Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Clearly you've never lived in a high walk score neighborhood. It is far more convenient for me to spend a few minutes picking things up for dinner at the neighborhood grocer than it is to drive somewhere in order to do a week's worth of shopping. I walk from the train to my house, and pick up the things I need en route.
Doing that everyday is inconvenient. But, hey, it's your free time.
And you think streetcars will be able to handle those "tens of thousands of new high rise units?" This is a streetcar we're talking about, not a light rail train with multiple cars and a dedicated right of way. For all practical purposes, it is a bus on tracks.
The same can be done for buses if you build the same infrastructure for the bus as you would for a streetcar.
Again, you could easily do the same thing for a bus route.
Says the guy who didn't grow up riding them.
Oh really?
The following was presented by the Columbia Pike Transit Initiative. The Arlington plan is almost identical to DDOT's plan where you'll have streetcars running in addition to buses.
And this data is coming from streetcar advocates. That's important to note because streetcar advocates love to obfuscate facts to present streetcars in the best light possible and buses in the worst light possible. Sure, BRT costs the same amount of money to run as streetcars minus the 200 million capital investment.
A streetcar is not "premium transit." If it were, then Philadelphia would not have ripped up all but three of our lines. They are slow, they get stuck in traffic, they can't maneuver around a double-parked car, an accident, or a disabled streetcar, they are expensive to build, they are expensive to maintain, and they can't run on the opposite track like a train can. The streetcar is an obsolete technology. But hey, some people have such a hard on for "vintage" items that they toss all reason and logic out of the window.
I knew guys who would actually bring crates full of records to DJ parties because "vinyl was just so much better." I'd just shrug and plug in my laptop with 50,000 songs on it. When people got rid of things in the past (vinyl, cassettes, 8-tracks, horse and buggy, hot combs, telegraphs, etc.), there was usually a reason for it other than mere shortsightedness. Some things deserved to go and should remain gone forever. Streetcars, imo, are one of those things.
Do you think Washington DC will see the exact same investment from developers along streetcar routes in the exact timeframe without streetcars? Honestly I think you have a hidden agenda really. You don't even like DC based on the negative things you have said about the city so why do you care so much what happens in the city? You don't even live here anymore. You live in New York now.
There is an underlying issue going on with you and I think it's gentrification. Might you not like streetcars because it accelerates Gentrification? You sure seem to be making a lot of threads about it.
At the end of the day, DC is going to see extensive development along streetcar routes it otherwise would not see. Developers like streetcars and that's all that matters. There is a new wave of density sweeping through Washington DC and it really doesn't matter what you or what I think, it's going to happen. Developers are licking their chops at DC's 37 mile streetcar system and it's implementation is going to shake this city to its core completely redeveloping the existing scale of the city. DC will have a density closer to Boston very soon.
Last edited by MDAllstar; 05-23-2012 at 11:10 AM..
Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
2,709 posts, read 5,097,146 times
Reputation: 1028
With gas being as expensive as it is, I wouldn't mind seeing the streetcar system come back...electric light rail certainly costs the consumer less. But to make it as quick and efficient for getting anywhere as in a car is tough to do in most cities.
Well I asked that because the way he/she is talking sounds like someone who isn't from any of the few urban cities America has which would only be NYC, DC, San Fran, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. Outside of those cities, I could see he/she not knowing anything about urban non-auto life.
People often look at the romantic side of street cars but unless you live along their route, there will always be some inconveniences to riding them. Not to mention that when I'm out and about using PT I'm limited to the schedule of whatever service I'm using. It doesn't matter how "amazing" a certain public transportation system may be, driving your own car somewhere will almost always be better and more convenient in most cases.
Quote:
Originally Posted by animatedmartian
Detroit almost had a subway system, but then mayor Couzens vetoed the plan to create a subway system because the city would ultimately have to pay off the debt. That'd mean we'd be like NYC. People knew that would mean higher taxes in one way or another.
So end the end, it's cheaper for everyone to have cars and use buses rather than raise taxes to pay for an extensive (and expensive) subway system. That's still very true today. I think the Big 3 more or less capitalized on the fact that everyone knew this and simply accelerated the inevitable.
Wow, people on City vs City saying bad thing about public transit? I never thought I'd see the day.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
