"Can streetcars save America's cities?" ~ cnn.com

[1961MJS]

Hi, WRT transportation, there is no "one size fits all" solution for America's cities and towns. In downtown Chicago and StL (where I've actually been), a trolley system, subway, or elevated would work fine. In StL, many of the high rise building have been converted to lofts. They also seem to be pretty empty as of November 2010. If they were full, the sheer quantity of traffic would make car use a painful experience. I haven't been to Chicago since the late 1980's so my knowledge is dated, but similar.

I live in Wichita KS and our downtown is pretty much deserted with the exception of the city, county, state, and federal office buildings. Parking costs if you work downtown. I don't know how much since I only pop $.25 in the meters at the library and you can only stay for 2 hours. Wichita is NOT build to utilize public transportation. Newer subdivisions (25 years old and newer) were built without sidewalks, so walking 2-3 blocks to the bus stop involves walking on two lane roads with traffic. In most of those subdivisions, putting sidewalks in, would involve demolishing extensive landscaping in 1 of 3 lots too. With the exception of a (roughly) 10x10 block square downtown, all public parking is free, and abundant. In short, the required infrastructure work to achieve decent public transportation in Wichita negates it's advantages.

In Wichita, the "common knowledge" is that the only users of public transportation are those recently convicted of a DUI. It doesn't help that in order to use the bus here, you have to find one, take it downtown, and then find one going where you wanted to go in the first place. We have NO trains at all, even Amtrak, no trolley, and no subways.

Just my $0.02

 

[sheeplady]

I am willing to bet that those faculty members are very pro public transportation as long as it is "for other people."

In the city where I live now, not really. I used to live in Ithaca, NY, which is a very "hippy-ish" town. There everyone took public transit, it was very common to see your full professor and head of the department on the bus as you would see your classmate. Here (not Ithaca) it is considered beneath most people, despite it being a quarter of the price per ride. And here nobody cares about keeping the system going, not even the University (with the exception of a few routes). I tried to get my university to participate in a program where I could spend pre-tax dollars on my bus fair commute (since I commute to teach) and everyone I spoke to in the University office laughed in my face, because who wants to ride "the bus?!!." Certainately not anyone who worked for the University.

A few do talk the talk, but honestly, the public transportation doesn't go to the nicer sections of town where the faculty live. There isn't demand, people who live there have nice warm cars, there is little rush hour traffic (it helps if the city is dead or dying), and they don't have to deal with some of the riff-raff who has decided to make using the system hard on everyone else.

But they say we might get a high speed rail down to NYC. (HAHAHAHA!)

 

[martinsantos]

Things changed a lot about public transport. The fact you are along with others is usually seen by some guys almost as a signal of poverty. (Try to tell them, as a joke, that airplanes are public transport. You will be surprised by the reactions!) Ever when you talk about luxury trains from the past. No way - no status in this.

I worked with a prosecuter who went to work by bus - all his colleagues started to laugh about him... Soon he put a lot of money in a very big car.

It's been a LONG time since I've heard about any authority (judges, mayors, etc) who went to work with public transport. And this happened before a lot!

 

[dnjan]

Seattle gets a lot of "white-collar" people riding busses. In fact it is interesting to note the different make-up on the different bus routes. I ride a bus to the University, which generally has a mix of faculty, staff and students. Another bus route that passes my stop is an express bus to a business-related part of downtown. Lots of "suits" on that one.
And then there are other routes that tend to smell towards the back of the bus.
If you know where a bus route goes, you can generally predict the demographic of the riders.
But there are a number of routes with lots of white-collar patrons.

 

[Undertow]

There has been considerable discussion regarding street cars making a comeback in Des Moines, IA. At one time, I believe we were the 3rd city in the nation to have an extensive light rail system (next to Baltimore, and someone else).

In any case, I don't think we'll ever see it here. Would it "save" anyone? No, not the way this town runs itself. I think mass transit is a boon to society, but podunk towns like Des Moines can't even figure out what to do with perfectly good office buildings that sit empty.

 

[martinsantos]

Just to add what Undertow wrote.

Here is SP, in 1968, the Mayor made an experience. The traffic in downtown were very heavy, with its old streets, usually not straight (most streets from downtown were "designed" in XVIth Century). So they took off the asphalt from streets, prohibited cars, bus, etc. The streets since then belongs only to walking people.

After that almost all expensive stores and offices went out of those streets, going to places when you can arrive into the buildings by car. Just now we are seeing a comeback to downtown, besides a movement about cars (and traffic) again in those streets. But you still can find enormous offices very cheap, sometimes very good buildings almost empty.