Our tax money is going for this Mickey Mouse technophilia? Obvious pure IQ horsepower is hardly a precursor for many people to have any common sense.

Sounds Great, I am hoping to see it built and would love to go for a ride, we need transit to go with our cities and area, we are so built all over, this might be a cheap and safe way to build to Fremont or Walnut Creek.

One thing, it can be built like a roller coaster, prefabed and then put into place, roller coasters are light and safe, and can be replaced in sections, and can be taken apart and put back togerther, would love to see this run down the middle of El Camino, Steven Creek. Where do i sign on.

The Bullet Train and SkyTran is a system that could complement each other and it would be fun with walkways and bikeways integrated.
I think that if we used the raised Unimodal Skytran and put Bike and walkways underneath where existing rails are we could have the best of the world. The high speed train could be run to San Jose and on to Sacramento from LA. From there we could use the less intrusive Skytran <www.unimodal.com>into the populated areas to SF. Larger freight could be accommodated along existing track space with a raised heavy duty Maglev Monorail and smaller tracks could travel to other tributaries along power lines or canals or even along El Camino. It needs 4 ft. width. The existing Railroad tracks could be replaced by bike and pedestrian pathways for commuters and recreation. In the City it could be built into buildings and not impact the roadways.
I live near the tracks in Sunnyvale and a high speed bullet train through here doesn't make as much sense as Skytran because Skytran can serve the whole community. The existing higher speed train doesn't stop in downtown Sunnyvale.
This system is also can be very cost effective. Also consider the lawsuits that a previous article in MV Voice noted.

"Perkins said the "freedom" of the automobile is something everybody wants. However: "We're all held captive by this same desire."

Not all of us. Mr. Perkins needs to put his car in the garage and spend some time in an area with decent public transit so he can experience the joys of auto-less living. The Metro in DC, the Metro in Paris, transit in Portland - try walking, biking, or getting on a bus, streetcar or subway with your fellow humans, Mr. Perkins. The solution is not a horrendously expensive and complex system of thousands of tiny little computer-controlled pods on raised stanchions.

Artemisia, I think the idea is that Unimodal's people mover is *much* cheaper per mile than "the metro in DC, the Metro in Paris, etc.." The moment you have to dig, you've lost the budget battle. And, what's being discussed here is turning Mountain View in to an area with "decent public transit" at the best possible price.

You all need to put your Legos away and ask how and who will pay for this boondoggle.

Another low-cost, ultra-light rail, electric transit system to consider is being developed in the East Bay, called CyberTran. See more at www.CyberTran.com

Any Simpsons fans out there?

But Main Street's still all cracked and broken
Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken
Monorail!
Monorail!
Monorail!!

Check out "Morgantown PRT" (Google Search). It has been around for over 30 years, and still serves the WVU community. I've taken their PRT, and it works great. It certainly could work here too.