Allentown residents protesting today for restoration of T line.

[PghYinzer]

The traffic in the Strip is not from people that live in the Strip, so putting BRT or a T line down Liberty is not going to get those people out of their cars. If you live in the Strip and drive downtown to work, that is a whole lotta crazy that public transportation can’t fix.

If the T or BRT went down the middle of three lanes, are you suggesting people would make left turns by crossing past a BRT line and then oncoming traffic to get to their side street destination? That would cause major traffic back ups in every direction. The center turning gets turning vehicles out of the way so traffic can move on. Also a center mass transit lane makes no sense as to how would people wait to board it? Pedestrian islands like n Beechview? That sounds horrible.

As for being behind stopping buses, that is what buses do, they stop and pick up people.

[szug-bot]

Originally Posted by Plink

I posted a link to the study for the t to the strip here. I don’t have much time to find sources and suggest you do your own research if interested. Btw, anything in public papers are inaccessible now as the sum lot of them now want paid.

Look, you are probably recently sprung from the fields of the university, freshly cultivated and ready to take on the world. You are advocating a major expansion of infrastructure, then fail to support why. (You might be perfect for a career in government.)

Don't get stuck on quick links, and supporting a point by trusting everything that is theoretically "right" on paper.

[Plink]

Originally Posted by szug-bot

But most in the industry of transportation planning and engineering would probably tell you otherwise. The paradigm we know - bus, subway/surface rail, and personal vehicle - is changing. Do I dare bring up a sharp increase in ped-centered, revitalized neighborhoods in cities across the US and Canada?

Also, there is the strong possibility of decreased use of personal vehicles for rush hour traffic, as more people use telecommunications for education, business matters, even health care.

Our "way" of personal travel is changing, albeit slowly.

Yes, what I am suggesting is hypothetical, but I believe all this to be true from what I have read, heard and learned through my years in the civil engineering field. I am not now and almost (ALMOST) would never be for spending money in Pennsylvania on light rail.

Those are fair points and agreed. There are also examples around the world contrary but a whole host of factors are different. Just consider how certain cities would have developed without rail. Seems your points steer back to use/riders. I believe the issue is far bigger than this one factor.

My personal feeling is that access to the airport is a top priority. The parkway west just seems worse and worse these days...not an ideal situation for growth.

[Plink]

Originally Posted by szug-bot

Look, you are probably recently sprung from the fields of the university, freshly cultivated and ready to take on the world. You are advocating a major expansion of infrastructure, then fail to support why. (You might be perfect for a career in government.)

Don't get stuck on quick links, and supporting a point by trusting everything that is theoretically "right" on paper.

Lol. What a crap show it is here. Wow.

[WhoIsStanwix?]

Originally Posted by Plink

My personal feeling is that access to the airport is a top priority. The parkway west just seems worse and worse these days...not an ideal situation for growth.

I agree with this. Air travel isn’t likely to go away anytime soon, and the airport isn’t going to be relocated. Even if you assume some paradigm shift to autonomous vehicles that will alleviate traffic issues in the next 15-25 years, what cost effective medium-term solutions exist to make airport access from downtown better? Maybe something centered around the west busway, with wider / more comfortable electric busses? I think it would still need a decidcated bridge from downtown at Stanwix St, but it might be a more viable solution than full dedicated LRT on its own right of way.

[OyCrumbler]

Originally Posted by Catia

Beechview is graded & sloped differently, & is not near as steep of a slope, & where it needs to slope, they built it up over & graded properly, it has it's tracks above the road with railway ballast on the sides for drainage. But ask any regular T rider, sometimes it gets stuck in the winter.


You can see how it's graded properly-where the cars can go no further-I think that's at Broadway & Wentzel.
The Allentown T literally climbs a mountain with a very steep grade. When there is snow/ice, it follows the tracks & compacts.
Our climate & terrain wreaks havoc on these systems-they take a tremendous amount of maintenance in the winter.
If they are not properly graded & drained, it's a no go.


PAT isn't going to come out & say they made a mistake in the engineering, again, the 2nd time around, & wasted that $$ again, they're going to say it's not cost effective due to lack of riders. I've lived through BOTH builds here, & those of us who've lived here long enough to have gone through it know full why it's not running. We talked about it a lot when it was under construction, the 2nd time-we knew it wasn't gonna work. None of us could understand why they ripped the old one out so soon, only to put back in the same exact system that failed in the 1st place.


Here's a bit of history, & some of the senior citizens who still live here remember:


Fact: there used to be an incline-right where the Dairymart is at the + of Warrington & Arlington. Back in the days of plenty of 'street cars'--back then they *knew* to build an incline, not a street trolley, because this *is* a mountain.
That was before my time. Was completely demolished in the early 60's.
The old engineers knew the right way to do it, & that incline was one of the MAIN reasons Allentown was able to have a business district in the 1st place.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoxville_Incline

Well then, let’s have ourselves an incline.