Transportation Technology "Bombs".

[thenetwork]

I was just thinking about some of the "technological advances" back in the day that were tried but were ineffective and bombed for whatever reasons?

Two examples:

Red lights with flashing white strobes,

Flourescent Day-glo colored signage (i.e. yellow warning signs that looked like they were a bright lemon-lime color),

The "Buckeye Crossbucks" at railroad crossings in Ohio. 

Others?
Others?

[ZLoth]

Two that come to mind:

• Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit
• The Mobile Lounge at Dulles to transport passengers from terminal to plane

[Bitmapped]

Two that come to mind:

• Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit

The PRT remains in use 50 years later. It's very effective for its intended purpose, lots of other places copied a simplified version of the concept with automated people movers, and other similar systems have been built again in the past decade. I wouldn't say it's a bomb or a fundamental problem with the technology. Poor contract management and rushed political interference by the Nixon Administration helped cause the construction cost to balloon.

[Big John]

Flourescent Day-glo colored signage (i.e. yellow warning signs that looked like they were a bright lemon-lime color),

School related and some other pedestrian signs use this.

[SEWIGuy]

HOV lanes.

[Rothman]

Goodyear Illuminated Tires.

[Max Rockatansky]

I have a feeling HAWK signals will be on this list someday. 

[pderocco]

This may baffle the young-uns, but when shoulder belts were first mandated, many cars had this crazy scheme with a movable anchor in a motorized slot over the door that moved the belt out of the way when the door was opened.

[ElishaGOtis]

After work-from-home significantly shifted commuting patterns away from inbound-AM / outbound-PM, I think reversible express lanes may enter this list. They work well in some cases, and most systems did work well upon initial implementation, but now maybe not so much? Idk, just my opinion

[tmoore952]

The Mobile Lounge at Dulles to transport passengers from terminal to plane

I am pretty sure they are still being used. At least they were five months ago.

I believe the last two times I used Dulles, upon arrival the mobile lounge was used to take us back to the main building (at the "front" of the airport). The last such trip I took was an international trip (for which I had to be segregated from the general public since I had to go through customs -- I can see that would be a good use for them).

There is an underground train which will take you to your terminal after you clear security (as a departing passenger).
But I don't believe I've ever used the train as an arriving passenger to come back to the main building.

I don't fly out of there that often and so I don't have that many data points to reference.

[pianocello]

Solar FREAKIN' Roadways!

Good idea with great intentions, but it turned out to be way more difficult and expensive than the developers thought.

[ZLoth]

The PRT remains in use 50 years later. It's very effective for its intended purpose, lots of other places copied a simplified version of the concept with automated people movers, and other similar systems have been built again in the past decade. I wouldn't say it's a bomb or a fundamental problem with the technology. Poor contract management and rushed political interference by the Nixon Administration helped cause the construction cost to balloon.

First, it was years between the Morgantown PRT and other systems that were developed. Secondly, Morgantown remains the longest system. As far as I can determine, there are five other systems in the world, and all of them shorter.

The Mobile Lounge at Dulles to transport passengers from terminal to plane

I am pretty sure they are still being used. At least they were five months ago.

As far as I know, only Dulles uses them, and they are so old, they have to fabricate the replacement parts.

In both instances, lack of widespread adoption combined with the higher cost of implementation doomed these systems in my opinion.

[kphoger]

This may baffle the young-uns, but when shoulder belts were first mandated, many cars had this crazy scheme with a movable anchor in a motorized slot over the door that moved the belt out of the way when the door was opened.

I'm only 42 years old, and the car I learned to drive in had such a mechanism:  a 1988 Toyota Camry.  It also had a pair of red buttons down in the center console that would allow a person to disconnect one end of the shoulder belt in case of an accident and subsequent need to exit the vehicle without being able to open the door;  if you pressed it, it would beep-beep-beep as a warning.  If we had a new person riding in the car, my dad was known to press the button on the sly and, when the person asked what the beeping was, he'd answer, "The ejection seat."

[Big John]

This may baffle the young-uns, but when shoulder belts were first mandated, many cars had this crazy scheme with a movable anchor in a motorized slot over the door that moved the belt out of the way when the door was opened.

That only dealt with the shoulder part of the seatbelt and you still needed to put on the lap part of the belt manually.  So they finally figured out if would be better to do it the old way of putting on both parts of the seatbelt at once manually.

[Rothman]

I remember a lot of movies using automatic seat belts as a source of comedy.  Probably paid a part in their demise.

[Rothman]

The PRT remains in use 50 years later. It's very effective for its intended purpose, lots of other places copied a simplified version of the concept with automated people movers, and other similar systems have been built again in the past decade. I wouldn't say it's a bomb or a fundamental problem with the technology. Poor contract management and rushed political interference by the Nixon Administration helped cause the construction cost to balloon.

First, it was years between the Morgantown PRT and other systems that were developed. Secondly, Morgantown remains the longest system. As far as I can determine, there are five other systems in the world, and all of them shorter.

The Mobile Lounge at Dulles to transport passengers from terminal to plane

I am pretty sure they are still being used. At least they were five months ago.

As far as I know, only Dulles uses them, and they are so old, they have to fabricate the replacement parts.

In both instances, lack of widespread adoption combined with the higher cost of implementation doomed these systems in my opinion.

The system was unique to Dulles.  It wasn't like other airports or locations would suddenly use them.  They were tailored to the Dulles facilities and were non-transferable to other locations.

Therefore, I don't see the "doom."  They were built for Dulles and are still in operation at Dulles and it doesn't look like they're going anywhere due to being an integral part of the transportation there.

[jeffandnicole]

This may baffle the young-uns, but when shoulder belts were first mandated, many cars had this crazy scheme with a movable anchor in a motorized slot over the door that moved the belt out of the way when the door was opened.

At the time, I believe the federal mandate was automatic seatbelts OR airbags.

Automatic seatbelts can be defeated in their use, and as mentioned there's still the lap belt that needs to be buckled manually.

The general populace greatly preferred airbags, which became the standard.

(My dad had a 1987 Toyota Camry Station Wagon with the automatic seatbelts)

[kurumi]

In the 1970s, Bradley International Airport in CT built, and later dismantled, a people mover.

[Rothman]

In the 1970s, Bradley International Airport in CT built, and later dismantled, a people mover.

A childhood friend's family ran a travel agency through the 1980s.  They often said, after travelling around the world, that BDL was their favorite airport.

[J N Winkler]

I'm only 42 years old, and the car I learned to drive in had such a mechanism:  a 1988 Toyota Camry.  It also had a pair of red buttons down in the center console that would allow a person to disconnect one end of the shoulder belt in case of an accident and subsequent need to exit the vehicle without being able to open the door;  if you pressed it, it would beep-beep-beep as a warning.  If we had a new person riding in the car, my dad was known to press the button on the sly and, when the person asked what the beeping was, he'd answer, "The ejection seat."

We used to have a 1990 Toyota Cressida with the front seatbelts configured similarly, including the red release buttons on the console.

My 1994 Saturn SL2 has motorized shoulder belts and, yes, they still work (the car turns 30 in just 11 days).  I do have to remind front-seat passengers not just to buckle the lap belt, but also to leave the shoulder belt alone while it does its thing.  (The belt "mouse"--the part that slides back and forth in the slot that runs along the upper part of the door frame--has a release, but it is not ergonomically designed for daily use.)

At the time, I believe the federal mandate was automatic seatbelts OR airbags.

That is also my understanding.  Consumer preference did move decisively in favor of airbags from the late 1980's onward, so while the 1990 Cressida and the first few Saturn S-Series cars did not have them, my Saturn has both the motorized seatbelts and a driver's-side airbag.

Automatic seatbelts can be defeated in their use, and as mentioned there's still the lap belt that needs to be buckled manually.

Some GM models (not Saturn) had door-mounted seatbelts.  I think the theory was that since the passenger could enter and exit without unbuckling them, they counted as automatic.  In practice I think most people just buckled after entry and unbuckled before exit.  They were also unsafe unless the doors were locked to prevent them bursting open in a crash.

The system was unique to Dulles.  It wasn't like other airports or locations would suddenly use them.  They were tailored to the Dulles facilities and were non-transferable to other locations.

The Wikipedia article notes that similar vehicles were used at other airports (Mirabel in Montréal, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Benito Juárez in Mexico City, and one or two others) until about a decade ago.  Trudeau (also in Montréal) reportedly still uses them.  At Dulles they have been pushed into increasingly marginal roles (e.g., as airside buses) as terminals have been renovated and expanded, and I suspect they will eventually be phased out altogether.

[Scott5114]

Clearview.

[mic drop]

[Dirt Roads]

Two that come to mind:

• Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit
• The Mobile Lounge at Dulles to transport passengers from terminal to plane

The PRT remains in use 50 years later. It's very effective for its intended purpose, lots of other places copied a simplified version of the concept with automated people movers, and other similar systems have been built again in the past decade. I wouldn't say it's a bomb or a fundamental problem with the technology. Poor contract management and rushed political interference by the Nixon Administration helped cause the construction cost to balloon.

The Mobile Lounges remain in use after 62 years.  There's more of the PlaneMates at Dulles, which are several years younger.

The Mobile Lounge at Dulles to transport passengers from terminal to plane

Hate to be so pedantic, but except for early history it was the PlaneMates were the ones that operated directly from the gates to the planes (or more commonly, from International arrival flights to the so-called "Barnacle" gates that led to the old Customs processing center).  And although the modified Mobile Lounges were intended for transportation between Main Terminal to Midfield Concourses, the PlaneMates were also preferred for inter-terminal operation after they were retrofitted with backup cameras.  (Mobile Lounges have operator cabs on both ends, and the driver had to switch ends;  PlaneMates had an operator cab at only one end and had to be backed out of the terminal;  after the backup cameras, it was discovered that the reversal process was actually faster if the driver didn't have to switch ends and wait for the control switchover process). 

I am pretty sure they are still being used. At least they were five months ago.

I believe the last two times I used Dulles, upon arrival the mobile lounge was used to take us back to the main building (at the "front" of the airport). The last such trip I took was an international trip (for which I had to be segregated from the general public since I had to go through customs -- I can see that would be a good use for them).

There is an underground train which will take you to your terminal after you clear security (as a departing passenger).
But I don't believe I've ever used the train as an arriving passenger to come back to the main building.

I don't fly out of there that often and so I don't have that many data points to reference.

Nowadays, most of the operations are between the Main Terminal -and- Concourse D, and also between Concourse A -and Concourse D (plus, PlaneMates are required between most of the "hardstands" and the terminals).  MWAA is in the process of refurbishing the entire fleet; they still have 30 PlaneMates and only 19 Mobile Lounges.

Philadelphia International Airport also has recently overhauled their six Mobile Lounges (where they still use the original Chrysler term PTV - passenger transport vehicle).  These are somewhat different than those at Dulles, as the PTVs use scissor lifts (whereas the PlaneMates at Dulles use hydraulic screwjacks; Mobile Lounges at Dulles were fixed height, but originally equipped with a double-ramp lift at one end to adjust for plane height that has since been removed).  I'm pretty sure that IAD and PHL are the only two locations where these beasts still roam.

[Dirt Roads]

The Mobile Lounge at Dulles to transport passengers from terminal to plane

I am pretty sure they are still being used. At least they were five months ago.

As far as I know, only Dulles uses them, and they are so old, they have to fabricate the replacement parts.

In both instances, lack of widespread adoption combined with the higher cost of implementation doomed these systems in my opinion.

The system was unique to Dulles.  It wasn't like other airports or locations would suddenly use them.  They were tailored to the Dulles facilities and were non-transferable to other locations.

Therefore, I don't see the "doom."  They were built for Dulles and are still in operation at Dulles and it doesn't look like they're going anywhere due to being an integral part of the transportation there.

Forgive me if I've got the quotes out of sequence.  Anywhoosit, there were a bunch of varieties of these beasts roaming around airports until the late-1990s:  JFK, ATL, BWI, St. Louis Lambert, Mexico City, Acapulco, two airports in Montreal (Dorval and Mirabel), Toronto Pearson, Paris CDG, and even Jeddah King Abdullaziz Airport in Saudi Arabia (plus numerous military bases that will remain unnamed).  As best as I can tell, all of these are gone.  I highly suspect that Dulles was the only location that ever purchased the screwjack PlaneMates, but the other two variants were spread around here-and-there.

[Dirt Roads]

The system was unique to Dulles.  It wasn't like other airports or locations would suddenly use them.  They were tailored to the Dulles facilities and were non-transferable to other locations.

The Wikipedia article notes that similar vehicles were used at other airports (Mirabel in Montréal, Charles de Gaulle in Paris, Benito Juárez in Mexico City, and one or two others) until about a decade ago.  Trudeau (also in Montréal) reportedly still uses them.  At Dulles they have been pushed into increasingly marginal roles (e.g., as airside buses) as terminals have been renovated and expanded, and I suspect they will eventually be phased out altogether.

Sorry, missed this post.  It looks like the PTVs at Montreal Dorval (Trudeau) were still operating as of 2014, but I'm not sure about today. 

[zachary_amaryllis]

DIA's baggage system they tried to implement in the 90's. Way ahead of its time, but had a habit of launching baggage.

I think they should take whatever remains of it, and rebrand it as a ride.