In Chapter 7 of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Peter works on a project about transportation in New York City. After doing a lot of reading and research, he decides that a monorail system would save the city from traffic congestion and accidents, and is frustrated that such a system has never been implemented. To this day, decades after this book was published, New York City still does not have a monorail system. But why? Let's take a look at the history of this idea.
A plan for a monorail in NYC was first proposed in the year 1930 for the outer boroughs of the city. A single monorail line had actually been built before that though, in 1910, connecting City Island to the main line of the New Haven railroad in the Bronx. It was nicknamed the Flying Lady, but it was wrecked because of an insufficient guide rail on its first trip. When they tried again a few months later, the train hit a car and caused injuries. A working monorail was next built in 1964, but it was only for the World's Fair and did not connect other parts of the city.
In 2016, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to build a light rail connecting Brooklyn and Queens, but it was criticized because the areas it would service were not in need of additional public transportation, and it would bring additional tourist overcrowding and gentrification to areas that are already overpriced.
The real reason a monorail system has never been introduced is very much like what Sheila argues in the book: it would cost a lot of money and use a lot of resources. The city is only just beginning to look into improving the subway system, which has existed in its current state for many decades. It is unlikely to devote so much money to an entirely new transit system in the near future, despite how it might make city transportation safer, more environmentally friendly, and less congested. In a city as crowded as New York, building a monorail would be a lot of work!
