Transit Sleuth

This is a great idea, feasible, I don't know, but on paper it looks nice.

Hi Adron!  I came over from the Portland Transport blog, where I frequently enjoy your comments.  I particularly respect that, while you seem to appreciate public transport (unlike some other market-oriented commenters at that site), you also are willing to take very clear-headed looks at its numerous shortcomings.  I like to think of myself in a similar vein -- I rely solely on transit, as I don't have a car, and am thus quite thankful for it, and also generally enthusiastic about the urban development patterns that it enables (as opposed to the car).  On the other hand, I also believe that it is currently tremendously inadequate -- as demonstrated by the fact that so few people actually use it -- and that with a few rare exceptions, increasing its already too-large subsidy will only produce diminishing returns, and is definitely NOT the answer.

In this context, I wonder if you are familiar with the idea of <a href="http://kinetic.seattle.wa.us/prt.html">Personal Rapid Transit</a>, and if so, what you think of it.  I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts about this, as you seem to be a fairly clear-headed person.  If you'd like to have a discussion about it, however, it might be best to do so in private email, as public PRT discussions tend to be discovered and dominated by one particular anti-PRT troll whose goal is to reduce the S/N ratio to zero.  But in any case, I'd like to know what you think.