What's New Archive, 1999


December, 1999

Link to the website of Magplane Technology, Inc. of Bedford, Massachusetts

New Maglev Quicklinks page provides a collection of links to pages with maglev information.

Addition to PRT Debate page by Roxanne Warren

Addition of a paper entitled A New Transportation Paradigm, by A. Scheffer Lang

Addition of a paper entitled Simulation of the Operation of PRT Systems, by J.E. Anderson 

Addition of a FAQ page to the InTranSys dualmode page

Link to Bruderly's Guide to Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Information 

Link to a website that describes an auto being developed in France that uses compressed air for propulsion and produces near zero emissions.

November, 1999

System 21 ®, a monobeam-based mass transit technology, has a new website which provides considerable detail about their progress and plans for a 1.2 mile full-scale prototype, to be built in early 2000

Link to the Delta-Link High Speed Monorail website that describes a coastal route proposed near Brisbane, Australia

Link to the website of the Colorado Intermountain Fixed Guideway Authority's website - a group that hopes to build a high speed monorail from the Denver airport to the ski slopes in the Rockies.

Link to the New Century Transportation website - working on a high-speed monorail technology that uses a linear induction motor developed at the Sandia National Lab.

Link to the ABC and SKIMAIRE hovercraft website.

A site index (author/subject) has been added to the Innovative Transportation Technologies website.

Link to article by Peter Samuel entitled Raytheon PRT Prospects Dim but not Doomed.

October, 1999

Link to EcoCity magazine which includes lots of transportation items

Brief history of the Downtown People Mover (DPM) program sponsored by the Urban Mass Transit Administration in the 1970's

Link to a website that describes the Monobeam Eurotren - a Spanish monorail now being considered for an application in Colorado (Denver airport to skilifts).

Link to the website for the Fresno (California) Area Sky Train - a monorail proposal

Raytheon press release that announces that it is exiting from the Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) business (October 12, 1999) 

Link to a German website that describes a high-speed eco-train concept that utilizes fuel cells and PV panels for power. A grand design for aTrans-Europe network is also described.

Link the the website of the National Hydrogen Association which contains considerable information about the use of fuel cells in future automobiles

Is there anything that maglevs can do better than railways?, by Reinhard Hanstein, March, 1999. This is a very comprehensive critique of the German Transrapid maglev technology.

September, 1999

Link to the Entropy Systems website that describes a high efficiency, hot air engine which has very low emissions

Information about the content and availablility of the 1988-89 technology assessment of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) conducted by the Advanced Transit Association

Link to information about The Serpentine peoplemover technology, being developed in Switzerland

Link to information about the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV)

August, 1999 

Link to the Inductrack webpage at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab entitled A New Approach for Magnetically Levitating Trains - and Rockets (may be used by the SkyTran technology).

Link to the new Pegasus SST 200 website - a high speed, air-cushion, monorail concept

Rail Politics in Miami and Seattle, from Innovation Briefs, by C. Kenneth Orski, September, 1999

Link to information about a "wireless trolly" being developed in Canada

Link to the Beeline Express website - a maglev line proposed for the Central Florida area.

Response to Arguments in Opposition to Personal Rapid Transit, by J. Edward Anderson

Solving the Urban Transport Problem with an Automated Guided Vehicle, by Jack Cawkwell 

Links to two electric vehicle websites, one to EV World and the other to Electrifying Times.

More on the Moller Skycar from the May 1999 issue of the New Scientist magazine

Link to the Green Transport Plans website of the Department of Environment, Transport and Regions in the U.K.

Link to a website that includes lots of SkyCar information for those interested in flying vehicles

Link to a website that features a variety of  electric bikes, scooters and small vehicles for short trips.

Link to the SoloTrek website - a brand new mode of transportation - you step in, strap on and fly.

Link to the text of a presentation by Emory Bundy at a recent conference entitled Sprawl and Congestion - Is Light Rail and Transit-Oriented Development the Answer?

July, 1999

Link to article entitled A Vision of a Hydrogen Future - discusses Hypercars among other things

Link to article about a hybrid fuel shuttle bus now being operated in Christchurch, NZ

Link to new webpage of the Sky Loop Committee of Forward Quest, located in the Cincinnati metropolitan area

Link to the Centre for Sustainable Transportation, located in Canada

Link to paper entitled Does Transit Work?: A Conservative Reappraisal, by Paul Weyrich and William Lind, May, 1999

June, 1999

Link to article in Discover magazine, July, 1999 that deals with future transportation options

Link to two on-line papers produced by the GAO: Mass Transit: FTA's Program in Developing and Implementing a New Starts Evaluation Process (83k) and Surface Transportation: Moving into the 21st Century (295k). Select reports by subject category, then Transportation and Telecommunications

Added a page on the Russian Flexitaxi concept - features vehicles in a suspended plastic tube

Highways in the Sky - a NASA press release about a project designed to facilitate the deployment of flying autos.  Also see the Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments (AGATE) website.

SkyTran maglev concept featured in article in Arizona newspaper

Link to a paper on the Electric Energy Line System (EELS), a dualmode/PRT concept

Link to article entitled "Going nowhere fast" published in the New Scientist, April, 1999

Link to Norwegian Sportaxi website - user-friendly transport for smart cities

Link to the Biway dualmode website, developed in the UK and very nicely done.

May, 1999

Orange County, California, Grand Jury Report Blasts Light Rail, May, 1999

Summary of the 14 responses to the RFI submitted to the Elevated Transportation Company of Seattle, Washington

Announcement of seven maglev project planning awards from the Federal Railroad Administration, U.S. DOT

Link to agenda for the High Speed Ground Transportation Association conference in Seattle, June, 1999.

Link to website featuring hybrid electric pedicabs, to be available in mid-1999.

Link to the Transportation Action Network website

Link to the Transportation for Livable Communities website

Conference announcement: Spirit of Innovation in Transportation, Volpe Center, June 24-25, 1999

Link to Swedish website that describes various PRT studies conducted at Chalmers University in Gothenburg

April, 1999

Article: Urban Mobility for the 21st Century, by David Petrie

Link to public interest website on Transit-Focused Development

Article: Personal Rapid Transit in Stockholm - Market Demand and Economic Viability

Proposed Rule for the FTA's Major Capital Investment Program as published in the Federal Register, April 7, 1999.

March, 1999

Link to a list of amusement ride companies, some quite extreme, some using linear motors.

Link to the text of a PRT bill which has been introduced in the Minnesota Legislature

Added a page on the Flyda elevated transit system (monorail?) from the U.K.

SkyTran - successor to PeoplePods - a patented, high-speed, non-stop, on-demand, personal/mass transportation system for harried communters

Ten photos of an Aerobus installation in Mannheim, Germany and Parc du Mont Ste. Anne, Quebec

Link to website for the Eurotren Monoviga, a monorail system developed in Spain

Link to website for the  National Parks and Transportation Alternatives and Advanced Technology for the 21st Century Workshop, June 3-5, 1999.

Link to a DOT report entitled Improving Transportation for a Maturing Society, 1997

Book reviews: Transit Villages in the 21st Century and The Urban Transport Crisis in Europe and North America, by Greg Thompson

Smart Jitney/Smart Community Initiative proposed in Oregon Legislature

Link to TCRP Synthesis # 14, Innovative Suburb-to-Suburb Transit Practice, 1995

Link to news about a fuel-cell breakthrough - an on-board system for generating hydrogen from methanol, by Damlier-Benz and Ballard Power

Link to CalStart's Project Hatchery Program, locations in Alameda, Burbank and Camarillo

Link to descriptions of Smart Shuttle experiments in Southern California

Link to the Technology and Transportation Futures Program sponsored by the U.S. DOT

Link to the 1999 TRB Distinguished Lecture by Alan E. Pisarksi, Transportation Planning, Policy and Data: Inextricable Linkages

Book review by C. Kenneth Orski:  The Transit Metropolis: A Global Inquiry, by Robert Cervero

February, 1999

Added page describing the ROMAG PRT technology, developed by the Rohr Corporation in the early 1970s

Essay on The Politics of "Smart Growth" by C. Kenneth Orski

Link to the Severn-Lamb website - a company that offers a monorail technology

Description and illustrations of the Extended Transit-oriented Development (E-TOD) concept

Link to book review by Wendell Cox, Transport in Europe: From Ideology to Reality, by Christian Gerondeau

New pictures of the construction of an H-Bahn peoplemover line at the Duesseldorf International Airport in Germany

Link to CWA of Switzerland's website, a manufacturer of monorail, shuttle, gondola and funicular vehicles.

Link to Unique Mobility's website which describes electric scooters, electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles that are under development

Link to summary of Swedish study of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) done for the Stockholm County Council

January, 1999

Link to information about the Urban Maglev Program of the Federal Transit Administration

Two new illustrations of the Danish  RUF dualmode vehicle are now available.

Essay entitled "Timing is everything in transportation technology and innovation" by Jack Fearnsides

Link to an essay entitled "Suburban Sprawl - Can We Do Anything About It?", by C. Kenneth Orski

Link to information about the new driverless and conductorless Météor subway system in Paris, France

Link to the Inductrac maglev site at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California

White House press release that describes Clinton-Gore Livability Agenda proposal for FY 2000 - includes information about the Community Transportation Choices proposal

Link to the new Tubexpress website - a technology for shipping freight underground in capsules through a large diameter pipe.

Link to the new Higherway Transit Research website - a suspended dualmode PRT concept that is under development - well worth examining.


     or  Back to Current What's New page


Last modified: February 02, 2008