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I'm really talking about the American legacy transit cities here excluding NYC (DC, Philly, Boston, Chicago, SF). Maybe toss in Portland, LA and Seattle.
I've read some posts where people talk about taking a lane away from cars in that city or taking away two lanes from cars in this city "like they do in Europe." But given where Europe currently is in terms of mass transit compared to the US, are these recommendations really practical? Does the design and structure of American metros make some of the transit solutions we see in Europe impractical/impossible to implement on this side of the pond?
Do you mean the gap how good / useful Europe is compared to American legacy transit cities? Or how transit friendly the layout is? By ridership, there's some overlap [see graph]:
The biggest differences I see between San Francisco and some northern European cities isn't its structure but that the surroundings areas are less transit friendly. That route is crowded enough that good transit makes sense and a car isn't particularly necessary, the advantage of a car is that buses are slow, mainly because they get stuck in traffic.
In Europe, most trips are stilling taken with the car as it's generally the better method of getting around, but it's more like 50-65% of trips in Europe vs 85% of trips here in the US.
Do you mean the gap how good / useful Europe is compared to American legacy transit cities? Or how transit friendly the layout is?
More the former. I ask because I hear people say things like "we need to take away two of the four lanes on this street and give them to streetcars like they did on a street in Strasbourg" or "we need to close off this arterial street to cars because that's what they did in Rome." I'm wondering if the better transit networks in European cities make certain policy proposals feasible there that would be difficult if not impossible to implement here.
I think it's a pretty large gap. But we obviously depend on personal transportation significantly more than European countries. Also our cities are for the most part more spaced out, and it is harder to create mass transit that reaches more people here.
I am a huge fan of creating better mass transit, but I don't think we should be striving to do what they do over seas. Instead, we should be raising the bar, and using innovation to create mass transit. Europe shouldn't be our example, but our underachieving competition.
The gap is at least 150 km. Some European cities have transit we can barely dream of. 300 kph intercity trains, rapid transit in small cities, electrified commuter trains all over. Note one of the first points: they increased ridership by focusing on job centers rather than downtown districts. But most bureaucrats work in the downtown districts; the systems work fine for them. They have a blind spot for anyone who works elsewhere.
Last edited by pvande55; 10-31-2014 at 06:05 PM..
Reason: Add lines
In Europe, most trips are stilling taken with the car as it's generally the better method of getting around, but it's more like 50-65% of trips in Europe vs 85% of trips here in the US.
Notice also with little of its areas developed the Chinese are about to surpass us in super highways. I many places its often about can you afford one and can you find parking space. NY has about all they can handle between private owned and cabs.
light rail works good in the suburbs if its a long line and there isnt a lot of stops.
its way better then a bus if theres free areas to park bikes and stuff.
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