Your city's rail system. Ridership, expansions, pictures!

[Jimrob1]

Originally Posted by cityboi757

Do you guys think that every city will have light rail pretty soon? It sseems like more and more cities are planning on it.

I think there are cities that plan and talk about it, and thats as far as it gets. It takes more than talk and costly planning and research on this issue.

I think the time has come and gone where America's Metro's need to get over themselves. That includes many Americans, I don't just blame the Politicians and city officials on this lack of transit in this country. Its been a group effort to keep as much of America as possible Transit challenged.

I think that every large Metro in this country should be told as part of its Transportation Structure, that transit must be part of it. If there is no compliance. Then Federal transportation funds should be limited to these large Metro's, that feel they are to good to sit on a bus or train. Cities that want fwy after fwy and no other transportation projects being built.

Its one thing in smaller communites in this country that residents must drive everywhere. Its another matter when cities the size of San Antonio, Tampa, Orlando and yes Austin are allowed to get away with this lack of Transit options. It is shocking how many large Metro's in this country, barely have a bus that comes once an hour on main routes. Forget the suburbs, buy a car is the mindset. The suburb could only be a few miles from the downtown of the main city, yet no bus or that once an hour one.

There are way to many people living in large Metro's in this country that cannot afford a car. They are forced by both lack of transit options and walkablity to anywhere, to got out and purchase a vehicle they cannot afford. This is wrong its rarely if ever addressed, and forces many to live in the largest of cities that do have transit options. We only have a few large cities in this country that do have adequate transit, and that in itself is a disgrace.

Portland is not the biggest of America's cities not by a long shot, but for some reason has many transit options. It is one of only a few Medium size big cities that show any interest on this issue. I can assure people many that live here, do so not for the damp wet climate or the Radical Political views. Much of the reason they chose this city was this. All the transit options without the pricetag of living in NYC or Chicago or Boston or San Fran. One could actually live here and not own a car. They could walk from A to B in much of this city. Im not all that fond of the many weirdo's that make up the population here, but I do give the politcians here credit for all this great transit.

If this place can do it so can Austin and all these other cities. Its unfortunate for those in Austin and these other cities that want something done, and watch as so little is accomplished.

[vb_guy]

I think it depends on the mindset of the people living in (insert city here). If you were to ask somebody in Portland, ME (for example) and somebody in Wichita, KS, you would get two different answers in regards to light rail. People in the Northeast are more familiar with the conveniences and costs of light rail with its proximity to Boston, while people in Wichita are not The closest city with a light rail system to Wichita would be Dallas.

The majority of the people in Wichita would be strongly against spending money to implement a light rail system while the state of Kansas is in a budget crunch. These are the same people who b****ed when gas was 3.75/gallon and they were spending $80-90 to fill up a tank. I am one of those people who thinks that a light rail system in Wichita would not only be eco-friendly, but it would help in the redevelopment process of our downtown. In addition, we have the abandoned rail lines to make it work for much cheaper (respectively) than it would to build something from scratch.

Will it ever happen here? I doubt it. The people here are too caught up in 15-30 years ago. But I like the mindset that our civic government has. If we could convince the 350K+ people who live here, I think we can revamp our local transit system and introduce a light rail line or two.

[Nomadic9460678748]

Originally Posted by cityboi757

Do you guys think that every city will have light rail pretty soon? It sseems like more and more cities are planning on it.

There are so many different factors which come into play that I can't offer a blanket yes in answer to the question. My hope would be that metros of a certain size would make a concerted effort to provide their citizens with some types of meaningful mass transportation alternatives. I'd need to do more research to determine what might be a worthwhile population threshold at which a city might deign it conducive to invest in mass transit solutions. I wish it were enough for policymakers to see the environmental benefits of such planning, but in places like Austin there is usually too much resistance to such investments when proposals are purely made with an eye toward "green" living. In most cases you have to make an economic argument, offer a projection of some type of fiscal benefit, as once again, most Texans (Austinites included, as they are still in Texas) are loath to make any moves away from their cars. I can recall a conversation about Austin's non-functioning MetroRail with a woman during a job interview when she said very pointedly that though she lived near a stop and outside of Austin proper in one of its Northwestern suburbs, she had no intention of giving up the convenience of her car, though she often found herself mired in traffic and fighting for parking. Then, with a smile, she said, "I'm just too independent. I guess it's a Texas thing." I've found that this is a very prevalent attitude. Which is too bad because it ignores the realities of this community's growth and is, in my opinion, incredibly selfish.

We can't all be a Portland (a city which has really taken the lead in issues of sustainability, mass transit, pedestrian-friendly streets, bicycle paths, etc), but it would be ideal if growing metros could approach their planning issues and do their part to apply solutions in a regionally acceptable manner whilst allowing for the importance of such decisions on a larger, more global scale.

Again, I don't have much optimism for how things will play out here in Austin, and that, among other reasons, is why I have no intention of making it my home for too much longer.

[daaaaave]

Originally Posted by OyCrumbler

Austin is a fairly small metro though, so I'm not sure how to judge its mass transit system given that fact since there doesn't seem to be many similarly-sized metros which have been able to build good mass transit.

I did happen upon this little graphic


Austin is in a pretty alright place among other US cities (if the Austin metro were to be marked on the second graph). Though I guess this graph is a bit wonky since it goes by cities rather than metros--I'm guessing the smaller bubbles of places like Seattle and Baltimore shouldn't rank nearly as high since their city-to-suburb population ratio is skewed more heavily towards the 'burbs than Austin's and it's likely those that live in the suburbs are much more car reliant than those in the city.

I've wondered why Atlanta is not on this map....am I blind?