Monorail

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ADVANTAGES OF MONORAIL

Monorail costs less than light rail.

Monorail can be true rapid transit. The monorail is up in the air, separated from surface traffic. There are no intersections and no traffic lights to interfere with the movement of the monorail trains. The monorail trains can reach speeds in excess of 60 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour).

Monorail should attract many car drivers. The high speed of the monorail service will encourage many more drivers to ride the monorail instead of driving. This migration from car to monorail can be encouraged further with large parking lots adjacent to monorail stations in outlying areas, and with good local bus service and PRT service to bring passengers to the monorail stations.

Very few homes and businesses need to be destroyed. The monorail normally requires pylons (support columns) only four or five feet wide. As much as possible, the route can utilize existing streets that have two-way left turn lanes down the middle. The pylons can be placed in the two-way left turn lanes and would not require widening of the streets. There would still be some places where the streets would be too narrow and would require widening, or where the monorail would deviate from streets, and in these cases the purchase of property may be required. However careful planning of the routes should minimize these occurances.

The monorail will not divide the community. Instead of a fenced-off railway through the neighborhood, there would be a row of pylons that wouldn't have much more impact than a line of telephone poles.

Monorail is quieter than light rail. Instead of steel wheels on steel rails, you would have rubber tires on concrete.

Monorail is safer. The monorail is up there. The pedestrians and cars are down here. What more can I say?

Monorail can lead to community development. The area near the monorail stations would be an attractive location for people that don't own cars or don't want to drive much. These locations could be zoned for higher density housing and businesses. Property values near the stations would most likely go up because many people would be willing to pay more rent to live near a station and many retail businesses could increae their revenue if near a station. This in turn would lead to higher assessed value for real estate taxes, increasing the tax base for the community.

Learn more about monorails and my opinions about monorails by going to My monorail web site.


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©2002 Robert M. Fleming Jr.

This page was last updated 16 May 2018.

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