Preview Heathrow's new surface transit technology

These are some of the videos from the "PRT@LHR" (Personal Rapid Transit at London Heathrow) conference, which was held April 21-23. The Heathrow "Urban Light Transport" (ULTra) system is the first in the new-generation of automated transit technologies; it is similar to the transit system planned for Masdar City in Abu Dhabi.

Important marine conservation report coming to Frontline

"Poisoned Waters," a new documentary coming to PBS Frontline on April 21, looks at endangered Puget Sound and Chesapeake Bay more than 30 years after the passage of the Clean Water Act.

Excerpts

Hopefully this program will call attention to the main culprit: the polluters is us. The communities have short term economic interests in not cleaning up these important waterways, and we may have delayed just long enough to make the damage irreversible.

UPDATE (4/22): Did you catch the show? Watch it here!

Rrrrowrrr!

What do we think of the PUMA, from GM and Segway?



NY Times story
ABC News video

I am particularly impressed by the tie-in with OnStar as a "v2v" (vehicle to vehicle) control system. To my mind, this makes the long-term PUMA concept doable, something more than a splashy gimmick that will magically disappear once GM gets its bailout money.

While not public transit, I believe Neighborhood Electric Vehicles don't require licenses to operate, so it lowers one access barrier to better transportation. I could easily see local transit agencies contracting to rent fleets of PUMAs to expand rail station ridersheds.

The major hurdle PUMA has to overcome is how they will safely mix in traffic with regular automobiles. I wonder if they could be so popular that onstreet bike lanes would have to be converted to Bike/PUMA lanes.