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You build rail in Austin, Orange County California, Phoenix, DFW, Atlanta, Nashville because their residents, visitors, and companies that do business in those cities demand a way to move people around vast areas, reasonably quickly, in ways that don't rely on any singular kind of vehicle or conduit of access dependency that makes them susceptible to slowdowns, blockage, or the effects of limited income.
Yet they built in rail in Phoenix and DFW and barely anybody rides them and have terrible fare-recovery ratios. And Nashville wanted to build a multi-billion dollar LRT system even though its bus ridership is less than 30K unlinked trips/day and generally declining.
It seems like these rail projects aren't built to move people, they are built to give legacies to politicians, make some people and companies a lot of money and to employ people.
Yet they built in rail in Phoenix and DFW and barely anybody rides them and have terrible fare-recovery ratios. And Nashville wanted to build a multi-billion dollar LRT system even though its bus ridership is less than 30K unlinked trips/day and generally declining.
It seems like these rail projects aren't built to move people, they are built to give legacies to politicians, make some people and companies a lot of money and to employ people.
DFW has had very respectable rush hour ridership before the fake pandemic, and was pretty jammed. Also plenty of weekend traffic. Special events (State Fair, games, concerts) too. Just DART LRT alone extends 93 miles (not counting the connecting rail of T, TRE, DCTA A, McKinney Ave., Zane Blvd.).
There are over 7 million people in that MSA. They had to do something like LA had to do something. Relocating companies also want to see these systems in place.
DART rail fare recovery is wholly honor based only sparsely and occasionally enforced by transit police (but a ticket on hand is advised and the eventual ticket-check odds are high enough). And no gate access control at stations, so the only numbers are anecdotal.
Last edited by Groundstar; 07-28-2020 at 04:09 PM..
DART rail fare recovery is wholly honor based only sparsely and occasionally enforced by transit police (but a ticket on hand is advised and the eventual ticket-check odds are high enough). And no gate access control at stations, so the only numbers are anecdotal.
If the random fare checks occur often enough that one can't be certain that they won't run afoul of one on their trip, and if the fine for not having a ticket is stiff enough, then fare compliance will be high anyway.
And I'm sure DART has data on ticket purchases.
If there are electric-eye passenger counters mounted inside the doors, then the passenger counts will be even more accurate.
I hope for your sake that you nonetheless take precautions when you go out. That virus is non-political, and those numbers are real, your assertions to the contrary notwithstanding. Ask your friends and acquaintances who work in hospitals how "fake" their patients are.
If the random fare checks occur often enough that one can't be certain that they won't run afoul of one on their trip, and if the fine for not having a ticket is stiff enough, then fare compliance will be high anyway.
And I'm sure DART has data on ticket purchases.
If there are electric-eye passenger counters mounted inside the doors, then the passenger counts will be even more accurate.
I hope for your sake that you nonetheless take precautions when you go out. That virus is non-political, and those numbers are real, your assertions to the contrary notwithstanding. Ask your friends and acquaintances who work in hospitals how "fake" their patients are.
"Questions remain over labs reporting 100% positive cases
"More than 450 labs reported 100% positivity in the state's latest report; the FL Dept. of Health says it's partly to blame" https://www.wcjb.com/2020/07/15/ques...ositive-cases/
"Questions remain over labs reporting 100% positive cases
"More than 450 labs reported 100% positivity in the state's latest report; the FL Dept. of Health says it's partly to blame" https://www.wcjb.com/2020/07/15/ques...ositive-cases/
Contrary to what DeSantis stated, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance doesn’t direct caregivers to list all deaths as COVID-19 deaths simply because the disease was detected in the decedent. Instead, it instructs caregivers to list various factors contributing to death in appropriate sections of death certificates. In other words, it does not state that anyone who suffers an unnatural death such as a traffic accident should be listed as a COVID-19-caused death if they also happen to test positive, even if the disease didn’t cause to their death.
It does appear to the case, however, that a motorcyclist who was killed in a traffic accident also tested positive for COVID-19, and was initially listed among Florida’s COVID-19-related deaths. But officials from the Florida Department of Health said that person has since been removed from the count.
Your conspiracy theory is hurting this country. You aren't a defender of truth. You are a willingly ignorant fool desperate to confirm their predispositions.
It's amusing that you perceive the pandemic as fake because of these reports.
The above is but a mere sample of corroboration. I think it's fake because no one you know or anyone else has so much as coughed or sniffled in over half a year.
Yet they built in rail in Phoenix and DFW and barely anybody rides them and have terrible fare-recovery ratios. And Nashville wanted to build a multi-billion dollar LRT system even though its bus ridership is less than 30K unlinked trips/day and generally declining.
It seems like these rail projects aren't built to move people, they are built to give legacies to politicians, make some people and companies a lot of money and to employ people.
To mostly Democratic politicians that is. So yes, at least in California, public rail transit outside the Bay Area is overwhelmingly propped up by the left. But it's California, so the Left dominates.
IMO, the binary poll doesn't provide enough options to participate in it.
There isn't enough political will at the Federal level to fund transit for moderately sized but fast growing lower density cities, leaving many of them with no other option but to build models that depend on cars as they expand outward. While many of these cities can (and do) invest in their cores and walkable areas as well, many don't have a workable financial mechanism to make expensive transit projects financially feasible when they go it alone.
IMO, the binary poll doesn't provide enough options to participate in it.
There isn't enough political will at the Federal level to fund transit for moderately sized but fast growing lower density cities, leaving many of them with no other option but to build models that depend on cars as they expand outward. While many of these cities can (and do) invest in their cores and walkable areas as well, many don't have a workable financial mechanism to make expensive transit projects financially feasible when they go it alone.
There's truth to this, too. Even Los Angeles would likely have a far larger rail network if the Trump admin was more pro transit and gave more federal funding. The city, county, and state, in Los Angeles' case, are all staunchly pro transit in policy, but without federal funding there's only so much they can build.
And it would also help if inner city Los Angeles County was safer. High crime scares lots of potential riders from riding transit. Plus, a safe inner city means a more desirable inner city, which means more people living in the inner city, which means more density, which means more transit ridership.
Even in dense NYC, transit ridership plummeted over the decades that crime skyrocketed. Ironically, it was Republican Giuliani's tough on crime policies that made the subway safe again, and ridership jumped back up. So yes, if crime scared many riders away from the subway in a city as dense as NYC, don't tell me crime isn't scaring riders away in places like LA where riders are much more likely to have a car than those in NYC.
IMO, the binary poll doesn't provide enough options to participate in it.
There isn't enough political will at the Federal level to fund transit for moderately sized but fast growing lower density cities, leaving many of them with no other option but to build models that depend on cars as they expand outward. While many of these cities can (and do) invest in their cores and walkable areas as well, many don't have a workable financial mechanism to make expensive transit projects financially feasible when they go it alone.
It doesn't help that these cities have fantastical plans for rail service that is in no way justified by their existing transit ridership. If anything, the Feds are too easy with money and allow cities like Honolulu to cripple themselves with multi-billion dollar light rail that will never have the ridership to justify their capital costs, or even have a reasonable fare-recovery ratio of operating costs.
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