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ART does not use rails. It does not use overhead electric wires and electric trolley poles. It is basically an electric bus powered by internal rechargeable batteries.
I realize there were electric street cars in the Duke City way back in the early 1900's, like most cities did back then, heck my home town of Scranton, PA had the electric street cars then as well.
I was meaning that light rail/streetcar lines seem to be all the rage nowadays and are coming back to cities all over the country to move people around. From Tucson to Cincinnati to Kansas City to you name the city.
I know ART doesn't use rails and overhead electrification, I've seen the video, I was getting to the point that certain parts of the path have their own lane/ROW and platform and they could "upgrade" this bus lane with rails and electrification overhead. And yes, I realize and know, parts of the system share lanes with cars/trucks and with other buses going the other way, those places would need to be modified accordingly.
OK then "modify" the bus only lanes to make it a streetcar/light rail.
I think you're under the impression Poncho doesn't understand what you're getting at. I think he gets it just fine.
The ART buses are already 100% electric, so overhead wires would just make an eyesore that much worse without reducing pollution. Overhead wires would in fact be less green, because a 2-ton lithium battery weighs a lot less than hundreds of tons of steel, aluminum, and copper. I predict cities that run brush-based electric buses, like San Francisco, will lose their overhead wires in the next 20 years. Good riddance.
Rails are an inferior method of transportation in this use case. They require ballast weight and substantial maintenance. Much easier and less costly to maintain a bus chassis and change the tires every 50,000 miles than keep miles of track positioned within a quarter of an inch.
Don't get me started on the noise from tracks. One reason almost all cities but Albuquerque suck is their screeching train cars.
If ART managed to do something useful like go, say, 80mph between stations, then rail would be worth revisiting. It never will, though.
I think you're under the impression Poncho doesn't understand what you're getting at. I think he gets it just fine.
I totally understand, I knew what his response was going to be before I even asked the question, I'm just playing with him! The new modern streetcars and light rail that have their tracks embedded in concrete are super quiet. I assume you live in the United States, the birthplace and home of overhead utility lines, I think we passed that bridge a long, long time ago, having all of our utilities underground like Europe does.
Yes, you could convert much of ART (the parts with dedicated lanes) to light rail. That's one benefit of having lanes in the middle of the street. The primary benefit to light rail, as I see it (aside from aesthetic concerns and some more people being willing to ride light rail) is more capacity in less space. So, I don't see a conversion to light rail unless you get a lot more people riding up and down Central. You are more likely to see new BRT lines, including a connection to the Sunport.
And think of all the people who would die trying to steel the overhead wires.
Ha! I love that sound for some reason. It's one of the big city noises I'm fond of. (Northeast urban genes.)
They'd deserve it if they were that kniving and dumb at the same time. Bad gene pool. #DarwinAwards
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