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Day 19 Passage 1

The document discusses issues with current transportation systems in cities and proposes alternatives like personal rapid transit (PRT) and dual-mode systems. PRT would allow private computer-controlled vehicles to efficiently transport people along guideways, but establishing the necessary infrastructure would be very expensive. A dual-mode system like Denmark's RUF could grow organically by allowing vehicles to also drive on normal roads, potentially gaining more support.

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86 views2 pages

Day 19 Passage 1

The document discusses issues with current transportation systems in cities and proposes alternatives like personal rapid transit (PRT) and dual-mode systems. PRT would allow private computer-controlled vehicles to efficiently transport people along guideways, but establishing the necessary infrastructure would be very expensive. A dual-mode system like Denmark's RUF could grow organically by allowing vehicles to also drive on normal roads, potentially gaining more support.

Uploaded by

Itisme
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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READING PASSAGE 1

You should spend about 20 minutes on Questions 1-13, which are based on Reading
Passage 1.
Going nowhere fast
THIS is ludicrous! ‘We can talk to people anywhere in the world or fly to meet them in a few
hours. e can even send probes to other planets. But when it comes to getting around our
cities, we depend on systems that have scarcely changed since the days of Gottlieb
Daimler.
In recent years, the pollution belched out by millions of vehicles has dominated the debate
about transport. The problem has even persuaded California – that home of car culture – to
curb traffic growth. But no matter how green they become, cars are unlikely to get us
around crowded cities any faster. And persuading people to use trains and buses will
always be an uphill struggle. Cars, after all, are popular for very good reasons, as anyone
with small children or heavy shopping knows.
So politicians should be trying to lure people out of their cars, not forcing them out. There’s
certainly no shortage of alternatives. Perhaps the most attractive is the concept known as
personal rapid transit (PRT), independently invented in the US and Europe in the 1950s.
The idea is to go to one of many stations and hop into a computer-controlled car, which
can whisk you to your destination along a network of guideways. You wouldn’t have to
share your space with strangers, and with no traffic lights, pedestrians or parked cars to
slow things down, PRT guideways can carry far more traffic, non stop, than any inner city
road.
It’s a wonderful vision, but the odds are stacked against PRT for a number of reasons. The
first cars ran on existing roads, and it was only after they became popular — and after
governments started earning revenue from them-that a road network designed specifically
for motor vehicles was built. With PRT, the infrastructure would have to come first-and that
would cost megabucks. What’s more, any transport system that threatened the car’s
dominance would be up against all those with a stake in maintaining the status quo, from
private car owners to manufacturers and oil multinationals. Even if PRTs were
spectacularly successful in trials, it might not make much difference. Superior technology
doesn’t always triumph, as the VHS versus Betamax and Windows versus Apple Mac
battles showed.
But “dual-mode” systems might just succeed where PRT seems doomed to fail. The
Danish RUF system envisaged by Palle Jensen, for example, resembles PRT but with one
key difference: vehicles have wheels as well as a slot allowing them to travel on a 2/8
monorail, so they can drive off the rail onto a normal road. Once on a road, the occupant
would take over from the computer, and the RUF vehicle – the term comes from a Danish
saying meaning to “go fast” – would become an electric car.
Build a fast network of guideways in a busy city centre and people would have a strong
incentive not just to use public RUF vehicles, but also to buy their own dual-mode vehicle.
1
Commuters could drive onto the guideway, sit back and read as they are chauffeured into
the city. At work, they would jump out, leaving their vehicles to park themselves. Unlike
PRT, such a system could grow organically, as each network would serve a large area
around it and people nearby could buy into it. And a dual-mode system might even win the
support of car manufacturers, who could easily switch to producing dual-mode vehicles.
Of course, creating a new transport system will not be cheap or easy. But unlike adding a
dedicated bus lane here or extending the underground railway there, an innovative system
such as Jensen’s could transform cities.
And it’s not just a matter of saving a few minutes a day. According to the Red Cross, more
than 30 million people have died in road accidents in the past century-three times the
number killed in the First World War-and the annual death toll is rising. And what’s more,
the Red Cross believes road accidents will become the third biggest cause of death and
disability by 2020, ahead of diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis. Surely we can find a
better way to get around?

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