In the Chicago Tribune, Friday June 12, 1992

RTA meets George Jetson, Transit officials study idea for fold-up electric car

by David Ibata

Excerpts :

..These "Stackable Electric Rental Cars", or SERCs, would replace the cars suburbanites often use to get from home to the nearest Metra commuter rail station --clogging streets and parking lots, wasting gasoline and polluting the air in the process..

..The RTA plans to hold a symposium in Chicago on Friday to talk about these cars and how they could benefit conventional mass transit. Electrical utilities and transit operators from around the country, including Commonwealth Edison Co. of Chicago and Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) of San Francisco, are expected to attend. ..

Richard Shultz, an Austin, Texas, engineering consultant credited with first proposing stackable cars several years ago, said : " A single lane of freeway can carry 2,000 passengers per hour, assuming one rider per car. A single bus lane can carry 10 times that number, and a rail line, 20 times that number. "

" The solution to traffic congestion is to get everybody on buses and trains," Shultz said. "The problem is, you can't run a train up to everyone's front door. You need a collection system where people can go the few miles from home to train and the conventional, private automobile just doesn't work."

Marc Hillier, assistant executive director of the RTA, described the stackable car as a "fold-up vehicle that stacks horizontally, like a shopping cart". Such a car would solve the parking shortage problem at suburban Metra commuter stations, he said : " You can fit six SERC's into one passenger car space".

And unlike the long-range, high-speed electric vehicles being developed by the major auto makers, a stackable car would use off-the-shelf technology like ordinary lead-acid batteries, Hillier explained.

"Most commuters live within 15 miles of their Metra stations, and that trip would be well within even current technology," Hillier said.

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Calling the Jetsons: RTA eyes fold-up car

[NORTHWEST SPORTS FINAL, NW Edition] David Ibata.;

Chicago Tribune (pre-1997 Fulltext); Jun 12, 1992; pg. 1

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