> Now this is reasonably well understood, but it wasn't when BART was designed. absolute nonsense. nevermind that the shinkansen opened a decade before BART,

> Now this is reasonably well understood, but it wasn't when BART was designed. absolute nonsense. nevermind that the shinkansen opened a decade before BART, the pioneer zephyr hit 112 mph in _1934_. while the dynamics of the wheel-rail system are complex and still the subject of active research, the need for conical wheel profiles was well-known when BART was designed. the choice of cylindrical wheel profiles was purely a symptom of not-invented-here syndrome, and BART being designed by aerospace engineers. the best excuse they could come up with for that decision is, uh, muni did it first.