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I don't think this thread is about downtowns, compare them however you want. There was already a Seattle vs DC downtown thread. City wide DC still crushes Seattle in walk ability, vibrancy, sporting events, transportation, bike stations/lanes, parks, nightlife, restaurants, and retail probably a toss up.
Seattle crushes DC bro. CRUSHES. Straight crushes.
Heavy Rail Train = 1500 people
Light Rail Two Car Train = 255 people
Light rail works for a city like Seattle and will go a long way toward providing faster rapid transit. They can connect more two car light rail trains to move a couple hundred people too. Light rail, however, would not work in a city like Washington D.C. The workforce and population is way too high. DC would stand still without its metro system taking close to 1 million trips off the road everyday. It's built way too dense to survive without Metro.
Heavy Rail Train = 1500 people
Light Rail Two Car Train = 255 people
Light rail works for a city like Seattle and will go a long way toward providing faster rapid transit. They can connect more two car light rail trains to move a couple hundred people too. Light rail, however, would not work in a city like Washington D.C. The workforce and population is way too high. DC would stand still without its metro system taking close to 1 million trips off the road everyday. It's built way too dense to survive without Metro.
That 1500 people figure is for an entire heavy rail train set, the 255 people for light rail is for one car/vehicle, not an entire train set or even the two car train you claim.
According to this Core Capacity Study from 2001, DC's Metro can carry up to 25,000 per hour. I'm sure with DC's new trains and any other operational improvements it has made that number is likely higher, I didn't feel like searching to see what it is presently, but I'm doubting it's really that "big" of a difference as you might think it is. http://www.wmata.com/pdfs/planning/C...ty_ExecSum.pdf
From a user/rider perspective I don't think the differences are that big since Seattle's light rail system is being built more like a rapid transit/metro system than the typical light rail systems you see around the country. Yes it's still technically light rail but I think being grade-separated with subways and viaducts makes a much bigger difference than the type of rolling stock used. Not all light rail systems are built the same, although many of them are but I do think Seattle is spending the extra money to make it more like rapid transit/metro system.
DC doesn't necessarily need heavy rail to function, European systems with much higher ridership function fine such as Madrid which isn't "heavy rail" technically.
This is all interesting. I wonder what Seattle's daily average is projected to be when their system is built out. Anyone know?
For now, here's the average weekday rail ridership of the respective systems as of the Q4 2014 from APTA:
DC - 829,000 average per weekday unlinked passenger trips
Seattle - 37,000 average per weekday unlinked passenger trips
Update: I just found some more info. By 2021, Seattle's average weekday boardings are expected to be around 80,000
Last edited by revitalizer; 11-09-2015 at 03:20 PM..
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