Monorail Systems- why not in wider use?

It’ll catch on. In large cities, like LA, the planning process for public transportation systems can easily span decades. The technology was likely not ready to submit public proposals at the time the current infrastructure was planned and RFPs were issued.

I think cost is prohibitive too.

Interesting and very true about time and planning.

Does anyone know if any city built a monorail?

Kuala Lumpur

America is the land of the personal car, of wide open roads and independence. It’s hard to give up that illusion in crowded cities, and it’s hard to make a monorail cover suburban sprawl, even if it had been planned into the city from the founding, which they generally haven’t been. Plus, people seem to react to public transportation as if it were socialism: the poor use it, the rich think it’s unnecessary, and if they’re doing it in Europe, it must be wrong.

Don’t worry. When it becomes clear that personal vehicles are no longer sustainable, public transport will look more attractive.

The cities that could use them, already have rail systems, and it would cost too much to install a new system when the one in place is working.

@laureth

I think big city dwellers like in LA, NY or San Francisco in particular have no issues with public transportation whatsoever. Most friends I have in NY don’t even have a car, despite six-figure incomes.

As for practicality, most monorail systems have a very small support pillar footprint, so as long as there is a median they can be implemented. In Sidney they even have the rail support girders branch out from existing buildings.

One issue with monorails is how to evacuate them in an emergency. Nowhere to go. Also, monorail systems don’t support intersections, requiring the entire system to be either looped, or to have elaborate and expensive “switch” facilities.

I had the impression that NYC is less sprawly than LA. I could be wrong, though. In a very high density city like NYC, I could see why people don’t use cars, especially with a good subway system.

@laureth

Yip, I used to live in lower Manhattan for a while. There is

a) no parking available anywhere, parking becoming one of the most coveted “inheritances”. That’s not a joke. Even with big money you’ll have trouble finding permanent parking.

b) LA doesn’t suffer from all these bottlenecks a.k.a bridges/tunnels you have to cross one way or another

But then, LA is just as undriveable as NY is by sheer mass of vehicles on the road.

@laureth: Many “rich” (your word, not mine) people who could afford the parking, take the Metro in & around the DC/VA area everyday. I have friends who live pretty far out in VA who bus & then metro into the city. We metro to the airport, the city, concerts, etc.

Exactly @laureth.
And because there is too much money flowing into Washington that comes directly from companies that benefit from the use of oil. The oil and auto industry lobbies are huge, and would never sit down for a proposed broadening of the public transportation system. Not to mention all the tax money the gov’t rakes in off the oil/gas industries.

@bythebay: Hell yeah, the Orange Line is my home.

I live and grew up in Baltimore, which employs mass transit, but not on a “city wide” scale. Here the majority use the Light Rail system, which is a single line through the city north to south, with the little used single line subway going east to west.
In places like DC, SF, LA and NYC, you can go anywhere within the city, and in some cases, outside the city, by simply catching a bus and riding to the nearest train station. Baltimore is trying to become more like DC, but we’re still a long way away.

I think a monorail system might be a good idea, but it might be a little more complex than it seems on the surface…

$$$. Who’s going to pay for it? Current car owners who value the independence their car grants them might not want their tax dollars supporting such a public transit system. And as others have mentioned, the lobbyists for oil are stronger and more influential than the ones for a monorail/light rail system.

Las Vegas currently has a monorail system in place. It’s not a big one but it is effective for their purposes.
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@Bluefreedom

I live in Vegas, but have to say the mono has no “value” for our public transportation infrastructure whatsoever, as it is strictly hotel resort to hotel resort.

The stops are buried deep inside the resorts (one exception, the convention center stop on one of your photos), meaning you have to wander the casino floor labyrinths just to find them.

On top of it, it is really expensive, over 6 bucks. I guess if you’re a tourist wanting to go from the Excalibur to the Mirage it kinda works, other than that it’s pretty useless. It is much cheaper to hop on the bus on the strip.

@TaoSan. I stand corrected then. I have 2 cousins and an aunt that live in Las Vegas and they had good things to say about it but they left out some details that you offered. Too bad they couldn’t expand the system and make it more feasible/affordable for the general population.

Maybe because they inevitably turn out to be dangerous old theme park devices!

^Win!

@artificialard heh heh, mule
btw, the name’s lanley. lyle lanley.

@Bluefreedom

Well, it is not entirely useless. The Strip during rush-hour is becoming more and more like I-10 in LA, so at certain times of the day it is indeed the fastest way up and down the strip, if you’re willing to take the downsides.