Originally Posted By Yookeroo "I, for one, am getting so tired of seeing those damn monorails everywhere I turn. Every city, every town...no matter where you look there's a monorail looking back at you. It's so yesterday!" You're expecting monorails to start turning up in cities around the world? Really? Monorails turned out to not be the future. For whatever reason (probably too expensive), they haven't caught on. Looking cool isn't enough.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "Walt never wanted to go backwards. So he would not bring back a Peoplemover, and would probably have changed out Autopia and gotten rid of the Monorail, as they no longer represent the future. He would have found something else. He definitely would not bring them back. Oh, and he would not have brought back 'Captain EO' either." Again, we have no idea what Walt would or wouldn't do. Wasn't Walt losing interest in the parks at the time of his death. He may have been too busy with EPCOT (the original idea, not the park) to pay any attention to Disneyland.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>You don't see 8-track tapes anymore either. They must be the future too. Oy vey.<<< OK, now try a relevant example. 8-tracks disappeared because something better replaced it. AND you no longer see 8-tracks anyplace operational on a daily basis other then a random museum. The monorail is still very operational and very viable as used in WDW. In DL it is nothing more than a train with a "futuristic" plastic cover. A ride, nothing more! Nothing better has been introduced eliminating the possibility that Monorails could at some point be a more efficient method of transportation. It still has a promise of future. They are not obsolete, they are currently impractical. Something that with time and desire can be overcome.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip ^^^ I doubt the high construction costs of building the beam will every allow them to be very practical for most applications.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Yes, it is expensive and that is why it hasn't become practical yet, but for areas that have high water tables (Florida, for example) I don't see how it would be more expensive then trying to build subways while wearing water wings. Has anyone heard how the monorail system has been working out for Las Vegas?
Originally Posted By RoadTrip High fares and inconvenient station locations have kept ridership down. Why pay $5 for a single trip on the monorail when you can ride "The Deuce" (the Strip Shuttle) all day long for the same $5? The Deuce also lets you off at the front door of the hotels... on the monorail you are generally looking at a LONG walk to get from the rear of hotel where the stations are located to the front where the casino is. The taxi companies apparently wield considerable power in Vegas and apparently did everything they could to make sure that the monorail was as inconvenient as possible. They succeeded.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance "You have a grandchild?" You saw that the first half of my post had quotations around it that meant it was someone else's post that I was commenting on, right? Did you think I was Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? My kids are 8 and 4 if I have a grandchild I've gone horribly wrong at some point in my parenting. And yes, I did adopt Jim as my grandchild some years ago out of pity.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Sorry CC, I have a terrible habit of glancing through posts. I saw grandchild and pretty much ignored everything else. lol
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Sorry CC, I have a terrible habit of glancing through posts. I saw grandchild and pretty much ignored everything else. lol
Originally Posted By RoadTrip In the Great Cosmic Scheme of Things, we are ALL Constance's grandchildren. P.S. My birthday is June 20. I'll be expecting a present next year! LOL
Originally Posted By CDF2 Is the tram system at DFW airport not a variation of the Peoplemover? Are there not monorail systems in places like Las Vegas? Seems to me that Walt was simply a guy that liked to experiment with things like transportation systems and I'm sure there are some aspects of those systems that later users may have found useful. What about the idea of blocking zones on roller coaster attractions that Disney developed for the Matterhorn? With that featue you could get more vehicles safely on a closed track system which has made many amusement park attractions possible that might not have been built based upon capacity.
Originally Posted By Yookeroo "OK, now try a relevant example. 8-tracks disappeared because something better replaced it." Yeah. 8-tracks were somewhat successful for a short while. You need something that pretty much failed in the real world to make a good analogy. "Nothing better has been introduced eliminating the possibility that Monorails could at some point be a more efficient method of transportation." Something better already existed. There are reasons the monorail hasn't replaced good ol' light rail. "In the Great Cosmic Scheme of Things, we are ALL Constance's grandchildren." I know I'm calling her "grandma" from now on.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost I agree...light rail is easier to build, cheaper and more likely to be used. Aesthetically monorails are neater, cleaner, less dangerous to others and more environmentally friendly, I think. No proof of that, just an opinion. You're welcome to challenge that statement. So I still stand with the idea that nothing has come along that is better, only cheaper and more practical now and therefore most likely to be put into service.
Originally Posted By tashajilek ""I know I'm calling her "grandma" from now on." lol shut up" Yea, talk about insulting lol. Here in Vancouver there is no way we could live without our Skytrain system. Our skytrain is actually very fast and stops at useful locations.
Originally Posted By oc_dean ^^^ It's a wonderful system. As I had my chance to use it at the 1986 Worlds Fair there. Since then ... I know it's been expanded. A bit of bad news for Anaheim: <a href="http://www.monorails.org/tMspages/News.html" target="_blank">http://www.monorails.org/tMspa...ews.html</a> Not thrilled to hear that. My native OC still living in the dark ages ... where mass transit is concerned. Their alternative is to dangerously mix Light Rail at ground level .. with streets already packed by thousands of pedestrians and cars. stupid!
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "Their alternative is to dangerously mix Light Rail at ground level .. with streets already packed by thousands of pedestrians and cars. stupid!" I don't know much about the overall plan, but the idea is to get people out of their cars and use public transit. Light rail works well in many congested cities like San Francisco (where it runs both above and below ground) and Barcelona. Everything doesn't have to look like The Jetsons or Buck Rogers to be modern and efficient.
Originally Posted By oc_dean Well, for the foreseeable future .. (next 15 years? or more?) ... there will be nothing. Los Angeles County continues to plan and build on to their existing Light Rail/Subway programs ... Meanwhile my native OC .. is just an embarrassment to the rest of the world. I think local governments within OC probably think the automobile is going to be the first and last word in transportation into the 22nd century! What a joke!
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Sad, although not really surprising when you consider that OC is full of Republicans.
