Soapbox Post

Over the past few months I have told a number of people that I’d be leading a study abroad program on sustainability in Dubai.  Nearly everyone I spoke to responded, “You have to go to Masdar City.”  Evidently every person I know had seen the front page article on Masdar City in the New York Times.  If you missed that article, Masdar City was first proposed by the government of Abu Dhabi in 2006 as a laboratory for developing sustainable technologies. It is a 1.5 by 1.5 km piece of desert next to the Abu Dhabi airport that was to be developed into the world’s first carbon neutral city, complete with housing for 45,000 people, businesses, shopping malls, hotels, schools and a bowling alley. 

Today was our day to experience Masdar firsthand.  It almost didn’t happen. We were supposed to be there at 3pm, but evidently Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was deemed a bit more important and we got pushed back.  Nevertheless, once she and her entourage moved on we got a chance to see what’s there.  At this point, there’s not a lot to see.  The only real development is Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, a small university offering graduate level degrees in engineering to 150 students.  There were, however, a series of hints as to what the city might eventually look like. 

It’s obvious that care was taken in designing the buildings and landscape.  Water is precious in the desert, so there are gutters throughout the walkways that collect what little does fall in the area.  The temperatures soar in the summer, so they have built a modern version of a wind tower that funnels high cool breezes down into common areas. And they have completed a 10MW solar power plant that is providing the energy needed by the Institute and much of the construction.

But perhaps the technology we all found most exciting was the Personal Rapid Transit system.  From the parking lot we were taken to a small transit terminal from which we could see a single four-seater podcar.  At first we assumed it was a model, but no, our guide instructed four students to get in.  Next thing we knew, the pod had backed up, done a three point turn, and was speeding off around a corner with our students.  Evidently these were not mock-ups.

I have been studying automated vehicles since the mid 1990s when I worked on a National Academies report on the topic.  I have even ridden in demonstration models. But I had never seen a fully functioning and routinely used automated vehicle system.  It was time to try it out.

A pod slid into the slip next to where I was standing. I walked up to the clear glass doors and pushed the green button.  The glass doors and the doors to the pod slid open at the same time. Three students and I stepped inside and took a seat.  As I began to examine my surroundings, a recorded voice came over the speaker and asked me where I wanted to go. The system is new, so the answer to this question was not difficult to find. I chose the only option – Masdar Institute. The doors slid closed and whoosh, we were off. 

The electrically powered pods run on four tires and are guided by magnets buried in the concrete floors.  There is no driver, just a computer guidance system that decides which magnets to follow based on the destination you request.  The idea behind the system is to make it possible to quickly get anywhere in Masdar City without burning any fossil fuels.  The original idea was to have a layer of infrastructure underneath the city through which these pods could run, moving you directly to your destination in air conditioned comfort.

The ride to the Institute brought a huge smile to my face.  Carbon-free public transportation that takes you conveniently and quickly direct from point A to point B rather than following predetermined routes was a reality – and it was wrapped in a funky aesthetically pleasing shape to boot. It was as though the dream of Aramis as told by Bruno Latour had finally come true. But the dream wasn’t as rosy as one might hope.  In fact, the Masdar transportation system is perhaps a metaphor for Masdar in general.

When we made our way back to the parking lot, the door of our pod didn’t open completely. We pushed a few buttons and the next thing we knew, the voice overhead was telling us we were headed back to the Institute. There was no override… the automatic pilot was in control.  So we did another full loop of the system.  On this occasion, it was a very enjoyable technological hiccup… I got more time in the automated vehicle.  In day-to-day operation, however, it would be highly frustrating. 

It seems as though cost issues and technological hiccups are slowing down the development at Masdar. The dream of a “carbon neutral city” has been replaced with promises of a “sustainable city.”  Hopes for certain technologies – like recycled concrete – have been replaced by the realities of their high costs.  The idea of raising the entire city two stories above the sand to allow pods to navigate beneath it has been replaced by a lower ground floor and possibly limiting the pod system to the Institute’s current system rather than expanding it to the entire city.  And the proclamation of a completion date has been replaced by promises of gradual development.  There has been a sometimes steep learning curve and much of the original vision is being revisited.

As I looked out over the empty desert marked for development, I felt a twinge of sadness.  I had suspected that there were some flaws in the original idea behind Masdar, but I was hoping to see what its creators could make a reality.  We have seen so many dreams realized over the past week that it is frustrating to see this one seemingly stalled.  But in actuality they do continue to work at it. And there are, at the very least, dozens of incredibly bright students working on sustainable solutions who already live at Masdar.  Maybe Masdar doesn’t need to develop at the breakneck pace of some of its neighbors to have an important impact on our understanding and promotion of sustainability.  Masdar isn’t as awe inspiring as I’d hoped. Perhaps that’s as it should be.