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I went to LA for February and just came back from a week in DC.
Both cities seem to have a lot of ongoing construction going on. I might side with LA because it's change from fairly recent history seems to be more dramatic than that of DC where a lot of already urban parts were gentrified rather than urbanized--but then there are a lot of areas right outside of DC's borders doing transit-oriented development.
Which area's were you able to visit? You should come back soon if you get a chance. D.C. is, beleive it or not, about to enter the largest building boom it's ever been in by fall of this year. The amount of projects starting this year has really taken my breath away and you know that is hard to do. I think it's the sheer amount of development all about to happen at the sametime. It doesn't make any sense. It was just housing before this year, however, now it's housing, hotel's, and office. It's CRAZY!
Anyway, which area's did you visit? Did you get to see any of the projects I have talked about on here? Also, what area's did you visit outside the core of the city?
I know all of this. Even when I used to take the Green Line to connect to the Blue Line to get to Logan (this was before the days of the Silver Line), I never thought of it as a "subway." Other people may think differently. But as I stated above, this is just a matter of semantics. It's the performance difference that people generally associate with "subways" that matters.
Would the Silver Line count as a "subway," btw? Or does it have to be on rails?
The MBTA actually calls the Blue, Green, Orange, Red, and Silver lines "subways" on their website:
But like you said it's all just semantics. A google search for subways these days comes up with a lot of links to chain sandwich shops these days before you get to various East Coast metro systems.
Which area's were you able to visit? You should come back soon if you get a chance. D.C. is, beleive it or not, about to enter the largest building boom it's ever been in by fall of this year. The amount of projects starting this year has really taken my breath away and you know that is hard to do. I think it's the sheer amount of development all about to happen at the sametime. It doesn't make any sense. It was just housing before this year, however, now it's housing, hotel's, and office. It's CRAZY!
Anyway, which area's did you visit? Did you get to see any of the projects I have talked about on here?
But like you said it's all just semantics. A google search for subways these days comes up with a lot of links to chain sandwich shops these days before you get to various East Coast metro systems.
That's interesting. I suppose calling the Silver Line a "subway" sounds better to tourists than mentioning that dreaded B-word. If I recall correctly, the Silver Line was completed just in time for the Democratic National Convention.
LRT is obviously not the same as a bus, however. I see it as a step above BRT. And I see true heavy rail as a significant step above LRT.
A lot of that is also dependent on how these systems are run--in the context of talking about cities in the US, that's very much true, but when you look at a bus rapid transit like that of Bogota, then LRT is not necessarily a step above BRT.
Oh, and commuter rail. That's an interesting one. Some commuter rail lines in Taipei, some Japanese cities, other cities and U-bahn systems, that are interlined serve as well as rapid transit for significant stretches and often in the most urban parts of their respective cities. It'd be nice if Metrolink can do that.
I'm saying that most people don't think of any system that runs underground to be a subway. The fact that many transit sites draw distinctions among streetcar, LRT and subways shows this to be the case. I think most people have heavy rail in mind when they think of a "subway," not DART running through a series of underground tunnels.
This is all semantics anyway. If the federal government offered to build a city either LRT or HRT free of charge (and offered to subsidize O&M costs), it would likely choose HRT no matter what you referred to it as.
Can you at least acknowledge that not all subway systems are created the same? I personally prefer rapid transit as oppose to light rail running underground but that still doesn't change the fact that cities like Pittsburgh and Seattle have legit subway lines in those portions of their city. It's just not heavy rail that's all. Even SEPTA acknowledges the subway portion in it's light rail system. Did you forget that it's officially called the "Subway–Surface Trolley Lines"?
You know what is funny about that article, when I read it a few weeks ago, they failed to mention the amount of time it takes a building to fill up. A 400 unit building takes 2 years to lease up. Buildings in NOMA are still filling up faster than two years. I know NOMA very well and know management. If a submarket gets 1,000 units at the same time, it will take a few months for the curve to change again. Let's see what happens in a couple months.
Also, keep in mind, you can't overbuild apartments. Apartments create induced demand. All that happens is the population shifts to the new units overtime, thus increasing housing supply which is badly needed in D.C. and we are way behind. D.C. could build apartments until there was no land and it would still not be enough. The lease up time is for management companies to worry about with their excessive profit margins. All that happens is they have to wait a couple months to lease up. D.C. land offers major return on investment and developer demand shows that. D.C. this year, for the first time in 60 year's, increased it's share of the metro region population growth per capita over the suburbs. That will continue to move up going forward.
What kind of ridership is Seattle expecting on this LRT subway expansions?
Here is LA:
Regional Connector: 89,000 daily riders (though this will probably cut into the Red Line ridership)
Crenshaw Line: 16,000 daily riders
Expo Line: 64,000 daily riders (~37,000 added to the current line)
Purple Line Phase 1 (to La Cienega): 16,000 daily riders
I can't find anything for the Gold Line Foothill Extension, but I can't imagine it is much more than 10,000 riders.
Can you at least acknowledge that not all subway systems are created the same? I personally prefer rapid transit as oppose to light rail running underground but that still doesn't change the fact that cities like Pittsburgh and Seattle have legit subway lines in those portions of their city. It's just not heavy rail that's all. Even SEPTA acknowledges the subway portion in it's light rail system. Did you forget that it's officially called the "Subway–Surface Trolley Lines"?
You can call LRT that runs underground the USS Enterprise for all I care. "Subway" is just a label. The performance is what matters.
You know what is funny about that article, when I read it a few weeks ago, they failed to mention the amount of time it takes a building to fill up.
My hope would be that a real estate economist would take that into account before writing an article in the Business Section of the Washington Post.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MDAllstar
Also, keep in mind, you can't overbuild apartments. Apartments create induced demand. All that happens is the population shifts to the new units overtime, thus increasing housing supply which is badly needed in D.C. and we are way behind.
Why can't you?
I just thought the article was interesting considering that DMPED says everything in the city needs to be razed to make room for more condos ("If these condos don't get built, people will be sleeping under bridges!!!").
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