There is a Facebook Group called "Greenway and Futuristic Railway Systems" I belong to. Both the quality and amount of content are such that I can keep up with it, and I'm generally glad that I do.
Intermittently, monorails come up, and I generally have harsh words for them. Human Transit covers their flaws well.
One is being proposed for Costa Rica. It's foolish. There is a 'SkyRail' in Yinchuan, China, in operation. Which says something--after the 'car-eating bus', I'm skeptical of transportation improvements coming out of China. Innovations run on hype, and the combination of distance and language barrier means that there are minimal checks on it.
My first thought was that Yinchuan was a far wealthier place than Costa Rica--not so: the GDP per capita for Costs Rica and Yinchuan are similar (about $10k).
Then I recalled the appalling currently operating in Costa Rica. I have been to Costa Rica.
I still think it's insane. Costa Rice has a (donated) commuter rail system ('Tren Urbano' ) running on badly worn 100 year old railroad track. (They have neither the capacity nor the the money to maintain it). I have pictures of the rail. It is in unsafe condition. A monorail would be a white elephant.
Matt Miller Efforts to build monorails (or any kind of elevated rail) is a tacit admission that a country can't muster the political capital necessary to provide ground-level rapid transit guide way, and that its easier to spend millions of dollars. However, lacking that political commitment, how well do you think they will be able to maintain it?
"Everyone wants to build, but no one wants to maintain". And maintenance is where all the cost is.
It's easy for engineers to be seduced by the 'technological sublime', of pushing the limits of what can be done. I can't deny the results have been great -- Isambard Kingdom Brunel certainly stands the test of time. There is something about pushing the limits of structural engineering, be it the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the St. Louis Gateway Arch, the Eiffel Tower, the Sagrada Familia. But those things are intended to be both beautiful and monumental. But I fear there is something about elevated structures that seduces engineers. I'm not sure whether it's the raw triumph of structure over gravity, or the belief that because something is maximal, at the limits of the possible, awesome, that it becomes beautiful.
Elevated transit is great. But it is stinking expensive!
It says something that there is a whole sub-discipline of engineering, known as 'value engineering'. Because (structural) engineers aren't bean counters, but rather the 'can-do' spirits of attempting to make something possible. So if you ask an engineer to do something, they can probably do it. What they can't do is tell you if it's a good idea or not. It's a domain-knowledge problem. Expertise doesn't transfer.
Could Costa Rica build the monorail? Certainly. Seattle Built one in 1962, when the US GDP was 1/33rd it's present size, with a GDP per capita of about $3,000. But the monorail has not really worked out for Seattle. Or for anyone, really. A monorail is not London Bridge, it's not Brooklyn Bridge, it's not San Francisco bridge. It's a freeway viaduct with a train on top.
And whatever Le Corbusier thought, concrete pillars are not beautiful the way the arches of a Roman aquaduct are beautiful. The land underneath elevated roadwars and railways are unpleasant, hence unvisited, and hence occupied by the undesirable. They become homeless campsites for a reason.
Intermittently, monorails come up, and I generally have harsh words for them. Human Transit covers their flaws well.
One is being proposed for Costa Rica. It's foolish. There is a 'SkyRail' in Yinchuan, China, in operation. Which says something--after the 'car-eating bus', I'm skeptical of transportation improvements coming out of China. Innovations run on hype, and the combination of distance and language barrier means that there are minimal checks on it.
My first thought was that Yinchuan was a far wealthier place than Costa Rica--not so: the GDP per capita for Costs Rica and Yinchuan are similar (about $10k).
Then I recalled the appalling currently operating in Costa Rica. I have been to Costa Rica.
I still think it's insane. Costa Rice has a (donated) commuter rail system ('Tren Urbano' ) running on badly worn 100 year old railroad track. (They have neither the capacity nor the the money to maintain it). I have pictures of the rail. It is in unsafe condition. A monorail would be a white elephant.
Matt Miller Efforts to build monorails (or any kind of elevated rail) is a tacit admission that a country can't muster the political capital necessary to provide ground-level rapid transit guide way, and that its easier to spend millions of dollars. However, lacking that political commitment, how well do you think they will be able to maintain it?
"Everyone wants to build, but no one wants to maintain". And maintenance is where all the cost is.
It's easy for engineers to be seduced by the 'technological sublime', of pushing the limits of what can be done. I can't deny the results have been great -- Isambard Kingdom Brunel certainly stands the test of time. There is something about pushing the limits of structural engineering, be it the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the St. Louis Gateway Arch, the Eiffel Tower, the Sagrada Familia. But those things are intended to be both beautiful and monumental. But I fear there is something about elevated structures that seduces engineers. I'm not sure whether it's the raw triumph of structure over gravity, or the belief that because something is maximal, at the limits of the possible, awesome, that it becomes beautiful.
Elevated transit is great. But it is stinking expensive!
It says something that there is a whole sub-discipline of engineering, known as 'value engineering'. Because (structural) engineers aren't bean counters, but rather the 'can-do' spirits of attempting to make something possible. So if you ask an engineer to do something, they can probably do it. What they can't do is tell you if it's a good idea or not. It's a domain-knowledge problem. Expertise doesn't transfer.
Could Costa Rica build the monorail? Certainly. Seattle Built one in 1962, when the US GDP was 1/33rd it's present size, with a GDP per capita of about $3,000. But the monorail has not really worked out for Seattle. Or for anyone, really. A monorail is not London Bridge, it's not Brooklyn Bridge, it's not San Francisco bridge. It's a freeway viaduct with a train on top.
And whatever Le Corbusier thought, concrete pillars are not beautiful the way the arches of a Roman aquaduct are beautiful. The land underneath elevated roadwars and railways are unpleasant, hence unvisited, and hence occupied by the undesirable. They become homeless campsites for a reason.
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