Comments on: Simplicity and the case for light rail

By: Simplicity, light rail, and a more complete transit system « Psystenance

Simplicity, light rail, and a more complete transit system « Psystenance — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:56:58 +0000

[...] for a light rail system for the region. The speech incorporates and expands on my earlier draft and on my idea for a more complete transit system for the region. I had several people come up to [...]

By: mdruker

mdruker — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:20:00 +0000

Thanks Colin. I hope to get out of this blog in experience as much as I put in in time.

Thing is, there’s nothing to really “get wrong” in this kind of development. Once you put up a building, it gets tenants and life and becomes part of its surroundings. Was it wrong to put it up in that particular place? It’s not a question that often makes sense.

I believe you meant BRT? Your friend’s argument is an argument for light rail, I’d say. Buying those new and better buses every 10 years is no improvement over trains that are already better now that will last 40. And buses will always be dependent on the quality of the road; no bus will /ever/ have as smooth a ride as a train unless it is running on a track.

In principle I agree about Cambridge. But it does appear that there might be low ridership potential currently, and having a train that runs empty can be politically dangerous. A good BRT segment would build some ridership, especially with a believable promise of LRT soon. But I am very sympathetic to building it the entire way now.

By: colin

colin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:29:39 +0000

Michael, congratulations on your entry into the blogosphere — I hope it doesn’t eat your life (blogs can be time consuming affairs!). Your argument about the permanence of LRT compared to buses, and how that spurs commercial development is right on, but it’s also the reason why these things are so hard to get done I think. The stakes are so high that the consequences of getting something wrong are nervous-making for everyone (I have to say I have great pause for thought when I see the current route going almost through my back yard — but then I remember that if this thing happens I’ll be 2 stops from front door to office and will get rid of my car). I have a friend, a transportation engineer, who argues strongly for LRB because he says that in the time span over which the LRT pays for itself, buses will go through several design evolutions and be clean and quiet, whereas the LRT we build now will be out of date. I’d go further on the Kitchener-Cambridge link. It should be done NOW. If the rationale is to help spur urban intensification then there is much more potential for this to happen quickly in Cambridge. Just take a drive or a walk down Hespeler Road to convince yourself (if you dare!). I haven’t thought through the split route yet — but like you I worry about legibility. Keep up the blog!