Thursday, May 22, 2008

James Howard Kunstler doesn't get it

I'm in agreement with James Howard Kunstler's overall messages about planning, sprawl and walkable communities. But his conclusions about Personal Rapid Transit are based only upon his encounters with PRT advocates at conferences and his own snap judgments.

Kunstler's remarks are on his podcast, 13th edition, starting around :01:30.

His perception of PRT (like a railroad with one person per carriage) is so superficial, it shows he hasn't taken the time to learn about the concept. Instead, he calls advocates "a particular kind of crank" and "crazy." Klassy, Mr. Kunstler.

Kunstler rails (*rimshot*) against the amount of PRT infrastructure he thinks would be needed, but later praises light rail (around :05:00) without a mention of the cost of its infrastructure.

Of course, about PRT he also admitted "maybe I'm missing something." Well I guess so.

(h/t Michael D. Setty -- thanks for the email!)

No comments:

Post a Comment