The New York Times says that many of New York subways are running at full capacity. A chart indicates that, on the 2, 3, 4, 5, and E lines, the trains are full and they can’t run any more trains per hour.
The Antiplanner has written about transit capacities before and pointed out that an exclusive bus lane running at freeway speeds can actually move more passenger miles per hour than a subway. However, no one expects New York City to build bus lanes running at freeway speeds on Manhattan.
If anyone deserves the title of antiplanner, it is Wendell Cox. Wendell has challenged rail transit plans in Atlanta, Denver, Charlotte, and many other cities. For this reason, he has been called an anti-transit zealot, which is a typical tactic of the rail nuts to assert that anyone who doesn’t favor their particular flavor of transit must oppose all transit.
In fact, Wendell helped plan the Los Angeles rail network, and became a rail skeptic only after those rail lines went way over budget and, when finally built, ended up carrying far fewer riders than predicted. Now he insists that transportation funds be spent cost effectively, which greatly annoys people who think nothing of spending a $200 million a mile on a rail line that will carry fewer people than a $5 million lane-mile of freeway.
