[QUOTE=Frank]
So you’re advocating that the bus system be dismantled? 'Cause in Denver (which I have familiarity with), the light rail created very small parking spaces at the stations in an attempt to force riders to take the bus at both end of the train.
After light rail came down south there, I investigated it. I would have had to walk about five minutes to the bus, wait at the station for the train, either a fifteen minute walk (no sidewalks!) or a thirty minute bus ride, then a one minute walk to work. The evening connections were worse.
So by taking mass transit, I would have had a 1 1/2 hour commute (pushing 2 in the evening), opposed to a twenty minute drive. Without the ability to stop and throw a shitload of groceries in the trunk.
Which is something else you’re forgetting: services are not in walking distance anymore. In Denver I didn’t have a grocery store (or a liquor store, or a cigarette store, or a dry cleaner, and only one decent restaurant (breakfast place) in walking distance. Had I taken mass transit, after a two hour trip home; I’ve got to get in the car to go shopping, run errands, or eat out if I want to, then by the time I’m settled in at home, it’s fucking midnight.
[/QUOTE]
Hadn’t considered it in initial design but according to what I read somewhere they are less efficient than private vehicles on a per passenger mile bases. And if true phase them out.
Remember the existing mass transit systems have all been an experiment to satisfy some environmentalist/political scientist future Utopian dream. As a result their was little interest by the consumer resulting in piecemeal/token funding wioth little or no synergy in the design. In case of Denver extension of light rail and the upgrade of I25 worked well and reduced cost.
We are talking new commuter trains like we used to talk about interstates, we claim imminent domain to integrate the personal vehicle with the commuter train buying property as needed for parking and stations and rights of way. All funding is upfront from fuel taxes to do it right and inexpensively with economies of scale. In case of Denver buy and build a parking lot that works at that terminus with the first dollar.
Didn’t forget just did not elucidate, The way metro’s are laid out these days in cookie cutter fashion with retail all along the freeway routes and when the railway system uses most of the same right of way as the freeway which it is intended to replace then your last leg home is just like it is now. When trains are used to replace commuter traffic on metro highways then those trains can now use those traffic lanes which have become superfluous.
As we pursue this project always keep your eye on the prize, $4.5 billion payback per year of fuel savings for the St. Louis example design.
