other places, mostly here in University City services. Students, teachers and university staff and local residents can take.

At West Virginia University student home page, you can query to run the timetable. It is based on the University's teaching time to adjust. Every spring and fall semester Monday to Friday, from 6:30 am to start operations, to the end of 10:15 in the afternoon not open. Ensure that students are not late for class. But the summer semester hours of operation will be extended to the entire day, from 6:30 am assigned to at 18:30. Every Saturday is from 9 am to 17 points, because this is usually the majority of students up late day.

Matt wrote in his diary: "It's really cool! It is a monorail around the entire campus! It's like an amusement park!" This statement is, and its design is inspired by the monorail from Disneyland train.

This transport system was built in 1975, Boeing was in Morgantown built an 8 km-long rail, and is equipped with 21 seats in the cars. Rail through the steep gorges, will need to use the original 16 campus shuttle bus connection linking delivery of 15000 passengers per day, with an average trip distance of about 2.3 km. Their modes of operation is flexible, either continuous cycle of operation can also be in strict accordance with the timetable.

New students came to Morgantown, PRT ride around the campus is a wonderful experience. No drivers on it, but also trains, cars, walkways, and experience the wonderful roller coaster ride, etc. combine together. It is faster than the escalator than the roller coaster safer and more orderly than the cars, even smaller than the train.

Currently, Microsoft's Redmond headquarters is located in Seattle, ready to use personal transportation system, the construction of a park's public transport system. The park has more than 30000 employees, therefore, a number of junctions the daily throughput of up to more than 30000. As the park every day, a large number of meetings, training and business negotiations, had to prepare another 43 bus, CDB 5500 times a day, can be pulled these employees designated locations.

Microsoft believes that, PRT far more than the speed of vehicles. Moreover, it also takes into account Microsoft's notorious scarcity of parking spaces. Typically, an employee time spent looking for parking by even more than the previous work on the road. The PRT track of this non-stop continuous running vehicles can be avoided this problem.

Under construction in Microsoft's headquarters in the park's PRT system will include 29 sites, a total of five to run the loop, with a total mileage of approximately 10 miles (about 16 km). On the one hand, one-way closed loop circuit to ensure there will be no head-on collision of the incident, but on the other hand, the control center can take the initiative to limit vehicle speed to ensure the orderly operation, does not occur before and after the collision. Because each vehicle can only take 2 to 4 people, which will undoubtedly reduce the time the door switch, allowing the site to start the vehicle from the dock to keep a very short time. Moreover, if no one on the bus, the vehicle will be driven away on their own.

The subject of ridicule in the commercialization of

Multi-cartoonist Kena Wei (Ken Avidor) is such a staunch opponent of new modes of transportation. His anger came from his hometown - Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 2004, the city's three members asked the Government invested heavily in a joint proposal to build PRT, in order to improve the traffic environment in the region. The move angered many Kena Wei. He believes that they conspired together a few in an attempt to deceive Minnesota taxpayers money.

"This is a joke," Ken said, "First of all, PRT's supporters can say, 'people do not like and strangers riding the same car', may be that people do not necessarily think so." In his view, "PRT is only suitable exists on the computer drawing of the cyber-space, in the brochure, in the lovely three-dimensional animated."

He also drew a lot of comic books come to satire PRT, for example, a single track in the Kaopu looked very swinging back and forth, in the above means of transport and even ran a small bomb into heaven, hop hop to. There is these that no one managed to run PRT in people's head, Paul would not be allowed when the window was open, with fast speed to drop some rotten eggs and tomatoes down, smacked their heads on the streets of pedestrians. He said that if run PRT in the urban areas, the streets will be every day, "off night soil." He even has specially set up a Web site is called "PRT is a joke". PRT's supporters, however, soon hit back, launched a "'PRT is a joke' is a joke" site.

Although controversial, PRT has gradually became popular in the recent, and has won a number of cities in order. In Ken's home page, he drew attention to: In other cities, in your side, whether there is such a scam? He listed a series of PRT has been or is about to use the long list of cities, including: Cincinnati, Denver, Cardiff, Morgantown, Seattle and Minneapolis. He believes that these places also, and his village, the use of PRT members of the public confusion, but for its authenticity, availability, and its improvement of public transport capacity and get rid of dependence on foreign oil, etc. but did not elaborate.

However, the dissenting voices but never the other hand, proved the success of PRT. Cardiff and other cities in the United States, PRT project has been in operation, the United Kingdom Science and Technology officials even there, the airport has been able to trial ride like cars.

PRT commercial, one of the biggest promoters of ATS companies has received orders for an airport in London. It relied on the名叫希斯罗the airport, "In the future transportation system arrived at Heathrow Airport" headline news published in the company's home page. In April 2009, representatives of 16 countries were invited to come to visit the PRT system has been completed. Engineers and operations personnel called for the delegates introduced ULTra vehicles. Vehicle has a spacious interior and ergonomic controls, and equipped with emergency exit system. During a visit to the elegant ground station, people can also observe up close how the automatic ULTra arriving and departing the station, and almost no sound run along the rails. The control room will be to achieve a comprehensive network, through a set of operating system that allows operators to anticipate the needs of passengers, including the frequency of information and local traffic conditions in order to pre-arranged location in the corresponding waiting vehicle.

"At first I thought we're just testing an idea, sometime in the future can be achieved," a transportation agency representatives said, "but I saw the amazing design, it is ready to enter the public transportation system and address a number of urban transport the problem?? I have to go back and tell my colleagues, so that they must come and see!"

2009 8 issue

gPRT