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greenhouse1014 wrote >>
I can just imagine a future me bitching because there's a streetcar behind me and I've got to move into a lane already stacked with traffic because nobody wants to drive in the streetcar lane.
And what does that mean for businesses along High Street? No more parking and nobody driving past their store because people are trying to avoid the High Street traffic, which is down to one practical lane.
Yes, I like to poke the bear on this issue...
Greenhouse,
I think it is essential that someone "pokes the bear," so thanks. I've been reading a book called The Logic of Failure. It talks a lot about how people fail to comprehensively analyze complex systems (like traffic). So I think it's important that someone asks the hard questions and really forces everyone to think through ALL of the impacts of the streetcar, both good and bad.
I'm not through the book yet, but the first step of analyzing a complex problem is to set goals. From what I can tell, this hasn't been done yet. So I'm asking, "What are the goals?" This is something that came up on XingColumbus too. Don't tell me what the goals of the streetcar are though. Tell me what the goals are for High Street, or for Columbus. What do we want to change? What do we want to keep? Here are some ideas:
-More infill development
-More residents downtown
-Higher ridership on public transit
-Higher capacity public transit
-Faster public transit
-More comfortable public transit
-Improved air quality
-Fewer emissions from transportation sector (at least locally)
It's also important to make implicit goals explicit. Implicit goals are the things that everyone knows they want, but don't ever say, mostly because it's not a problem yet. For example, keeping small businesses in the Short North or vacancies low are implicit goals. A thriving business district is a good things that we want to keep and we need to consider how a streetcar affects the businesses, through construction, traffic flow, and parking impacts. Bike safety may be an implicit goal that is now being made explicit in this thread.
Lastly, once we identify all the goals, implicit and explicit, we need to consider not just if streetcars meet the goals, but if there are other alternatives that also accomplish the goals, possibly more cost effectively? For example, trolley buses could help with capacity and environmental benefits, but may not make the ride smoother. Some kind of tax, zoning, or financial incentives for residential development downtown may spur development, but wouldn't meet any transportation goals.
So any thoughts on goals?
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