A video is going around of a Charlotte streetcar being delayed because someone left their car parked on the tracks.
The Antiplanner’s question is: who should be more embarrassed? The idiot driver who left their car on the tracks? Or the idiot transportation planner who thought it was a good idea to spend $150 million on a streetcar that can’t go around obstacles in the road when for a tiny fraction of that money the same (or better) service can be provided by buses that can easily drive around parked cars?
Apparently, this isn’t the first time it happened to the streetcar, which opened for business two years ago. Since then the line has carried an average of under 2,000 riders per day, less than half of what was projected. With so few riders, the social costs of any delay are probably pretty low.
In case you were worried, the owner of the car in the first video eventually moved it.
These tracks will clear very quickly if you allow the streetcars to have onboard automatic traffic enforcement cameras – a few fines should do the trick
Maybe these are acts of civil disobedience. If now, maybe they should be. Look everybody! I can bring a $150 train system to a complete halt with just my car!
“They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at—Elysian Fields!”
In Greek mythology, the Elysian Fields are the paradise where gods and nobles spend eternity in the afterlife. The inhabitants are believed to live in perfect happiness, similar to the Christian Garden of Eden. In the luscious meadows, the inhabitants make music, sing and even play sport … unless there is a parked car in the way.
https://mythology.net/greek/greek-concepts/elysian-fields/
Funny to mention civil disobedience. Apparently a guy in Portland was blocking a bike lane to protest it and the police let him be.