ID students at the University of Louisiana - Lafayette are designing an ambitious mass-transit system for their city. Their lightweight monorail concept is intended to save costs in several ways:

- It utilizes construction techniques similar to that of rollercoasters, which can be "quickly assembled yet provide strength and stability under high stress" - Cars are designed to be lowered from any point along the track by a mechanical arm, negating the need to construct special stations - It would eliminate buses, their attendant costs, and the costs of repairing road damage done by buses.

Designed under ULL's Transit Design Studio, "which works with municipal planning groups across the state on improving public transportation," the project is now in search of funding to build a prototype and has the backing of Lafayette City-Parish Planning Manager Mike Hollier. "We could keep playing around with it, but we need serious research and development," Hollier said. Read more about the project here.

via the advocate