August Headlines:
Commute study, PRT model, Poskey => T2K, BART, GRT, WDC, ULTra $, commute hell

Commute Study: Cities21 pioneers new commute shed study, measuring commutes into Palo Alto's Stanford Research Park. While some poor folks commute from Manteca, Tracey, and Vallejo, 47% of employees are within 2 miles of a Caltrain station, and 49% are within 10 miles of the research park. Details: maps, press release, privacy issues. For PRT (personal rapid transit) advocates, the study is the first of five projects that combine to forecast PRT ridership in a suburban feeder application. "Because of the upcoming 101 Corridor Study, planned Caltrain Baby Bullet service, Stanford GUP trip reductions, and ongoing VTA/SamTrans bus route planning, Palo Alto needed more accurate and more current commute data than other cities and transit agencies. We've accomplished this for a fraction of the cost it would have taken using a traditional transportation consulting firm. Compared to recent regional transportation studies our data is twenty times more precise and our participation rates are much higher" - Joe Kott.

PRT Model: The Advanced Transit Association (ATRA), a national PRT/transit nonprofit, is spearheading the "PRT Full Scale Model Project," to build a mobile replica of a PRT guideway and vehicle. World-class Palo Alto design firm IDEO has "adopted" the project. $5,850 has been committed on the way to a funding goal of $8,600. Details: http://www.advancedtransit.org/PRTmodel. This is the second of five projects to forecast PRT ridership.

Poskey => T2K: Cities21 and ATRA board member Jeral Poskey recently completed his Stanford MBA. He joins PRT developer Taxi 2000 as Director of Corporate Development, charged with raising $15M for a prototype system. Full story.

C21 signs consulting agreement with San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District's (BART) Research and Development Division to study Group Rapid Transit. Details from the Oakland Tribune article. BART R&D Manager Eugene Nishinaga worked on the Morgantown Group Rapid Transit Project, a system now celebrating its 27th year of operation. The R&D Group developed the Advanced Automated Train Control System in partnership with General Electric Transportation Systems, a new paradigm in train control that that offers cutting-edge advances that modern automated guideway transit systems can take advantage of: quick AATC overview, 19 page AATC paper.

WDC: "Washington Smiles for Cities21." From TransitPulse, News from the Automated People Mover Industry, June '02 issue: While in Washington representing the Advanced Transit Association (ATRA), Jeral Poskey visited the offices of several members of the U.S. Congress. He specifically requested support for funding for Cities21, a non-profit advocacy group for transportation and land use planning in Palo Alto, Calfornia. The response was very positive. "We had great verbal endorsements from the House and Senate. There's still a ways to go, but the ball is rolling in our favor." What will come of this? Final approval of a $200,000 grant would not happen for eleven months, at the earliest. It is an encouraging sign that elected Federal officials are willing to give time and energy to support innovative local projects. TransitPulse info: LFabian@compuserve.com.

$68M Welsh, UK, and EU funding for ULTra's Cardiff PRT system. Details: Speeches (you won't hear in the states!), stage 0 and 1 alignment boundaries.

Commute Hell: Think you have a tough commute? C21 board member Jim Galanis takes BART from Berkeley to Union City, then bikes 20 miles over the Dumbarton to Palo Alto. Details.

Full Story: Poskey Joins Taxi 2000
In June, Cities21 board member Jeral Poskey completed his MBA at Stanford University. For a school famous for sending graduates into the get-rich-quick Internet boom, he says he expected his urban transportation interests would make him an outcast. "It was nothing like that. People are starting to look for the next big thing, and the need to solve urban transportation problems is a market that just won't go away."

Poskey has a taken a job as Director of Corporate Development for Taxi 2000, a personal rapid transit developer based in Minneapolis. The company will soon be constructing a small prototype, and Poskey's job is to raise money for a full scale test center. He admits that finding the $10- to $15-million investment will be tough, but adds, "in transportation, this is cheap. It is actually a pretty low-risk way to get a jump on new technology."

Will his work represent a conflict of interest for his participation in Cities21 and the Advanced Transit Association, another organization on whose board he sits? "It doesn't appear to present a problem," Poskey said. "At this stage, it is important to do what is best for cities and what is best for the industry. We're a long-term company, and I haven't had any experience where I felt there was any long-term benefit to trying to promote Taxi 2000's interest ahead of what was best at the local level."

While at Stanford, Poskey undertook a number of projects related to the commercialization of new transit. Most recently he worked with David Nieh of the San Jose Redevelopment Agency to explore the applicability of tax increment financing to fund small PRT systems. The 30-page report also examines property-based business improvement districts as funding sources. The report is available on request from Cities21.