The Sky Loop
 
Home Page
An Introduction
Life with the Loop
Simulations and Video
PRT System and Networks
For Stakeholders
Reasons and Effects
Project Plans
CALS
Sky Loop Financial Plan
News
PRT Resources
Opinion
Email Announcement Service
Membership
Organization
Link Up with the Sky Loop
Cincinnati Enquirer Editorial

© Copyright The Cincinnati Enquirer, 2001. Reprinted with permission.

Editorial Page — July 31, 2001; Page B10

Downtown | New loop transit
Link Cincinnati, Kentucky

Planners recently reported a $625,000 study of a new "loop circulator" to transport riders between downtown Cincinnati, Newport and Covington. Officials here are expected to vote within two months for a preferred "circulator" to link our downtowns.

The three options are "vintage trolleys," some enhanced version of the Southbank Shuttle or personal rapid transit (PRT) -- a new system of small, fully automated "cars" that run on elevated guideways.

All three downtowns would benefit from improved transit links for office workers, shoppers, tourists and businesses. But there is not yet consensus among the 43 members of the Central Area Loop Study Committee (CALSC) on how best to accomplish that worthy goal.

Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments is overseeing the study by planners Parsons Brinckerhoff. Before spending millions more on engineering studies, we should make sure any new "loop circulator" will deliver superior service to the popular rubber-tire Southbank Shuttle already available.

If vintage trolleys are to have a future here, the consultants will need to prove that trolleys offer much more than just a nostalgic great leap backward.

Critics ask why go back to trolleys, which we gave up 80 years ago in favor of flexible rubber-tire buses?

A PRT "Sky Loop's" elevated guideways would have the advantage of not commandeering traffic lanes from Cincinnati's narrow congested downtown streets. About 725 cars are projected to be needed here. The system is designed to transport one to four riders per car directly to their destinations. One huge drawback to its selection is that no city has built it yet. It may be three years before a prototype is constructed in Minnesota.

A loop transit system could finally overcome the barrier of the river. It would make the three downtowns function as one, and save our cities from the costly, land-gobbling clutter of building more center-city garages.

Return to the News Items Index.

Signup for our Email Announcement Service

Stay in the Loop!   The Sky Loop
 
Copyright © The Sky Loop Committee of Forward Quest
 
The Sky Loop