Light rail system - good thing?

[Barkingowl]

My brother used to live in SF. He paid about as much for a garage as he did for his apartment. That's a huge expense.

[palmetto75]

1 reason: Gas Prices. $3/gall is nothing compared to what we will see in the next few years.

Its an old arguement, but then again this is an old post.

Also, as an example my house (located in the Lynx) has doubled in value, even after a 20% correction, over the 8 years I have owned it.

[GCharlotte]

Originally Posted by Gumbo

I live in Ballantyne and drive over to the Pineville/485 station to catch light rail to Panthers/Bobcats games or for other downtown activities. It costs $3.50 or so to get a roundtrip light rail ticket. I can park downtown anywhere from completely free to $50 or so on gamedays. For folks that work downtown, you can purchase a monthly parking spot for a reasonable expense. In the end, when you compare a light rail ticket to the gas/parking fees of downtown, its not that far off.

From Ballantyne, it takes about 45 minutes for me to get downtown using light rail. This includes the 10 minute ride to the station, 5 minutes to buy a ticket and wait for train to take off, and a 30 minute train ride. I can easily get downtown faster in my car.

Taking those factors into account, living near light rail is really a must have for someone without a car. It'd be really hard to live in Charlotte without a car since our public transport system is not as developed as a larger city. I know plenty of people in Chicago/DC/NY/etc. that don't have a car (it would be too expensive). I can understand why they would they would pay a premium to be very close to rail.

I think using the light rail system can be logical for both occasional and daily use. Tomorrow I might need to be downtown during the day and Ballantyne in the evening. As a driver, parking at a station for free and using the train is just easier.

Downtown parking still means walking to your final destination so there's not a lot of time savings there.

You personally might be able to get there faster but often the train is faster because it has the right away.

Charlotte has a good overall system but the problem for me is the suburbs are built into the city. I have a stop at the start of the neighborhood but I'm a mile deep in.

The best deal is for those that use the system often. You can buy a monthly pass for $70 that includes unlimited train and bus rides. If you work downtown, many large companies and governments will get you that for half price and that's a steal.

So that cuts out the time to buy your ticket.