US Transit Can be Done Right (was Re: Corrupt CHSRA playing fastand loose)
david parsons
Brian Robinson OR Carol Goter Robinson OR Bill Robinson <wr...@erols.com> wrote:
>Greg Gritton wrote:
>
>> Baxter wrote:
>> >
>> > Quite obviously MAX was not designed as "commuter rail" - and you'd
>> > prefer that it was.
>>
>> Not exactly. The high frequencies and all day/evening/weekend operation
>> of MAX are very good, and you often don't find those on commuter rail.
>>
>> I just think the station spacing is too short. MAX serves two purposes,
>> a local connector, and a longer distance line-haul system. They seem
>> to have optimized it as a local connector a little bit too much, to
>> the detriment of the line haul function. But, tri-met already has
>> an excellend bus system to do the local connections.
>>
>> For light rail, I would prefer station spacing of 1-1.5 miles in the
>> suburbs, and 1/4 to 1/2 mile in the city center. This should help
>> average speed without hurting accessibility much.
>>
>> Greg Gritton
>
>Agreed. Especially when Portland transit "advocates" salivate at the
>prospect of doing away with more of the city's award-winning bus
>service
Cite, please. I've heard this claim repeatedly stated by the
local anti-trolley kooks, but I don't think I've heard more than
one pro-trolley person (and he's not even a portlander) suggest
that the master plan should be to eviscerate the bus system in
favor of trolleys.
____
david parsons \bi/ Though it doesn't take too many 1 bus per hour
\/ headways to seriously sour you on the award-winning
bus service.
david parsons
>> If your trolley line is delivering people primarily to the city
>> center it doesn't make much sense to make it more inconvenient
>> for those people.
>Here in DC that is the stop spacing in city center and suburbs.
>Works just fine. People should learn how to walk.
People don't generally ride the bus or train to be virtuous;
for the most part, they do it to get somewhere. If you make
it less convenient for them, they historically haven't welcomed
the opportunity to become more virtuous, but instead swapped to
alternate forms of transportation.
____
david parsons \bi/ To the intense dismay of the cities that then
\/ have to pay to support the infrastructure these
alternate forms of transportation build up.