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Minimetro - Rapid Transit For Small Cities With Outlying Parking Lots

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With a Deep Dig Into Its Past, Perugia Built an Energy-Saving Future


January 26, 2011

By Anthony Paonita

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Read More: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/...minimetro/?source=link_tw20110201news-perugia

Minimetro: http://en.minimetro.com/Products/MiniMetro


The Corso, the main drag of the Umbria region's capital city, styles itself as Perugia's living room rather than as a thoroughfare for motorists. So as the setting sun turns the buildings amber, tourists and tired office workers jockey for café seats or wander in and out of shops without the worries about parking or vehicle tie-ups that are endemic to so many of the world’s cities. There is simply no traffic. It wasn't always like this. Not long ago, Corso Vannucci and surrounding streets were thronged with cars, trucks, and buses instead of pedestrians. The buildings were encrusted with soot, instead of shining pink and proud. Traffic clogged the narrow streets, and Perugia's residents wondered how their smart little city became such an urban nightmare.

- As cities around the world grapple with issues of traffic and congestion that degrade the quality of urban life, it is worth taking a look at how Perugia turned its story around. Although it is hardly the only European city to put strict limits on motor traffic (Venice to the north boasts it is the world’s largest car-free city), Perugia shows how even a small city can reap benefits from investment in pedestrian-friendly infrastructure. All it took was a succession of progressive-minded city officials, urban planners, and resident-dreamers who saw how Perugia’s geographic and historical preservation challenges could be used to its advantage.

- It all started, incredibly enough, in the early 1980s, with a few escalators. City archeologists had unearthed the subterranean streets of a former patrician neighborhood under a park that was built far below Perugia’s urban core. The city developed a lower town to showcase this district that had been covered over since the 16th century. To connect the lower town to Perugia’s center, which stands on a 490-meter (1,600-foot) rock promontory, the city built a series of escalators. At the base, the urban planners added a multilevel parking garage and bus station that looks like a subway station minus the trains. And vehicles other than delivery vans and taxis were banned from the Corso Vannucci.

- City planners considered the alternatives. Long ago, a tram ran from the rail station to the center, but that was in a gentler time, with few cars on the road. A subway? The hills are too steep. Besides, the population of 160,000 couldn't support the expense of building or operating a full-sized system. After a decade of debate, the city decided on an innovative system built by the Italian company Leitner AG, a 3-kilometer (1.8-mile) "minimetro."

- "This is Perugia," said Mayor Wladimiro Boccali. "In a city like ours, with its wealth of art and history, we had to do something original. The minimetro is more than public transport. It's architecture, technology, design." It's fun to ride, too. There's a big parking lot on the outskirts for those arriving by car. One station connects with the main train station at the foot of the hill. The stations' avant-garde design is no accident; it’s all the work of French architect Jean Nouvel, winner in 2008 of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize.

- Minimetro cars arrive about every minute. Multilingual machines dispense tickets (1.50 euros, or $2 for a single ride) and riders need to hold onto tickets to exit, too. A little car pulls up and glass doors open. The car first proceeds over an elevated track. Then, after it climbs a steep grade, the minimetro enters a tunnel. The first underground station looks like a cave crossed with a Star Trek set, due to the combination of stone walls and high-tech machinery. A lit tunnel follows, and takes riders to the system's ultramodern terminus.

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Could be a feasible form of People Mover in smaller cities, particularly if parking in certain areas are curtailed along with it. Drivers can get their rides paid for incorporated into the parking ticket.
 
Could work in Quebec City, a MicroMetro to go along with their MicroBus, and also to keep out of the cold from one destination to another.
 
From the picture it looks like this type of transit vehicle can negotiate pretty steep grades compared to a steel wheeled subway train. Montreal's rubber tired Metro can do pretty steep grades as well.
 

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