Mayor of Nashville unveils 5.2 Billion dollar Transit Plan which includes Light Rail

[groovamos]

Originally Posted by N.Cal

Thankfully there are a lot of transplants now here who know, have used and will use public transportation. And who know that they must be paid for.

Yes and paid with their lives. See here is how it worked here. People who have rapid transit envy think their city ain't cool unless they got these shiny toys, terribly uneconomical and ecologically wasteful as they are. And so those people over the decades in Houston would put it up for a vote. And numerous times the sensible populous would vote it down because of the cost, and that without even realizing the cost of lives to be lost since it was an unintended consequence. Which is typical for unintended consequences. So the people wanting the shiny toys kept degrading the proposals to reduce the financial cost, and ended up with a largely street level system proposal which I and others call the toy trains. Shiny too. So finally after decades of browbeating, the populous OK'd it. And they got trains with a cute little electronic toot-toot as bonus.

All you have to do is google "houston metro light-rail accidents" and get a sense of what I'm talking about in my first sentence. You will see stuff like Rice U. professor killed walking her bike. 17 rail accidents in a month. Second time in a week cyclist killed. In 2016, 108 car-rail crashes. Driver dies after crashing into back of METROrail. And on and on with the long list of links. Thank goodness (satire of course) they're talking about reconfiguring the whole dang thing, at huge expense of course, a couple of years after just opening two additional lines.

I was at a party during the height of the energy boom a couple years back and a topic of discussion was how the accident rate was skyrocketing because, as long-timers at least had gotten somewhat used to the confusing signals and driving rules around the lines, it was the newer TRANSPLANTS getting confused and getting walloped. And killed too I guess.

Heck you can even google "dallas light rail accidents" and along with a listing of such accidents in Dallas you will see cross-links to Houston rail accidents. See since Dallas has fewer accidents than we do, it is used as a model in discussions here. Good grief.

Now what I have noticed in Dallas and Denver are some corridors that were amenable to rail placement independent of street grids. And in Seattle there are plenty of topographical features unsuitable for building roads or neighborhoods, but suitable for elevated rail, for example like the one going to Sea-Tac. <- Which makes the cost exorbitant.

So in Nashville the topography may be such that there are ways to utilize topographical features that flat cities don't have to squeeze some lines in but realize you are going to pay through the nose for them like in Seattle.

If it comes down to it and you go for those wasteful, shiny toy status symbols, good luck with it.

Here are my previous posts on the topic. Somewhere I discussed that with the system here, most people by far do not pay to ride since ticket enforcement is nil, which makes these rail projects almost totally a wealth transfer; maybe OK if you are into that kind of thinking:

Nashville forum - //www.city-data.com/forum/nashv...l#post40706852

Houston forum - //www.city-data.com/forum/houst...l#post38669671

//www.city-data.com/forum/houst...l#post38650548

//www.city-data.com/forum/houst...l#post21154030

[jmecklenborg]

Originally Posted by groovamos

People who have rapid transit envy think their city ain't cool unless they got these shiny toys, terribly uneconomical and ecologically wasteful as they are.

Looks like you're the envious one. Nashville's system is going to be much better than Houston's. It will have a real subway under the downtown and will completely remake the arterials into much more walkable places. Real neighborhoods like what the northern cities have.

[nashvols]

Originally Posted by groovamos

Yes and paid with their lives.


All you have to do is google "houston metro light-rail accidents" and get a sense of what I'm talking about in my first sentence. You will see stuff like Rice U. professor killed walking her bike. 17 rail accidents in a month. Second time in a week cyclist killed. In 2016, 108 car-rail crashes. Driver dies after crashing into back of METROrail. And on and on with the long list of links. Thank goodness (satire of course) they're talking about reconfiguring the whole dang thing, at huge expense of course, a couple of years after just opening two additional lines.

How many car accidents in Houston in 2016?
67,241

How many injuries?
23,385

How many serious injuries (incapacitating)?
1,304

How many fatalities?
245


How often did that make the news? Or are you numb to it at this point?

[BlueRedTide]

Will believe it when I see it, Nashvilles been talking about this for a few years now and Nuthin, ( The Amp, Rapid Bus Lines etc, ) Hopes it comes into fruition tho and you ll be a idoit Not to vote for it if it hits the Ballot. As The Ville moves into the 2 million Population range, Something like this is really needed and will help enhance Nashvilles Competitiveness in attracting companies like say.... Amazon