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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法律的文物：个人快速交通以及搭便车和犯罪的公共叙述

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成，是未来交通系统的原型。全自动汽车被设想为公共交通和汽车交通的混合体，可将乘客直接运送到目的地，而无需在中间车站停留。通过拉图尔对阿拉米斯（Aramis）的研究，STS 学者可能熟悉 PRT 的概念，阿拉米斯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了 PRT。我们的解释是对现有解释的补充，这些解释将 WVUPRT 的构建主要解释为地理和政治的产物。在不否认这些因素的同时，我们为另一种影响提供了解释作用：关于搭便车的危险以及这种做法可能引发的犯罪的公开叙述。通过将该叙述与 WVUPRT 的历史编织在一起，我们展示了犯罪的公共叙述如何授权技术基础设施。