MONORAIL.....MONORAIL!!!!

[birdy]

what if Monorails were the main form of Mass transit in urban areas in 2006, how might it happen- is it too expensive.

imagine the Los Angeles Monorail or the Birmingham(UK) Monorail.

i apologise for not having my own ideas on this subject, i just thought of it abd wanted to post something.

 

[Historum]

Well for one there would be less traffic on the roads from buses and taxis. A lot of Urban cities do not have room for monorails, which is why they use subways. Jacksonville, FL has a monorail that runs 24 hours a day and I bet maybe 3 people use it a week. It's a complete joke.

 

[JLCook]

What does a ticket cost

And how far will that ticket take you?

It is a very common thing, for a government run mass transit system to have high prices.

No one will ride mass transit if it is less expensive to simply drive a car. If you make mass transit cheap enough, such that even a PRIUS owner might figit over the cost of driving in comparison, ridership on mass transit will be standing room only!

 

[Tom Veil]

For an example of a viable OTL monorail, see
http://www.lvmonorail.com/about_03_gen_facts.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Vegas_Monorail
It's run by a non-profit, with no government funding.

For this to work on a wider scale, though, you need:
1. Something that causes American local governments to keep and improve their streetcar networks instead of rebuilding their cities for cars in the 1920s-1950s
2. Some reason why, once public transportation is enmeshed in the fabric of modern American life, the monorail is widely seen as a worthwhile improvement over the old systems.

 

[danielb1]

Monorails are cool-looking, but have some impracticalities:

1. They're difficult for switching, especially Y's - you have to physically move the entire rail.
2. While they're narrower than aboveground rail, they do require space to move around.
3. You can only run monorail trains on monorail track. Commuter rail trains can also run long-range passenger and cargo service.
4. Monorails cost more per passenger per mile than most public transit systems.
5. Exiting the vehicle in an emergency is difficult-to-impossible due to the nature of the track (a single rail). While some systems have emergency walkways next to the track, this reduces a narrowness advantage and can be an eyesore.

It's more likely that subways or more conventional ground/elevated rail, or trolleys/busses/etc become a dominant form of public transit.