Login
or
Register
Home
»
Trains Magazine
»
Forums
»
Transit
»
Cost of Light Rail
Edit post
Edit your reply below.
Post Body
Enter your post below.
<P mce_keep="true">[quote user="oltmannd"] <P>The roads preceded the housing, </P> <P>At the turn of the century, it was transit that preceded the housing.</P> <P>Zero percent of Atlantans ride commuter rail. Because there is none. Why would you include them in a national statistic about the utility of commuter rail? The only stat that makes any sense is a comparison of places where it exists. </P> <P>In the US, 30% of all frt tonnage moves by rail, but globally, the rail share of all tonnage is likely only 5% or so since rail carries no tonnage from Singapore to LA, for example.</P> <P>The "only 4% use transit" is meaningless except as a "fun fact"</P> <P>[/quote]</P> <P mce_keep="true">The 4.3 per cent figure is a starting point and puts it into perspective for the country as a whole. Had you taken the time to read all of my post, as well as others that I have made regarding this subject, you would have seen that I acknowledged that in major urban areas, i.e. Austin Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, etc. upwards of 30 per cent of the population commuting into the center of the city uses public transit. But at the end of the day, no matter how you slice and dice the numbers, roughly 3.5 per cent of the population in any Texas metropolitan area uses any form of public transit, although in some inner city neighborhoods the numbers increase significantly.</P> <P>It may come as a surprise to you, but there are numerous smaller communities in Texas that have public transit, i.e. Abilene, Midland, Lubbock, Amarillo, Odessa, Longview, Paris, San Angelo, etc. The per cent of the population that uses it is very small and, for the most part, consists of poor people or handicapped persons as well as a few seniors who can no longer drive.</P> <P>I am all for public transit where it makes sense. I have ridden it for more than 60 years. But I am not blind to the fact that it is not used by many Americans in the aggregate or as majority per cent of the population under any circumstances. And I am not unmindful of the fact that light rail, except in a few situations, is not the best fit from a financial point of view. </P> <P>Whether the road preceded the suburbs or vice versa is immaterial. Following WW II people moved out of the cities in droves, although the trend had started in many parts of the country before the war. When I lived in Charlotte, people moved out along Preston Road faster than the city and state could expand it. And the same has been true in Texas.</P> <P>When I lived in New York City rich people for the most part never used the subway. This is probably still the case. They can afford to drive from the Upper East Side to Wall Street and, if it costs them $500 a month to park, they could care less. Most people I know, if they had the choice, would do the same thing. </P>
Tags (Optional)
Tags are keywords that get attached to your post. They are used to categorize your submission and make it easier to search for. To add tags to your post type a tag into the box below and click the "Add Tag" button.
Add Tag
Update Reply
Join our Community!
Our community is
FREE
to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.
Login »
Register »
Search the Community
Newsletter Sign-Up
By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Trains magazine.Please view our
privacy policy
More great sites from Kalmbach Media
Terms Of Use
|
Privacy Policy
|
Copyright Policy