HAVE DECISION MAKERS CONSIDERED MONORAIL ?

Transportation planners need to understand that monorail, with its small footprint, is ideally suited for conditions in Florida, and would resolve at one stroke such issues as interference with rail freight traffic, lack of available right-of-way, and construction in environmentally sensitive flood zones and wetlands, by elevating vulnerable transportation infrastructure well above ground level.

Monorail can be designed, built, and supported with minimal regard for the operation of freight railroads, road construction, or traffic underneath its superstructure. Infrastructure can be kept well out of the way of traffic on divided highways, essentially all major Florida roads, by placing monorail’s support pylons in the median between the lanes. This eliminates congestion, safety hazards, and interference with automobile and truck traffic. Construction has minimal impact on road traffic --- unlike lane widening --- and zero impact on rail freight operations. A monorail system can even be constructed above so-called Rails-to-Trails linear parks, as the two uses do not interfere with each other, and might even serve as mutual synergies. Indeed, that might be wind up being the highest and best use of the Trail.

To compare monorail’s costs fairly with other means of transportation, its many benefits should be monetized and factored into the equation. If analysts are going to perform a Cost-Benefit Analysis, they shoould take into account

1. tourist dollars that a visitor attraction like monorail brings to the economy;

2. the value of human lives save through the reduction in traffic accidents, including the reduction in insurance premiums due to favorable experience when calculating those premiums and the resulting saving of human lives;

3. the real costs of congestion in our cities, including the reduced air pollution

4. reduction in gasoline usage, fuel costs; dependence on foreign oil ;

5. more livable cities;

6. reduced travel time;

These are just some of the benefits which need to be evaluated in dollars and factored into those analyses.

Monorail is not just for theme parks and, indeed, never has been. The original monorail, in the Wuppertal Valley in Germany, has been successfully and continually operating for over 100 years. The only accident in its entire history was due to a careless workman, not to its monorail design. This is in stark contrast to the safety record of automobiles, which are accident-prone as well as dependent on foreign oil.

Planners unwilling to try what may seem like an untested or unfamiliar modality need to familiarize themselves with the burgeoning construction of monorails worldwide, especially in the Pacific Rim, where authorities are not hidebound by precedent or constrained by lack of imagination. Countries like Japan, Australia, Indonesia, and Malaysia have begun to design and build monorail systems to alleviate many of the same problems that the Tampa Bay Region is experiencing. Ironically, some of those countries are funding this construction by using capital they’ve earned by selling us oil.

We don’t need to make decisions obscured by a fog of misinformation or a lack of data. The Monorail Society, a national membership, organization, provides technical support for these decision processes by making available an extraordinary collection of technical material, video tapes and CD's, news stories, manufacturers' specifications, and history to those who want to know the facts. They are not an advocacy organization, but a large membership group with expertise in advanced transportation technologies. We highly recommend them as reference and background for any serious discussion of monorail as a transportation medium. Valuable material can be found online at www.monorails.org and utilizing the excellent index to this website.

Two other thoughts:

1. Model monorails:
     We are really surprised that more modellers have not climbed aboard the     bandwagon and built a modern model railway layout featuring a monorail running through it. Gee whiz ! We've seen some pretty specialized layouts, including mining roads, military feldbahns, Brooklyn street scenes with elevated transit lines, and many more. We would think that some people with imagination would have risen to the challenge and ventured a model monorail system.

2. Advantages in flooding areas
     Regarding the many advantages of prototype monorails in those areas which are prone to flooding: We have seen many video clips on TV news programs of areas that are low-lying or have naturally poor drainage, particularly after the spate of tropical storms during the past few years. Monorails that rise entirely above the flood plain are immune from high water; one would think that local officials would see and understand the great advantage this bestows on a monorail transit system.
Indeed, with the current concern over climate change and the possibility of rising sea levels, a few programs have featured scare stories showing completely flooded subway tunnels and the way that this can bring major cities like New York City to a complete halt. Think monorail !