Personal Rapid Transit

I decided to write about Personal Rapid Transit.  Couple of reasons behind this decision…firstly BRTs (bus rapid transit) has been getting lately a lot of public, media and government attention in India.  Secondly, I have fascinated with these modes of transport for a long time and lastly, my personal experience of having experienced a one-of-a-kind personal rapid transit system – the West Virginia University PRT. 

Morgantown has a mountainous terrain…sharp vertical curves on the roadways make for very difficult sight distance at intersections.  This coupled with a disjointed campus spread throughout the town seem to make the perfect case for such a system. 

Supposedly, the oldest of its kind (built in the mid-70s) the system would not impress present-day planners and engineers.  Many would be tempted to call it a single-route people-mover system.  The system does have an old-school feel about it… the ride itself felt like something in an amusement park.  But it goes about doing its job everyday…transporting hundreds of students and faculty to their respective destinations in the campus and back.  Folks in WVU complain about the frequent breakdowns..this could be due to the outdated computer system still in use.  Nevertheless, the cumulative 40 odd years gives it an incredible record of ridership (injury free ridership as one of the comments in the one of the links below mentions correctly).  

Here are some links. I plan to add more as I get more time:

Wikipedia:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgantown_Personal_Rapid_Transit

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/10020/morgantowns-prt-isnt/

Here are some photos I took during the ride

My days in Kolkata

It’s been a month and a half since I came to India.  More than a month of this time has been spent in Kolkata. Every day I take either a bus or a taxi. I walk from where we live to the main road to catch the public transportation of the day (bus or taxi) and then walk again from the bus stop to my destination.

All along the way, I observe the roads, the sidewalks (or footpaths/pavement as they are referred to in India), curbs, gutter and every road side object I can possibly notice.  Along with the people who use these amenities.  I notice the contrast between Kolkata and Northern Virginia. 

In Virginia, my office commute is along an arterial road that has beautiful broad sidewalks, well-paved roads, ample lighting and perfect drainage to counter rain and snow.  Yet not a soul uses these facilities for most of the day…the only ones using them are usually low-income folks catching the local buses or people walking from the parking lots to a destination.  Here in Kolkata, there are hardly any pedestrian facilities. Most of the sidewalks are occupied by street hawkers, construction materials, garbage, abandoned vehicles etc.  But the pedestrians are teeming…like me, they use the roads to walk to the bus stops, nearby markets and shops, catch a taxi or walk to the rail stations nearby. 

The roads in Virginia are well-paved, have ample lighting and excellent drainage to counter rain and snow.  The roads are packed with cars, many of them SUVs and mini-vans, with mostly single occupants.

The roads in Kolkata are getting better but even now several have potholes (mostly after rains), and poor drainage facilities.  However, the roads themselves are full of public transportation.  The buses, taxis and trains are packed with people at all hours of the day till late night.  You can still see the once popular rickshaws for shorter commutes, mostly to access local galis. 

I see the lack of facilities on Indian roads; yet the more I see, the more I realize that this comes closer to a mixed-use, multi-modal transport that sustainability professionals talk about… it will take time for Indian cities to reach the scale of new urbanism and walkability that is frequently talked about in Western countries…  but I see Indian cities being more geared towards these new ideas than the Western cities (walking is infrequent and mostly for recreational purposes in most parts of US).  Hopefully, India will have models of transit-oriented development and new urbanism sooner that what most think….

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