Roger (and Will),

You may want to check Sound Transit's website on this, since it's right
there. Excerpt:

Innovation Fund

Since we live in an age of continual change, Sound Move provides
flexibility to consider new ideas, services and technology innovations.

The RTA will evaluate and fund innovative ways to provide transit service,
reduce dependency on single-occupancy vehicles, improve public
transportation's cost-effectiveness, and better respond to customer needs.
The RTA will evaluate technological innovations (alternative fuels and
propulsion systems, quieter equipment, lighter vehicles, energy efficient
engines, and ways to improve passenger comfort) and ways to reduce impacts
on the environment. The RTA will also explore incentives and programs to
encourage people to use regional transit more.

The RTA will work with the community and the private sector to take part
in a demonstration of personal rapid transit (PRT) or other technologies.
PRT is an experimental type of automated transit consisting of small cars
running on a guideway carrying two to six passengers per car. The
demonstration could show how PRT or other new technologies could be
appropriate investments in future transit system phases.

http://www.soundtransit.org/x2218.xml

--- In friendsofthemonorail@yahoogroups.com, "rdpence03" <rpence@...> wrote:
>
> Hmmm, my memory must be getting rusty. I don't remember that "we voted
to fund and
> build a demonstration PRT system back in 1996, in the...Sound Move
vote..." Do you have
> a cite, where in the plan that commitment was made?
>
> --- In friendsofthemonorail@yahoogroups.com, "John C. Todd, Jr."
<johntodd@> wrote:
> >
> > Excerpt:
> >
> > ITHACA, New York (AP) -- The thought of a driverless, computer-guided
car
> > transporting people where they want to go on demand is a futuristic
notion
> > to some.
> >
> > To Jacob Roberts, podcars -- or PRTs, for personal rapid transit --
> > represent an important component in the here-and-now of transportation.
> >
> > "It's time we design cities for the human, not for the automobile," said
> > Roberts, president of Connect Ithaca, a group of planning and building
> > professionals, activists and students committed to making this upstate
New
> > York college town the first podcar community in the United States.
> >
> > "In the podcar ... it creates the perfect blend between the privacy and
> > autonomy of the automobile with the public transportation aspect and, of
> > course, it uses clean energy," Roberts said.
> >
> > With the oil crisis reaching a zenith and federal lawmakers ready to
begin
> > fashioning a new national transportation bill for 2010, Roberts and his
> > colleagues think the future is now for podcars -- electric, automated,
> > lightweight vehicles that ride on their own network separate from other
> > traffic.
> >
> > Unlike mass transit, podcars carry two to 10 passengers, giving travelers
> > the freedom and privacy of their own car while reducing the use of fossil
> > fuels, reducing traffic congestion and freeing up space now
monopolized by
> > parking.
> >
> > At stations located every block or every half-mile, depending on the
need,
> > a rider enters a destination on a computerized pad, and a car would take
> > the person nonstop to the location. Stations would have slanted pull-in
> > bays so that some cars could stop for passengers, while others could
> > continue unimpeded on the main course.
> >
> > "It works almost like an elevator, but horizontally," said Roberts,
adding
> > podcar travel would be safer than automobile travel.
> >
> > The podcar is not entirely new. A limited version with larger cars
> > carrying up to 15 passengers was built in 1975 in Morgantown, West
> > Virginia, and still transports West Virginia University students.
> >
> > Next year, Heathrow Airport outside London will unveil a pilot podcar
> > system to ferry air travelers on the ground. Companies in Sweden, Poland
> > and Korea are already operating full-scale test tracks to demonstrate the
> > feasibility. Designers are planning a podcar network for Masdar City,
> > outside Abu Dhabi, which is being built as the world's first zero-carbon,
> > zero-waste city.
> >
> > Meanwhile, more than a dozen cities in Sweden are planning podcar systems
> > as part of the country's commitment to be fossil-fuel-free by 2020, said
> > Hans Lindqvist, a councilman from Varmdo, Sweden, and chairman of
Kompass,
> > an association of groups and municipalities behind the Swedish
initiative.
> >
> > "Today's transportation system is reaching a dead end," said Lindqvist, a
> > former member of the European parliament.
> >
> > Cars have dominated the cityscape for nearly a century, taking up
valuable
> > space while polluting the air, said Magnus Hunhammar, chief executive
> > officer of the Stockholm-based Institute for Sustainable Transportation,
> > the world's leading center on podcar technology.
> >
> > CNN: City hopes to shuttle people in futuristic 'podcars'
> > http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/10/13/podcar.city.ap/index.html
> >
> > Hey, Seattle, remember when we voted to fund and build a demonstration
PRT
> > system back in 1996, in the same Sound Move vote that created Sound
> > Transit and built Central Link Light Rail?
> >
> > Such a demonstration system would be small, useful, and dirt-cheap, so
why
> > hasn't our leadership (including Sound Transit) done doodly-squat about
> > that part of the Sound Move vote yet? As an extra added bonus, with so
> > much software and engineering talent (and at least four PRT companies
> > either based in our area or having significant representation here),
> > Seattle could take a leadership role in an emerging market poised to
> > skyrocket when the London Heathrow PRT system opens to the public next
> > year.
> >
> > Also note highly favorable PRT articles in the New York Times and Los
> > Angeles Times from last month:
> >
> > The New York Times (via Balanced Transportation for Seattle): Ithaca
Takes
> > a Hard Look at Pod Cars
> >
>
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/BalancedTransportationforSeattle/message/3\
751
> >
> > The Los Angeles Times (via Balanced Transportation for Seattle): Seeding
> > the future with 'podcars'
> >
>
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/BalancedTransportationforSeattle/message/3\
758
> >
>