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"TORONTO — As the streetcar crept along Queen Street West in clogged traffic through the heart of downtown, anxiety started to rise among those inside. Commuters checked the time, calculating how late they would be for work.
The red-and-white trolley did not feel like rapid transit.
“It’s not very efficient,” said Shande McPhee, who was a half-hour late for her financial-industry job on a recent morning because of worse-than-usual congestion. If only the streetcar had a dedicated lane to bypass cars, she said.
"As New York works to complete a rigorous study of the line by the fall, streetcar riders and transit experts in Toronto have repeated the same two warnings: build dedicated lanes to keep the streetcars from getting trapped in traffic and be prepared for outrage over the loss of street space and parking."
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,693,648 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by NDL
"TORONTO — As the streetcar crept along Queen Street West in clogged traffic through the heart of downtown, anxiety started to rise among those inside. Commuters checked the time, calculating how late they would be for work.
The red-and-white trolley did not feel like rapid transit.
“It’s not very efficient,” said Shande McPhee, who was a half-hour late for her financial-industry job on a recent morning because of worse-than-usual congestion. If only the streetcar had a dedicated lane to bypass cars, she said.
"As New York works to complete a rigorous study of the line by the fall, streetcar riders and transit experts in Toronto have repeated the same two warnings: build dedicated lanes to keep the streetcars from getting trapped in traffic and be prepared for outrage over the loss of street space and parking."
Philadelphia's streetcar network is the largest and busiest in the mid-Atlantic. It has several interesting features, some of which can help inform the planning for DC's growing system.
Philadelphia calls its system trolleys instead of streetcars, because it's vintage from the original trolley era. While Philadelphia did discontinue many of its original trolley routes, unlike DC they also kept many.
Philadelphia has the largest trolley system in the nation, a title it’s held since the 1970s. But the old-school tanks climbing up and down city streets look like relics from our parents’ (or grandparents’) generation. Trolleys along Baltimore Avenue in the Southwest are early-80s Kawasaki models; on Girard Avenue, the trolleys are actually reconditioned from the ‘40s.
Read more at Sleek, Modern Trolleys Coming to Philly - Philadelphia Magazine
After reading these, I'd suggest people go to the Philadelphia board & ask pertinent questions there.
a half hour late on "worse than usual" congestion? lol
oh the horror.
Can't blame her for being upset.
In CLT, mass transit competes with carpooling, uber, etc., and parking in Uptown is pretty cheap. I don't think that Charlotteans would tolerate an unreliable form of mass transit.
What picqued my interest were the comments made in the second link I posted. The focal point came from a woman originally from Budapest, where streetcars are (apparently) common. She claimed that Americans don't value streetcars, because we don't develop things in a way whereupon streetcars would be a benefit. In other words, her tone suggested that the proper use of a streetcar consisted much more than going from point A to point B. Unfortunately, she didn't elaborate.
As to CLT, I agree; there's little benefit to using streetcars over buses, and to use streetcars along a route of several miles, seems unprofitable.
Terminate the Gold Line in Plaza Midwood, and call it a day
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
23,814 posts, read 34,693,648 times
Reputation: 10256
Quote:
Originally Posted by NDL
What picqued my interest were the comments made in the second link I posted. The focal point came from a woman originally from Budapest, where streetcars are (apparently) common. She claimed that Americans don't value streetcars, because we don't develop things in a way whereupon streetcars would be a benefit. In other words, her tone suggested that the proper use of a streetcar consisted much more than going from point A to point B. Unfortunately, she didn't elaborate.
As to CLT, I agree; there's little benefit to using streetcars over buses, and to use streetcars along a route of several miles, seems unprofitable.
Terminate the Gold Line in Plaza Midwood, and call it a day
I limited the links that I posted. I'm sure that someone will have a problem with me posting anything. There are just so many reasons for Charlotte to just say no to trolleys/streetcars. I've heard reports of fatal trolley accidents for decades, as well as trolley vs car accidents that block a road for hours. I've driven on roads that are badly disintegrated from freezing & thawing. Cutting into the road for the tracks allows the disintegration to speed up.
In CLT, mass transit competes with carpooling, uber, etc., and parking in Uptown is pretty cheap. I don't think that Charlotteans would tolerate an unreliable form of mass transit.
I'm upset when I end up late for work due to an accident on 74 or 85. The key words in that article for me was "worse than usual congestion"
if you scrapped the Gold Line to Plaza Midwood and used busses they would still run late if there is worse than usual congestion.
Until we have flying cars there is no such thing as a reliable form of mass transit in Uptown.
This is probably a good enough thread to mention how the LYNX extension is coming along. I've noticed the new stations are beginning to have some of the base structures for their rain shelters. I have not seen any trains testing the tracks yet, but I'd think will be soon.
I'm pretty meh on the streetcars (don't even like driving on Elizabeth now with the uneven road, and streetcars to avoid) but I have used LYNX regularly since it opened. I rarely park in uptown anymore, I'd rather take LYNX in and avoid the confusing diagonal one-way streets, numerous pedestrian crossings, lack of parking generally, etc.
As I said in other topics, the Charlotte streetcar was not built to solve transit issues. Every transit study performed on that route/plan said not to build it. Huge waste of money, no benefit. This is why the MTC dropped it, it's not supported by the transit tax, and the Feds won't issue a FFGA for the route.
The Charlotte streetcar was built for political reasons. It was a dead project until Anthony Foxx took office who made it a political promise while ignoring that it did not have funding or transit agency support. So now we have an amusement park ride that runs for a few blocks, doesn't address any transit issue, in fact it makes it worse, and it costs multiple 10s of millions of dollars. This money is coming from pork barrel handouts and the city is forced to use property taxes to cover the rest.
If the city is serious about addressing transit, they will bite the bullet, scrap this plan, and order CATS to design a proper East/West light rail line that runs from the county line in the East through West Charlotte with a spur to the airport. Make the proposed Gateway center it's "Union Station". Submit the plan to the FTA for a FFGA and fight for that funding.
Last edited by WaldoKitty; 09-12-2016 at 12:36 PM..
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