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A Field Study of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) in Shanghai
Anton Redfors, Uppsala University
Abstract:
The survey objective is to clarify the feasibility of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT), a rail bound transit system, in Shanghai. It includes a technical description of the system, a survey of conditions in Shanghai and statistical analysis of traffic data for Shanghai.

Personal Rapid Transit, or PRT, is the name for a group of pod car systems. The cover page image shows a PRT made by Vectus Ltd., an Uppsala based company. PRT systems are considerably cheaper to build than metro or light rail and the fact that the pods do not stop at intermediate stations makes PRT faster providing higher levels of utilization than other transit systems reducing complete lifecycle costs per person transported.

Shanghai is a province of 19 million registered citizens of whom about 12 million make up the urban population. The main transit systems in Shanghai are the metro, the elevated light rail, buses and taxis. The passenger use trend for all these systems point towards increasing use and demand for affordable transportation in Shanghai is greater than the supply of such transportation at this point.

This survey concludes that PRT is a feasible option for Shanghai. PRT could be utilized further in the future when the demand for safe, fast, and comfortable transit is predicted to grow. The capacity of a PRT system can be estimated in the following manner;
- Safety distance: 3 seconds
- Speed of 50 km/h
- 4 out of 6 seats used

The capacity will amount to 4,800 passengers per hour and if every two pods were to interconnect the capacity would increase to maximum 9,600 passengers per hour. As a comparison, the Shanghai metro lines have a maximum capacity of 30,000 passengers per hour and the light rail half of that. Given the fact that the cost of building PRT is about one tenth of building metro and one forth of light rail it is a superior complement for the transit system in a new modern Shanghai...
(14 Dec 2009)

The Dirt on Climate Change
Peter Friederici, Miller-McCune
Conflicts tend to scatter people, and ideas, in unexpected ways. After the American Civil War, a flood of so-called Confederados fled the devastated South and set up farms in the Brazilian Amazon. They planted rice and sugar cane and tobacco, and they prospered. But the lands they settled — primarily high bluffs along rivers — weren't any more pristine than Alabama or the Carolinas had been. As they plowed, the settlers unearthed vast quantities of potsherds that showed the land had been inhabited before. And the ceramics weren't the only sign of previous human cultivation: The deep black earth itself, very different from the pale, nutrient-poor soils of much of the Amazon, quickly revealed that people had been indispensable in creating its fertility.

"The rich terra preta, 'black land,'" of one settlement was "the best on the Amazon. ... a fine, dark loam, a foot, and often two feet thick," wrote an American naturalist named Herbert Smith in 1879. "Strewn over it everywhere we find fragments of Indian pottery. ... The bluff-land owes its richness to the refuse of a thousand kitchens for maybe a thousand years."

Though they have always been prized by farmers, the dark soils of the Amazon were largely forgotten by science for a century after their discovery. They are now re-emerging as an important topic of study, not because they're an ethnographic or historical curiosity, but because they show an exceptional ability to store carbon, which in the form of carbon dioxide has rapidly turned into one of humanity's most pernicious waste products. As a result, they're joining the rapidly growing roster of tactics that might be used to combat climate change. Researchers around the world are considering whether people may, by engineering soils specifically to maximize carbon storage, be able to absorb substantial amounts of our emissions, increase the fertility of agricultural areas and dampen some of the effects of climate change.

Sound utopian? Maybe. But as the long aftermath of the Civil War shows, solutions to deeply ingrained social problems often do emerge — though not always quickly and certainly not without enormous and sustained effort.

"We could gear up for this with something like the Manhattan Project," says William Woods, a University of Kansas geographer and expert on terra preta. "Imagine all the organic stuff that comes into a city — and then imagine putting all that carbon into the soil. It works, though we aren't there yet. So far no one seems to have the will do it."...
(21 Dec 2009)

HomeGrown
Annie Rae Huston, LinearReflections
"HomeGrown" is a film that gives me hope for the future.

The Dervaes family live in an average house, on a standard lot, in a typical neighbourhood of urban sprawl in Pasedena, California. Somewhere along the line, Jules Dervaes, the single father of three children, decided to make some changes, which propelled this family on to the path to becoming environmental pioneers. Son Justin, and daughters Anais and Jordanne are now in their twenties, but they still live together and work together as a family farming team.

They started small, by converting their front lawn into a wildflower garden, which eliminated the need for lawn maintenance, but also brought the bonus of a small income from selling edible flowers to local restaurants. The next, and more dramatic transformation took place in the backyard, where they implemented square inch gardening principles, to best utilize the space to grow fruits and vegetables. The first year brought in a surprising harvest of 2,500 lbs. of produce. In subsequent years, production steadily increased to reach 6,000 lbs. from one small backyard, approx. one tenth of an acre (66’ x 66’) .

To add to their small urban farm, they raised a few chickens and ducks for eggs, and their pet pygmy goats who helps create nitrogen rich manure to feed the soil. They also managed to capture a wild swarm of bees to start their own honey business. (I don’t even want to know how one captures a swarm of bees, but note to self…. Don’t try this at home!)

Inspired by their ability to produce the majority of their own food needs, the Dervaes continued to explore ways to increase their self-sufficiency. Through the use of solar panels and by recycling used cooking oil into bio-diesel fuel, they’ve managed to step off the grid. They also practice other “back to basics” activities in the various elements of their urban homestead. They recycle, use solar showers, use a clothes line, use energy efficient washer, refrigerator and water heater, as well as hand-cranked appliances...
(15 Nov 2009)

Open University Transition Films Now Embedded Here Too…
Transition Culture

Here are those two films if you want to watch them here, although of course a visit to Creative Climate is also highly recommended. Keen viewers will be able to see my runner beans growing in a couple of shots…

“Totnes: taking change into their own hands”.

“Brixton: Transitioning to a low-carbon economy”.

(17 Dec 2009)