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I was thinking about future transporation in Albuquerque, and I decided to come up with a poll on which do you think is the best option for future transit in Albuquerque - a streetcar, a light rail system, or a monorail?
My vote is the monorail. A streetcar IMO is a waste of money as it won't be any faster than Rapid Ride service, while a light rail system might be a little too expensive as the city would have to build a right of way for it. A monorail on Central would perhaps be a nice idea as it wouldn't as greatly impact the corridor as a street car.
I sure don't see any reason to do that since the Rapid Ride
is as fast as anything is likely to get down that corridor and
it works just fine, can be temporarily re-routed for any reason,
and doesn't require a custom-build 'road.'
The Rapid Ride could be made faster by installing a light-changing
system like I've seen in Europe. A special strobe <flashes> the
signal and voilà ! - instant green light for the bus whilst the cross
traffic waits ( or waits some more ).
I could go for a fast light rail from downtown Rio Rancho to
downtown Albuquerque (*) paid for with a gasoline tax that comes
up for a vote by Albuquerque and Rio Rancho residents. Not like
that's ever going to happen, but I'd be for it.
(*) With one stop at Intel, one at the Cottonwood Mall and
one at the Journal Center --- only those stops and no more.
Where do you propose to get the funds to pay for any of these?
Now, now.. we're not supposed to ask those sort of embarrassing questions.
Not that long ago Andros proposed an Albuquerque truck bypass tunnel through the
Manzano mountains that was to be funded by charging commuters toll fees on
Paseo Del Norte...
Here's my problem with all this. Why do we need any of these options? The buses work great on Central and Central is just about the only corridor in Albuquerque that you can live by without a car without major inconvenience (obviously depending on where your job is and such). Building track down central will cost a whole lot of money for very little improvement and building track anywhere else isn't going to make people suddenly give up their cars, it will just be expensive and unused.
The question isn't 'what kind of mass transit should we build?'
The question is 'How do we increase the usability from the mass transit we already have?'
How do we increase the desirability and density of the central corridor?
How do we turn the rail runner stops into desirable/dense/walkable mixed use areas where people could feasible live without a car?
How do we expand out from these areas in a sane manner?
It seems to be that there is very little investor confidence in building up denser/nicer mixed use areas in existing parts of the city. I don't know if that is from research showing that there isn't really the demand for it or the state of the economy.
But I'd believe that the demand isn't there. I mean I will promote density and walkability and all that as long as it doesn't mean to much cost from the taxpayers and I can talk about how nice it would be to live in a cool dense hip area and walk to most placed, but in actuality I'm not going to give up my 1/3 acre lot on a quiet street for anything other than a larger lot on a quieter street closer to work.
Last edited by ralthor; 06-21-2010 at 01:50 PM..
Reason: Flow didn't make sense
As ralthor has noted, the absence of at least an "Other" choice is quite conspicuous. That is the selection I would have made.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Horrell
Not that long ago Andros proposed an Albuquerque truck bypass tunnel through the Manzano mountains...
I think we can combine both of Mr. Andros' brain children to arrive at the obvious answer:
tunnel + rail transport = SUBWAY!
And I think such a large piece of underground pork would naturally deserve to incorporate the name "Matanza" somehow. Or maybe the "Chicharron Express"?
"Welcome to Taco Bell. Would you like a bean burrito, beef burrito, or chicken burrito?"
"I don't want a burrito. I want a taco."
"Sir, those are your options.. bean burrito, beef burrito, chicken burrito."
The difference between streetcar and light rail? Does one have like a dedicated right-of-way? Don't really know of much of a difference.
Monorail? Is that, like, raised? Or just has one rail and is otherwise the same?
Albuquerque's Molly, Tamale, Guacamole trollies (just fancied up buses) worked just great in their heyday. Would like to see those come back long before we shell out for infrastructure that isn't required.
Rail's only necessary when:
a) Speeds are high
b) Vehicle suspensions are expensive
c) Loads are high
None of those seem to be the case in the existing ABQ metro area.
When a train breaks down, a bus comes.
When a bus breaks down, another bus comes.
So why go with any of those horrible rail options? FRA money, maybe.. I'd rather that money get spent on hooking up Pojoaque or Socorro to the Rail Runner.
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Much cheaper than tracks.
