The West Virginia University (WVU) Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system was built between 1971 and 1975 in Morgantown, West Virginia to be a prototype transportation system of the future. Envisioned as a hybrid of public and automotive transportation, the fully automated cars deliver passengers directly to their destinations without stopping at intervening stations. The PRT concept may be familiar to STS scholars through Latour’s study of Aramis, a PRT in Paris that was never completed. This article recounts a history with the opposite ending: the successful realization of a PRT in West Virginia. Our account supplements existing ones, which explain the construction of the WVUPRT primarily as the product of geography and politics. While not denying these factors, we carve out an explanatory role for another influence: a public narrative about the dangers of hitchhiking and crimes that might ensue from that practice. In weaving together that narrative with the history of the WVUPRT, we show how public narratives of crime authorize technological infrastructure.

中文翻译：

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Law's Artfacts：个人快速交通和搭便车和犯罪的公共叙事


西弗吉尼亚大学 （WVU） 个人快速交通 （PRT） 系统于 1971 年至 1975 年间在西弗吉尼亚州摩根敦建造，旨在成为未来的原型交通系统。这些全自动汽车被设想为公共和汽车运输的混合体，无需在中间车站停留，即可将乘客直接运送到目的地。STS 学者可能通过 Latour 对 Aramis 的研究熟悉 PRT 概念，Aramis 是巴黎的一个从未完成的 PRT。本文讲述了一段结局相反的历史：在西弗吉尼亚州成功实现 PRT。我们的叙述补充了现有的叙述，这些叙述解释了 WVUPRT 的建设主要是地理和政治的产物。在不否认这些因素的同时，我们为另一种影响开辟了一个解释角色：关于搭便车的危险和这种做法可能带来的犯罪的公开叙述。通过将这种叙述与 WVUPRT 的历史交织在一起，我们展示了关于犯罪的公共叙述如何授权技术基础设施。