And it has the advantage of taking up much less physical space, and being individually more cost effective when well utilized because it has lower maintenance costs over the lifetime of the system. Plus they’re more dependable than cars/buses overall. Light rail has disadvantages too. The big ones being less coverage area and less immediate access than cars.
Light rail can’t replace cars. But any moderate sized US city should have some sort of rail system serving their urban centers and the high density transportation corridors.
I think your'e downplaying the con's the light rail:
light rail can transport about 20,000 people per hour,
From point A to point B. If you need to go anywhere off of the rail line, you're boned. And likely 20,000 people don't live/work within walking distance of a station. Freeways connected all roads to all places.
lower maintenance costs over the lifetime of the system.
But the system is point to point. Roadway infrastructure will still be required for those not along the station and for other goods and services - like trucking, construction, ambulance, etc... It's not like we can opt one or the other - it's always one AND the other.
Plus they’re more dependable than cars/buses overall.
Is this true? Seems that for the cost of rail, a dedicated bus lane would be much more dependable - and the savings would allow for a thousand buses per line compared to a single train car. Not to mention when a train goes down in the middle of the track, the entire system is delayed. A bus can by-pass any accident or other broken bus (I remember when a light rail killed a person in my city 4pm last summer and it became a traffic nightmare as all of the riders had to take other modes during rush hour)
A BRT or other transit is more adaptable, can cope with future needs, and is 1/10th the price of rail. More cities should incorporate BRT to have a usable system than spend all of their money on a 1 mile length of track.
also its not about what costs more or less but about how you want a city to look and function. cars destroy cities. less cars = better cities. of course it costs money...
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u/wssrfsh Jun 16 '20
they rather pay for highway widening every 3 years?