WTF? Why Is Debbie Cook Promoting Rep. Mark Olson and Michele Bachmann's PRT Boondoggle?

[Avidor]

The Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) promoters usually have some publicity stunt to prop up their politicians just before an election.

They've just announced a "Podcar Conference" in Ithaca, NY.

One of the speakers scheduled is Congressional candidate Debbie Cook:

http://www.podcar.org/ithacaconference/sessiona.html

It's disappointing that Debbie Cook would support PRT.

Here's a recent Treehugger blog post about PRT:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/03/prt-techno-dream.php

PRT was supported by Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann:

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb07/Avidor11.htm

Former MN Transportation Commissioner and candidate for Congress Elwyn Tinklenberg says he will challenge Michele Bachmann on her transportation record including her support for PRT:

http://theuptake.org/?p=454

But also she (Bachmann) has used what support she has given to transportation, principally PRT or Personal Rapid Transit, as a way of really distracting the discussion of kind of delaying tactics in terms of transportation. PRT is not something that’s going to work to serve commuters. It’s not something that’s going to work to serve the transit interests and concerns and needs of Minnesota. And she’s using it simply as a distraction. She doesn’t really mean or intend to support any kind of increased funding for transit and she’s just using this as a way of diffusing the issue.

PRT was also supported by Rep. Mark Olson:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPPf9WHS_Os

.... who was convicted recently of abusing his wife and was expelled from the MN GOP House Caucus:

http://wcco.com/politics/mark.olson.expelled.2.608500.html

Former Minneapolis Councilman Dean Zimmermann, another promoter of PRT is a convicted felon serving a sentence for bribery.

Here is a video of the chief witness in the Zimmermann bribery trial talking about how Zimmermann tried to scam him for $250,000 with PRT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHWZl1eif8E

Please write to Debbie Cook and tell her not to go to the Podcar Conference.

PRT is totally bogus... why else would MIchele Bachmann and Rep. Mark Olson support it?

Here's a picture of Bachmann kissing Bush:



[xxqqqzme]

1. Debbie Cook is an expert on peak oil.

She has lectured all over the world on it and it's projected impacts on communities. I have attended two of her lectures. She is a strong supporter of public transportation; very anti urban sprawl. I'll ask her about it the next time I see her and report back. We are so thrilled she is running against dana rohrabacher.

[Avidor]

2. Thanks, I have also heard good things about her...

....but if she's promoting PRT, she's giving cover to Bachmann and Olson on that issue.

I suspect Debbie Cook's PRT Podcar guru is Fountain Valley Mayor Pro Tem Gus Ayer (he has endorsed Debbie Cook):

http://debbiecookforcongress.com/index.php/blue/endorsements

Gus Ayer went to the last Podcar Conference in Upsalla Sweden:

http://www.podcar.org/ithacaconference/agenda.htm

The are both mentioned in this press release:

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=819283

Gus Ayer has voiced his concerns about the craziest PRT promoters. Most, but not all of those comments have been scrubbed off the internet:

http://dumpmarkolson.blogspot.com/2007/10/prtistas-eating-their-own.html

Hi,

My name is Gus Ayer, and I'm a City Council member in the fair city of Fountain Valley, California, currently taking my turn in the largely ceremonial position as Mayor.

Recently, I've been working with the Swedish Institute for Sustainable Transportation, which has been working to rescue the concept of Personal Rapid Transit from the clutches of crackpots, ideologues and anti-transit nutjobs. They recently sponsored the PodCar City conference in Uppsala, which I attended and spoke at, and their new Kompass group will help cities interested in new transit solutions to find a common direction.

Speaking of "crackpots, ideologues and anti-transit nutjobs."....

http://www.prtstrategies.com/

[Avidor]

3. Well, look who has been reading this thread....

Welcome Pod People!

http://innovative-transit.blogspot.com/2008/04/game-on-or-so-much-for-new-years.html



Pictured above - Minnesota's GOP PRTistas Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and state Senator Ray Vandeveer

[TransportEnthusiast]

4. Answer: because it is a promising and viable transit solution

Full disclosure: I am a passerby here. I have an academic interest in PRT and I follow PRT discussions when they pop up, and many of those discussions involve heated debates with Ken Avidor.

Ken Avidor would have you believe that PRT is a boondoggle and PRT promotors are anti-transit. Nothing can be further from the truth. Every PRT promoter I've ever encountered has a passion for public transit, and in fact, most are vehemently against sprawl and the car culture.

Ken would have you believe that PRT proponents are "crackpots", "PRTistas", "pod people" (his own derisive terms). He reinforces that stereotype by repeatedly highlighting PRT's conservative supporters in Minnesota - even though the main promoter in Minnesota was a bicycle riding Green.

On the contrary, PRT supporters come from across the political spectrum, from fiscal conservatives who like the financial viability of PRT, to environmentalists who like the reduced emissions, to transit supporters who want a solution that is fast and convenient. Don't be fooled into believing that it's some sort of anti-transit boondoggle - that is a complete fabrication.

To answer Ken's question: perhaps Debbie Cook is supporting PRT because the European Union has studied it extensively, and is moving forward as we speak with pilots in the UK and Sweden:

http://ec.europa.eu/research/environment/newsanddoc/article_2650_en.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/oct/11/guardianweeklytechnologysection.news1?gusrc=rss&feed=travel

It seems Debbie Cook has examined the literature and sees past the propaganda of its detractors. Perhaps she read the studies that show PRT to be a more efficient solution than buses and light rail, even while providing vastly superior service. Or the fact that PRT has lower emissions per passenger than any other transport mode other than bicycling. Or that PRT would be vastly more convenient for transit riders (especially disabled riders) than any existing transit. Or that PRT is projected to operate without subsidy due to its efficient operational characteristics.

Ken Avidor is not pro-transit; he is pro-TRAIN. He has campaigned against every transit solution except light rail - buses, PRT, monorail, maglev. He is also associated with the Light Rail Now website, which is underwritten by light rail construction interests who would be threatened financially by PRT. Light Rail Now has campaigned heavily against PRT, and Ken Avidor has been a big part of that campaign.

For more info on PRT, without the cartoonish propaganda, see the Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_rapid_transit

[index555]

5. logical fallacy

"bachman kissed bush, and olson abused his wife, therefore the prt idea is bogus" :wtf:
You are using ad-hominem arguments, which don't mean a thing.
The foibles of an individual don't have any effect upon whether the idea is valid or not.
Just because a person is not a saint in their personal life doesn't mean that an idea is invalid.

[Avidor]

6. Watch video of PRT Promoters Selling their Snake Oil in MInnesota

http://blip.tv/file/876203

Read more here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/6/64617/34108/775/509761

But, hey... when you can get campaign contributions from PRT promoters, who cares if it's bogus or whether it helps elect right-wing Republicans in MInnesota:

AYER, WILLIAM F $2,300