Actually, Tokyo shows us that ground-level light rail is a bad choice for a crowded city. As the rail usage grew and trains became frequent, these rail lines became impenetrable barriers to road and pedestrian traffic. So most of them ended up being replaced by subways or elevated railways. Near my parents’ house in Mitaka (about half an hour west of city center), there were two surface-level light rail lines, but in the past 10 years, one was replaced with a subway and the other by an elevated line.
Also, there are several successful monorail lines in the Tokyo area. The Tokyo Monorail to Haneda airport serves 300,000 passengers a day. The Chiba Urban Monorail and the Tama Toshi monorail are more modest, but still profitable.
First off, I see nothing in the video that shows a problem with the light rail system design. Dumbass intentionally went around barriers and ignored warning signs, he gets what he deserves. Can’t design a system that’s idiot-proof, the idiots are persistent.
Secondly, opponents of light rail, or any mass transit system, love to pull off this little trick: They bitch and scream at every transit project, and negotiate it down t where it’s a tiny portion of what it was originally to be. “Oh you want 300 miles of track, noooooooooo, but you can have 70 miles of track. You want it to reach out to the suburrbs? NOOOOOOOOOO, it will bring crime!! But you can run it between point A and point B, but that is it!!!”
Then when the limited system is built, and doesn’t have the ridership to show value, they can point and say “See, no one wants mass transit, it’s a failure!!!”
:smack::smack:
Thirdly, my condolences for having to live in Houston. Been there, seen that.
A few years ago I was in Houston for some meetings and a winter storm came in. The freezing rain had made the roads slick but it was not too bad, so I went for a walk. I imagine this sort of weather is rare in Houston and while the city might have the ability to deal with this, the average inhabitant is probably does not. I got to a parking lot and saw a fellow putting snow chains on his car. I don’t know where he got them but with some effort, he manage to get the chains installed on the rear wheels and attempted drive away.
I think they need to add 2 extra arms that come down on the other side too, just so there are no gaps to drive between. Also, those arms need to have spikes on them so drivers don’t think they can get by without being scratched
[QUOTE=leftfield6;17278547
Secondly, opponents of light rail, or any mass transit system, love to pull off this little trick: They bitch and scream at every transit project, and negotiate it down t where it’s a tiny portion of what it was originally to be. “Oh you want 300 miles of track, noooooooooo, but you can have 70 miles of track. You want it to reach out to the suburrbs? NOOOOOOOOOO, it will bring crime!! But you can run it between point A and point B, but that is it!!!”
Then when the limited system is built, and doesn’t have the ridership to show value, they can point and say “See, no one wants mass transit, it’s a failure!!!”[/QUOTE]
Except that wasn’t what happened here. Our toy train was built exactly as designed, no negotiations or cutbacks.
You have to leave the other side open so idiots who get stuck between the gates have a way off. And spikes that disable the car in the middle of the tracks aren’t the best idea either.
Meh, despite objections to the “toy” train, ridership has exceeded projections made before service began. We’re getting more value than we expected, even if we’re not getting the unreasonable level some people evidently demand.
As for “value”, I again challenge anybody to show a public transportation system that simply breaks even. As I showed earlier, Houston actually does better than most.
I’ll certainly confess to not knowing the history of Houston’s light rail program. Here in ATL, people fight mass transit expansion, but then out of the other side of their mouth, bitch that it’s useless since it’s not available in huge portions of the metro area.
He must have been a Yankee. No longtime Houstonian would own snow tires. We don’t drive well in icey conditions, so most take those rare days off.
We have “that Park & Ride thing” for the Outside the Loopers. They use big, nice buses instead of trains. Did those 'burbanites urge their reps (city, county, state, national) to make those old rail lines into commuter rail? Or just sit wishing for it?