agtw31 wrote >>
i like the street car idea,but light rail is smarter. it moves the whole city. streetcars only benefit a small part of this city.
I think that both can serve a specific purpose, and a specific population, so I don't know if I'd call one "smarter" than the other. Personally, I'd love to see a fully comprehensive network of buses, streetcars, intracity light rail, and intercity commuter rail. The big question is "where do we start"?
That I think was one of the biggest pros to the Streetcar plan. A $100M startup line from OSU to Downtown provides a big enough starter line to be valuable to one of our most densely populated areas and still clock in at 1/10th of the pricetag projected for a $1B light rail line connecting Crosswoods (not even Polaris) to Downtown.
At the same time, one of the biggest cons to the Streetcar plan was that it didn't explain what the next steps would be. It's hard to convince people to take the first step when steps two through ten are left up to their imagination. Would the streetcar be followed up by a second E-W line? Would it get extended to German Village? Would light rail come next? These are extremely important questions that were never answered. I think that's one of the biggest reasons that public support was so weak.
If we do end up getting a Polaris-Downtown Light Rail line first, I'd be perfectly happy with that as a step one as well. I'm just reluctant to think that most people will be eager to transfer to a bus at Broad & High to reach their final destination.
michaelcoyote wrote >>
Frankly I think the streetcar died because most people realized that it likely wouldn't really ave the effect that was advertised.
I think the streetcar "died" because the administration backed off. Plain and simple.