The case for monorail in a world of concurrent crises that include a global pandemic and climate change is presented. Both crises offer challenges and opportunities for public transportation: challenges like how to avoid spreading viruses like COVID-19 and how to reduce carbon emissions; and opportunities presented by a national investment in infrastructure that includes electrification of transportation via renewable power. To support this case, the automated monorail project for the Washington, D.C. metro area proposed by The High Road Foundation is referenced as a specific example. A summary and status of the project is presented, as well as its prospects for deployment in Maryland's I-270 corridor.
Monorail is particularly well suited to address the nation's transportation needs, since it has several features not possible with most other transportation modes. Since monorail is elevated, it has a small ground footprint that can utilize existing rights-of-way and avoid land acquisition costs that usually delay new transportation projects. Unlike surface transportation systems like highways and railroads, monorail eliminates fragmentation of communities and ecosystems, stormwater runoff, and at-grade accidents. Monorail has proven itself over decades of safe operations that include anti-collision technology and low structural loads. Monorail is also fully automated, and operationally quiet and efficient.
Given the recent concerns over health on public transportation, some means to mitigate spread of disease are also addressed. This issue is especially important to help increase ridership on mass transportation systems and thus increase demand for such systems. This would in turn help take more vehicles off the road and thus reduce emissions, which is critical given that the transportation sector is the leading contributor of greenhouse gas emissions. Further, since monorail utilizes elevated beams, it is less susceptible to impacts of climate change like flooding.
Lastly, several areas of research and development are identified. These include technical areas such as motors and automated systems, and intermodal connections with existing systems like highway, rail, and air. The authors' direct experiences in both monorail design and operation help make the case that monorail is indeed the right transportation system at the right time.