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WHAT MASS TRANSIT MAY BE LIKE IN THE FUTURE FOR CALIFORNIA

California is a state designed for the automobile as it’s main form of mass transit. Years ago the automobile with it’s internal combustion engine was the dream solution for personal travel. You could just get in your car and drive it wherever you wanted to go, whenever you wanted to. Cars were cheap enough to be within reach of the average citizen, who had little control over larger transportation projects.

Today, with pollution, gas prices, and the cost of just owning a car rising it is becoming more evident that California has to find a better way for people to get around. The roads are in need of repair and only getting worse and there doesn’t seem to be enough money to fix them.

What is needed is a form of mass transportation that keeps the advantages of public transit, while also matching the advantages of private cars. Is such a system possible?

One new concept that seems to be taking hold is the idea of “Personal Rapid Transit” (PRT) systems. PRT comes in many forms, but the basic idea is that there are fairly light weight pods that hold a small number of people. These “pods” would move over lightweight tracks, and don’t have to travel over long prescribed routes. The pod would take passengers directly to their destination with no stops along the way. There are currently four working PRT systems in the world, the oldest is in West Virginia.

In proposed systems, small two passenger pods travel using maglev technology. Maglev, short for “Magnetic Levitation” enables the pods to actually float over the tracks. Because maglev doesn’t contact the track and is frictionless, the maintenance requirements are minimal, not to mention the smooth quiet ride. These systems are electric and engineers claim they can be powered by solar panels that also cover the rail stations. The cost for a ride is said to be less than a taxi too.

But when can we expect something like this in California? Currently there are no plans to build anything like this in California. Maybe someday we can do something that makes sense.

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