MONORAILS - Key Persons
Keith S. Walls has had transit as a hobby since 1971. In 1999 he found that his hobbyist stature changed to that of what he calls "activist for elevated non-obtrusive transit systems (e.g. monorails!)." He owns his own business, Keith Walls Photography. Keith is also a Computer Systems (presales) Analyst and has a BS and MS in Computer Science from the University of Central Florida, Orlando. It's this knowledge that The Monorail Society is tapping on several fronts. First and foremost, Keith suggested that TMS should have more technical information available. To satisfy his fellow "technical geeks," the TMS Technical Pages were put together by Keith and President Pedersen. Upon accepting the post of Technical Director in 1999, Keith stated "The Monorail Society is in a position to actually change public policy worldwide. I am thrilled to be chosen to be an officer in such a progressive group. I would like to help take it up a notch, and give real ammunition to those opposed to traditional at- or below- grade light and heavy rail, both from an economic and technical viewpoint." In April of 2000 Keith advanced to the title of Vice President. His many contributions beyond the scope of his Technical Director title prompted his quick advancement. Keith lives in Orlando, Florida with his wife Jan and his daughter Megan.
Kim A. Pedersen was of the generation that was convinced by Walt Disney that monorail was going to be the transit mode of the future. In the late 1980's, Pedersen wondered what ever happened to monorail. He decided to spend a year researching libraries and other sources to get answers. He discovered that new monorails were enjoying great success in Japan but were only used for amusement parks, fairs and zoos elsewhere. Seeing the need for a voice to promote the people-popular transit mode, in 1989 he founded The Monorail Society (TMS). With a goal of 30 members to justify the effort, it wasn't long before he found there were others who shared the same views. Twentyfive years after the start of TMS, membership exceeded 7,000. As a result of Kim's efforts for monorail, he has been fortunate to travel to Japan, Australia, Malaysia and Europe to study and document monorails there. He was proud of TMS accomplishments and the progress monorail has made.