The Sky Loop:
The Downtown Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky PRT
Circulator
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The Sky Loop Committee (SLC), a committee of
Vision 2015 (formerly
Forward Quest of Northern Kentucky and renamed in 2006), believes that current
and upcoming developments on both sides of the Ohio River present both
potential problems and tremendous opportunities. These developments present a
range of major attractions, facilities and activities unparalleled anywhere
else in the metropolitan region. On the Ohio side, the $600 Million Banks
project between Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ball Park is in the hands
of a developer selected by Hamilton County and the City of Cincinnati. So far,
this project is in the feasibility stage, and looks to be at least a couple
years away from development. On the Kentucky side, the $800 Million Ovation
project in Newport is in the hands of a single developer, Corporex, and awaits
state and local TIF funding, but could begin sooner than the Banks project.
Both are on the Ohio River, in the area of the downtown PRT circulator proposed
by the SLC.
The Sky Loop
Network |
Yet the metropolitan downtown area and these very large projects will
remain poorly linked, creating serious congestion and parking problems. The SLC
believes that implementing an advanced elevated transit system will not only
greatly enhance this central urban venue and resolve these pending problems,
but with state-of-the-art technology will help propel our metropolitan region
forward into the 21st Century The SLC would like to see Personal Rapid Transit
(PRT) developed for a downtown circulator.
While PRT was one of the technologies considered for the downtown
circulator in the 2000-1 Central Area Loop Study (CALS) funded by OKI, it was
ultimately rejected at that time because there was no operating PRT system
anywhere that could be bought for the circulator. Numerous technical questions
regarding PRT could not be answered due to the lack of a working system.
However, the Study determined that none of the other technologies studied would
generate enough riders to have any hope of being an economic success. Only PRT
offered the speed and convenience to get enough people out of their cars to
make any difference in the traffic pattern in the Study area. The
results of the CALS ridership study performed by
Parsons-Brinckerhoff showed that PRT would generate nearly 5 times the
weekday ridership of the next best alternative and nearly 12 times the number
of new transit trips.
Since 2002 the SLC has been monitoring the development of PRT in the
USA, England, Sweden, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Working systems are
being built now in England and Sweden, and may occur soon in the
UAE.
Light rail was actively proposed by OKI in 2002, and was the basis
for the Central Area Loop Study's (CALS) selection of streetcars as the
preferred technology for the downtown circulator. But light rail was then
soundly rejected by Cincinnati voters in November, 2002. This has left the idea
of a metro downtown circulator in limbo.
If PRT finally gains acceptance abroad, and a viable PRT system can
in fact be purchased at the costs we estimated in 2000-1 as part of the CALS,
then the Sky Loop Comittee may once again propose a PRT system for the metro
downtown circulator.
Updated 2007/04/12. |
