More left-wing writers are expressing skepticism of the streetcars that have been infecting so many American cities. They aren’t anti-rail transit, they say, just anti-bad rail transit.
“Too many new streetcars are being deployed as economic engines first and mobility tools second (if at all)” says Atlantic writer Eric Jaffe. However, “if they run in dedicated lanes and with high frequencies as part of a wider network, they can perform quite well.” That all depends on how you define “perform.”
Streetcars have a huge disadvantage over almost all other transit: their extremely low capacities. Dedicated lanes or not, they can only move about 2,000 people per hour (about 100 people per streetcar about 20 times per hour). Combine this limited capacity with their high cost and streetcars are a huge waste compared with buses that can easily move 10,000 or more people per hour at a much lower cost.
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When streets can move thousands of more people per hour in mixed traffic, what is the point of giving a dedicated right-of-way to a form of transportation whose capacity is so limited?
The left’s love affair with rails has blinded them to their role in facilitating corporate welfare. That’s really what rail transit is all about: transferring tax dollars from ordinary people to a few corporations that do most of the rail engineering, design, and construction. Moreover, rail transit hurts most of the causes the left claims to care about, including low-income people, energy savings, and income equality. Until they return to their roots and realize that corporate welfare is not the solution to urban problems, they can hardly qualify as being the progressives they claim to honor.
Of course, in ‘Merica streetcars can never exceed 20 meters in length, thus the limitation to 2,000 per hour or so. That because, well, this is ‘Merica, and in ‘Merica, streetcars can only be run in one manner: short 20-meter cars that can only carry 100 people maximum!
I suppose this alleged problem exposed by The Antiplanner proves that Europeans are smarter, since they often run “European street trams” with lengths of sometimes up to 50-60 meters, tripling capacity to 6,000+/hour on the street, and sometimes way over 10,000 per hour if you run two-car trains. But ‘Mericans being who we are, will never stoop to copying those socialist Europeans!
BTW, you can’t get reliable operation with 150-200 buses per hour on only one route…to carry the 10,000 per hour on surface streets cited by The Antiplanner, you will need at least two lanes in each direction serving a myriad of routes, shown by the S.F. Muni operations on Market Street in San Francisco and on the Portland Transit Mall. Any one bus route can reliably handle up to 20 buses per hour with focused traffic measures, e.g., about up to every 3 minutes which is twice the traffic signal cycles in most cities (not that these technical factors can be comprehended by the usual trolls…of course, comprehension/reasoned argument is not their plan.)
Car lanes carry fewer than 2000 people per hour. The true low capacity mode.
Of course, those lanes do it cheaply, safely, and conveniently, while allowing people to choose where they, when they want to. Driving is the equivalent of a Super Walmart. It lets people choose from a wide array of destinations at their convenience, and planners just can’t stand that.
Did I mention those lanes don’t cost 200 million a mile like the PMLR did?
And 1,100 to 1,600 per hour is considered the desirable maximum sidwalk capacity. Another true low capacity mode.
“And 1,100 to 1,600 per hour is considered the desirable maximum sidewalk capacity. Another true low capacity mode.”
I suspect that this is the flow per metre of width.
Urban Transportation Systems
LOS C/D = 10 peds per minute per foot width = 3 x 60 x 10 = 1800 peds per hour per metre width.
Keep the sidewalks wide, and remove the clutter.
As a self discribed left-wing street car skeptic I wholeheartedly agree with “Too many new streetcars are being deployed as economic engines first and mobility tools second (if at all)”. This is exactly what is happening here in Austin. The proposed street car line (which is up for a vote this Nov) has nothing to do with mobility or congestion reduction, though the PR campaign in support of the prop claims that it will increase mobility and reduce congestion.
The proposed Austin line is about economic errrrr real estate development in areas that have been deemed as in need of “activation.” $3k an inch for 0.03% of all trips in the city? That aint mobility or traffic relief, it’s something else.
I do believe that rail can be a functional mobility solution as long as it is high capacity and doesn’t share (or at least very limited sharing of) a right of way with automobiles.
“Too many new streetcars are being deployed as economic engines first and mobility tools second (if at all)” says Atlantic writer Eric Jaffe.
Well yes, but so are most light rail lines. And just like light rail, streetcars don’t perform well on either account.
I really don’t get people who draw any great distinction between light rail and streetcars. They are the same technology. The only difference is the type of environment in which they are deployed, which again has nothing to do with technological differences.
“if they run in dedicated lanes and with high frequencies as part of a wider network, they can perform quite well.”
The same could very easily be said of buses.
BTW, you can’t get reliable operation with 150-200 buses per hour on only one route…to carry the 10,000 per hour on surface streets cited by The Antiplanner, you will need at least two lanes in each direction serving a myriad of routes,
The classic fallacy of rail-centric thinking: all transit in downtown areas needs to be funneled onto a single street for boarding/alighting.
“And 1,100 to 1,600 per hour is considered the desirable maximum sidewalk capacity. Another true low capacity mode.”
I suspect that this is the flow per metre of width.
It’s from the Traffic Engineering Handbook; it’s a bit old, granted, and based on 22-inch lanes.
I’m sick of pedestrians getting a free ride to support their low-efficiency transportation mode. Generally pedestrians are urban elitists that are headed to brew pubs, anyway. Given their relatively wealthy status, when are we going to start tolling them?
Gilfoil, go back and read some of my,comments about sidewalks before posting another supercilious waste of bytes.
BTW I’m posting this from an urban pub, and I got here on a sidewalk.
Last time I was here, another patron WAS indeed showing urban elitism by bashing a Seattle suburb. So I’ll give you that.
All this after half a beer! (I’m not drinking any effing merlot!)
Too bad the Gilfoil (likely Dan’s sockpuppet) cannot make an argument rather than building strawmen.
Frank, to be clear, I have no problem with you indulging in whatever your privileged, pampered urban lifestyle might be. I just think you should be paying the full price for it. And as it is, sidewalks are perhaps the most inefficient and expensive modes of transport per passenger mile. Yet you seem fine with pedestrians getting a free ride – or a free walk, if you will.
The troll keeps on strawmanning because that’s all the troll can do.
“Yet you seem fine with pedestrians getting a free ride – or a free walk, if you will.”
A free ride? Are you serious? Have you seen the price of shoes?
I have to complement Metrosucks and Frank for no trolling this time around. Keep it up.
MJ:
The classic fallacy of rail-centric thinking: all transit in downtown areas needs to be funneled onto a single street for boarding/alighting.
Most cities don’t have enough bus service to require spreading out to different streets in downtown areas. Also, most downtown areas are small enough that running most bus routes on one or two streets will place most of downtowns within 1/4 mile walking distance anyway. Also, why force people to walk a block or more to make connections between routes?
If you’ve read anything by Jarrett Walker, in today’s dispersed urban areas, you’ll understand that the importance of close and well-designed transit connections cannot be over-emphasized.
Jarrett Walker has a pretty interesting blog and twitter:
http://www.humantransit.org/
https://twitter.com/humantransit
On a more concerning note, I wonder how Frank justifies strolling around his quaint downtown environment, knowing that hard working poor people are stuck in congestion trying to get to WalMart, while their gas taxes are flying out the window to fund his luxurious urban sidewalks.
The troll keeps on straw manning because that’s all the troll can do.
I realize Frank was joking about the price of shoes, but I do think a price on shoes, especially the faddish, “comfy” shoes favored by militant pedestrians, should be considered. Again, it’s part of having some skin in the game and contributing back, rather than continuing to mooch off of hardworking drivers.
(above, I meant a tax on the price of shoes. With the proceeds going to widen our chronically congested streets, especially in downtown areas)
The troll shows its trolling nature by mixing up who said what, due likely to the trolling technique of skimming posts.
The Antiplanner wrote:
Streetcars have a huge disadvantage over almost all other transit: their extremely low capacities. Dedicated lanes or not, they can only move about 2,000 people per hour (about 100 people per streetcar about 20 times per hour). Combine this limited capacity with their high cost and streetcars are a huge waste compared with buses that can easily move 10,000 or more people per hour at a much lower cost.
Randal, in my opinion the biggest problem with streetcars is not their limited capacity (as others pointed out above, in some places, relatively large streetcar consists are used).
But my bigger gripe is the inherent inflexibility of electric street railway technology when compared with buses.