PodCars Instead of Light Rail?
A while back I did a post on Des Moines doing a light rail study, but here may be a cheaper and possibly more interesting option to look at. The City of Ithaca, New York, may be the first city in the United States to set up a “podcar” system.
In short, podcars hold 2 to 10 passengers each and give them the privacy they would get in their own car and operate on their own network, separate from other traffic, just like a light rail system. These pdocars run off of electricity instead of fossil fuels and are completely computer guided. The capital cost is about $25 million to $40 million per mile, which includes guideways, vehicles and stations, compared with $100 million to $300 million a mile for light-rail or subway systems.
The podcar is not entirely new. A limited version with larger cars carrying up to 15 passengers was built in 1975 in Morgantown, West Virginia, and still transports West Virginia University students. Also more than a dozen cities in Sweden are planning podcar systems as part of the country’s commitment to be fossil-fuel-free by 2020. It will be interesting to see what cities in the United States jump on board for this, especially those that are currently studying a light rail system. For more information, check out the complete article here.
By MulderDSM
Rate this story:
(4 votes, average: 4.00 out of 5)
Loading ...Similar Posts:
- None found
Permalink | Trackback URL | 2,169 views
Posted under Living Downtown | Last modified on October 13th, 2008.
Subscribe to our 
MulderDSM on Sun, 19th Oct 2008 3:07 pm
Here’s a picture from circa 1901 that shows Streets Cars on Locust Street downtown.
and here’s one from April 1940.