Bruno Latour, Aramis, or the Love of Technology, PDF - Dss-edit.com

1985: Scale model of two-car Aramis presented. 1986:First two-car unit delivered; two-tiered Aramisproposed; studies of potential ridership; Chiracnamed prime minister; Quin leaves the RATP.1987: Termination of project announced; fifth two-carunit delivered; three weeks of contradictory testruns; project halted; postmortem study begun.[INTERVIEW EXCERPTS]M. Lievin, INRETS engineer:"Aramis is the last of the PRT systems, you know. ""PRT?""It was fashionable at the time-Personal Rapid Transit, PRT. Everybody wasexcited about it.""When was this?""Oh, around the sixties. The Kennedy era. Private cars were on the wayout-that's what everyone was saying. But at the same time the advantagesof cars had to be maintained; we couldn't keep moving in the direction of masstransportation." [no. 15]M. Etienne, at Matra:"In 1972 the Transport Expo took place in Washington. That exhibit wascritical for PRTs . Everybody in the world came. There were Boeing systems,there were Bendix systems. People were beginning to recognize the potentialof computers. It seemed logical to control vehicles from a central computer. "[no. 21]M. Cohen, speaking at Matra's Besanr;:on oFFice:"All the major manufacturers plunged into PRTs: Boeing, Otis, we did thesame thing at Matra . There were at least ten different systems. None of themworked . Aramis is the one that lasted the longest; it was the most credible,finally. We wouldn't do it the same way today; we wouldn't tell ourselves that,well, we know how to make planes and satellites, great, mass transportationmust be a cinch. It's not true; it's not that easy. A train may well be morecomplicated than a satellite, technologically speaking." [no. 45]Mr. Britten, on American private consultant in Paris:"With PRTs, what doesn't work is the P. P means people, not personal. Weknew from the beginning that that part didn't have a chance. In 1975-1 haveAN EXCITININNOVATION