The 10 Most Useless Urban Rail Systems In the US: Poor Frequency, Weird Networks, Bad Land Use

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Many US cities are facing a serious housing crunch. Urban rail, whether it's heavy rail (like a subway or an elevated) or light rail (including the modern streetcar), should be a great tool for solving this problem. However! Many US cities struggle to build ridership on their rail systems, and the poor land use around their stations is certainly no help.
This video counts down the ten cities with the worst ridership per track-mile of urban rail service, and looks at some reasons for each city's underperformance.
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Twitter: @nerd4cities
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Other CityNerd Videos referenced:
- Top 10 regional rail systems in North America: • Regional Rail Systems ...
- Top 10 big cities with poor transit: • The 10 Worst Transit C...
- Top 10 ferry cities: • Transit On the Water: ...
- Top 10 small cities with big transit: • Smaller Cities With Gr...
- Top 10 cities for pandemic transit: • Pandemic Transit, Fare...
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Resources:
- www.rtd-denver.com/services/r...
- www.rideuta.com/-/media/Files...
- s3.amazonaws.com/mta-website-...
- s3.amazonaws.com/mta-website-...
- www.dart.org/maps/printrailma...
- www.metrostlouis.org/wp-conte...
- mapa-metro.com/en/united-stat...
- www.sacrt.com/systemmap/2021/L...
- www.vta.org/sites/default/fil...
- www.riderta.com/routes
- gohrt.com/routes/light-rail/
- www.transit.dot.gov/ntd
- www.rtd-denver.com/app/route/...
- www.rideuta.com/Rider-Tools/S...
- s3.amazonaws.com/mta-website-...
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropo...
- bleacherreport.com/articles/1...
- Mapping Inequality website (University of Richmond)
dsl.richmond.edu/panorama/red...
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Image Credits:
- PATH train By EveryPicture - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Staten Island Railway By Thomas Plunkett - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Hudson-Bergen LRT By King of Hearts - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Sacramento By josephtateart, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Portland St Johns Bridge By Taken by User:Cacophony. - Taken by User:Cacophony., CC BY-SA 2.5, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Sacramento LRT By Photo by Sean Lamb (Slambo) - Transferred from English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Portland LRT By Steve Morgan, CC BY-SA 3.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Portland Streetcar Video by Estefanía Aísa Aisa: www.pexels.com/video/a-bookst...
- KC Streetcar leaving union station By Jason Doss from Kansas City, MO - KC Streetcar, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- KC Streetcar on Main Street By Jason Doss from Kansas City, MO - Southbound on Main, CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- KC Streetcar at River Market By David Wilson - www.flickr.com/photos/davidwi..., CC BY 2.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
- Thumbnail: Parker Road Station By Danazar - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
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Music:
CityNerd background: Caipirinha in Hawaii by Carmen María and Edu Espinal (RU-vid music library)
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Inquiries: nerd4cities@gmail.com

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28 июн 2022

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Комментарии : 1,7 тыс.

@elijah6970 Год назад

I live in sacramento and took the light rail a lot in high school. People don’t like to ride it because they think it’s beneath them, that they’re too good for it. It could be a great system if we built high density developments in all the parking lots adjacent to stations, but sadly the lack of regional planning and NIMBYs make this near impossible.

@rogernattkemper8283 Год назад

Looked into how my son could get to ARC from Fair Oaks/Folsom area (about 7 miles) and the closest bus stop is on Greenback/Sunrise about 3 miles away. Might as well ride your bike. There used to be a bus stop right on the corner of our street, but it was closed a couple years ago. There is a stop about a mile away, but if you take that it would take the LONG way and you'd get to ARC 3 hours later.

@JimVanderveen Год назад

Fellow Sacramentan here. Sad, but not at all surprised, that we placed in the top 5.

@nmpls Год назад

One factor in Sacramento is both lines (green line is like 1/2mi, doesn't county) were built where it was cheap, not where it was needed. The gold line was built on the old rail line that went to folsom. It was an industrial railway that was later paralleled by US-50. The industrial became big box retail due to large freeway proximity. A substantial portion of the line borders Aerojet when even when finally closed will be a super fund site for decades. Its also south of the American River, while most people in the area live north of the river. There are very few crossings of the river and even fewer that would be pleasant to use anything but a car to. The blue line north basically follows the UP corridor until it hits 80 when it runs in the middle. Its an old industrial corridor that has mostly stayed that way. The blueline south follows the BNSF corridor and once again isn't that near a substantial amount of dense housing, but arguably is the least bad route. Street running in downtown was the cheapest option and make going through the city unbearably slow. Light rail fails to service some of the denser suburbs like arden arcade. One factor I believe was missed here was that SacRT also has miserable bus service, where 30minute headways are the norm, which means people living outside the walkshed of these lines have a very hard time getting there. Another issue is that for the dense neighborhoods it serves (mostly midtown), the distances are fairly short, but the cost is relatively high ($2.50 each way) which makes walking, biking, and even driving because sac has a ton of free parking cheaper. Sac used to have a central city fare for $.50 which made short trips make far more sense.

@elijah6970 Год назад

@@nmpls I agree the routes were not put in the ideal locations and our bus network is awful. I live close to Elk Grove and the nearest bus stop is a half hour walk away (suburbia is terrible). What do you think would be the best way to move forward with what we have? Certainly we should increase bus frequency and coverage, but for the light rail I think building high density housing and retail/amenities near stops could help to build ridership. It would be great if we could have a rail tunnel in the central grid to improve efficency, but that would be quite an expensive endeavor.

@TheWhiteIan Год назад

I live in San Francisco now (transit paradise, by West Coast standards), but I grew up in Sacramento, which is transit hell. I never once used transit growing up there, not only due to its awful frequencies but (more importantly) due to its embarrassing lack of coverage. Even in my fairly dense and centrally-located suburb (Arden-Arcade), the nearest bus stop to my house was a 23 minute walk. The nearest light rail stop was over a one hour walk. And both of those walks would involve busy stroads that don't have sidewalks in some places, so I would never even consider transit as an option.

@aromaticchicken518 Год назад

Rather than calling them "useless", I would frame it as "most sabotaged by automobile interests and segregation via cars"

@jetfool Год назад

Well, PHX's Valley Metro is certainly sabotaged and segregated by both, yet has decent ridership. PHX planners basically converted the busiest bus line - the Red Line - to rail. It still connects several high use nodes, so ridership was well predicted.

@johnwood8441 Год назад

And don't forget about bad urban planning (creating suburbs)

@neutrino78x Год назад

@@johnwood8441 "nd don't forget about bad urban planning (creating suburbs)" The people who live in the suburbs want it that way, so it's not really bad planning. They are making a conscious, expressed effort to do it that way; people who move to suburbs want "peace and quiet to raise a family".

@blueninja012 Год назад

@@neutrino78x I mean that's a cool theory, though I'd like to know where else they'd live when the majority of north american developments have been zones exclusively for single family homes, not just bikes has a lot of good videos on this, I highly recommend you check out his strong towns series and his video titled "why we won't raise our kids in suburbia"

@jasonremy1627 Год назад

@@neutrino78x the people who live in suburbs were convinced they wanted it that way. The people in power could have convinced them otherwise.

@jfwfreo Год назад

I suspect a lot of the problem with transit in the US is that in many cities people see transit as something you only use if you can't afford a car rather than something you use to replace car trips (or even car ownership completly)

@PrettyINCs Год назад

I don’t think that’s the case. The richest cities have the best transit. Most cities just haven’t built transit that’s practical to use. Like light rails that don’t stop near grocery stores or have room for bikes

Год назад

The irony is that many transit solutions require you to have a car to get to the station first. For many people if they are getting in a car, why not go the whole way? Just see how many of the bottom transit lines seem to put their stations where walking is inconvenient or down right dangerous, rather than easy walking distance from housing. It still seems very car centric.

@romannasuti25 Год назад

@ There's definitely a time and place for park-and-rides, inside the metro area proper ain't it chief. Seattle seems to do a good job with this, as the Sounder commuter rail North and South lines that are exclusively park-and-rides both only have one station in Seattle - King Street, same as Amtrak - and then all other stations are fully outside city limits. If there's a Sounder stop, it has a park-and-ride, and while that sounds bad it's always so far out of Seattle that it can't be much denser than a suburb so people would get cars anyways for non-commuting use. In addition, these tend to have decent serviceable transit access with buses stopping right by them.

Год назад

@@romannasuti25 there is, but it shouldn’t create a barrier to other users. For example Southmoor station is a 30 minute walk, from the homes adjacent to it. The only entrance is via the parking on the other side of the highway.

@alexisdetocqueville9964 Год назад

Agreed. Also, for two cities I've lived in (Buffalo and Charlotte), the only other conceivable use for them in the eyes of most people, was taking them downtown to a sporting event so they can drink and not have to drive.

@jrayproductions7790 Год назад

I gotta say, I would actually like to see more industrial areas with rail transit access, honestly. Not everyone that needs transit are office/retail professionals. Some of us are mechanics and factory workers, that would absolutely use alternative transportation means, if made readily available (trains that run after midnight).

@kuni2330 Год назад

I'm for that too but they're doing it completely wrong. Still too many massive parking lots, buildings far away from sidewalks, no shade, and no small businesses where workers could like get a bite to eat or something.

@TanBoonMoh Год назад

No, rails is not a suitable transport means for industrial area because of its low density. They should be serviced by buses, like how Europe and Asia do it since the end of WW2. Buses are just so overlooked in the US thats why there are too much bad light rail in the nation.

@quitlife9279 Год назад

Yes, early hours and late night trains would be amazing for industrial areas, but that's never going to happen. Public transport already tends to be unavailable for industry areas which is pretty ridiculous.

@tonywalters7298 Год назад

I think it would be a good topic solution of how to improve transit for industrial/warehouse land uses which tend to be located on the outskirts where land is cheaper

@bobo4664 Год назад

It’s interesting you say this, because the San Jose part passed right by a plant for satellites and definitely has plenty of workers.

@johncaswell2648 Год назад

Definitely "good" to see Denver on this list, probably deserves a higher spot. I have a rail station within walking distance, and every time I have to go into the city I check to see if I could use it, and every time it would take 5x as long to get where I'm going. Denver deserves a good amount of shaming for going after the shiny, fluffy urbanism projects without having the fundamentals down.

@legatus_newt Год назад

Southmoor station is a perfect example of voters getting in the way of things that would benefit them. That neighborhood petitioned for there to be no access to the station on the west side of the highway. That light rail line has some decent stations and usage the closer you get to the city, but building it all the way out to the burbs who don't use it was a mistake. They should have focused on finishing the L line before bothering with the E Line expansion down to the middle of nowhere. I take the E line from Colorado blvd Station all the time and it's not the best station but it has some apartments nearby, a food hall, and a bike / pedestrian bridge connecting it to the neighborhoods north of the highway. Denver needs it's own transit agency because RTD is way too focused on building trains for the suburbs that they'll never use.

@aerob1033 Год назад

Denver's system is fine as a regional rail system, which is basically what it was planned as. The problem is they don't have the urban rail backbone to support it. I guess now that will be the job of the BRT lines they have planned. We'll see how that works out for them.

@legatus_newt Год назад

@@aerob1033 The city is going heavy on bikes right now. The BRT is not going to be done anytime soon even though it's been talked about since 2018. Bikes are great, and there is a $400 rebate program through the city (limited to 2000 people per month) to get an E-Bike, but they've been slow to improve bike infrastructure. Bike to light rail to downtown is very competitive with driving and parking for my commute (cost and time wise). But without a safe place to park my bike I hesitate to do that for leisure trips downtown.

@mingzhong5481 Год назад

Last time I used it to get from Union station to the airport, it just stalked one station short. Everyone having to scream for uber/lyft. I took a few strangers with me with an uber to the airport, but some must have missed their flights.

@legatus_newt Год назад

@@mingzhong5481 sadly the airport line is the most reliable one and that still happens.

@patrickmiller5125 Год назад

3:57 Denver 4:50 Salt Lake City 5:45 Baltimore 6:17 Dallas 7:15 St. Louis 8:00 Pittsburgh 9:00 Sacramento 9:52 San Jose 12:52 Cleveland 13:26 Norfolk Honorable mentions: 11:40 Charlotte, Phoenix, Houston, Miami

@YukonGhibli Год назад

And for those just seeing this list; The honorable mentions were for being better than expected not worse like the list of the top ten.

@commentorsilensor3734 Год назад

LA should be on list. Baltimore may not be good compared to New York, but its better than other car oriented rail system. I am glad I didn't watch the whole video too boost the viewer number.

@danmur2797 Год назад

@commentor silensor LA is not on the list because it's had high ridership. In fact post pandemic not only LA's bus network, but even the public transit rail network ridership has eclipsed that of the San Francisco Bay Area's. Not bad considering that LA's public rail network (including subway, light rail, and commuter lines), not only now exceeds that of Bay Area or Boston, but it's grown to become the 3rd most extensive network in the U.S. behind only NYC and Chicago--in less than 15 years. Keep in mind public rail in LA was practically non-existent 23 plus years ago.

@wesleycanada3675 10 месяцев назад

@@YukonGhibli im so happy phoenix is doing well and they already have 3 more lines to go

@darrenpeter6585 Месяц назад

You are the hero we have but don't deserve.

@WTDoorley Год назад

As.a native Pittsburgher, I can explain some of the problems you mention. The existing "urban rail" (to borrow your term) is the remains of a once-extensive streetcar system that not only connected communities near the city but also other, smaller cities in the region. Most of this system was dismantled and scrapped after World War II in the initial enthusiasm for automobiles and highways. The lines on the current system serve a small number of suburbs in the South Hills and follow routes more than a century old. As far as I can see, they were built simply because they could be built, not because they serve today's transit needs. The rest of the region is served by busses. Pittsburgh has three dedicated busways, all of which follow former streetcar or railroad routes, and one of which actually parallels the Castle Shannon light rail line. Frankly, it's a patchwork. I get the feeling the only reason we have a regional transit system is because it's something a city should have, like a rich man building a house with a big library full of books he never reads. In their defense, the lack of development along the lines is severely limited by the terrain. Our hills are steep, our valleys deep, and what little flat land exists was built up long ago. Any new development takes a lot of earth moving, not to mention resistance from long-time residents and others. not sure what the solution is. Our region continues to lose population, so maybe we have to wait for things to stabilize first.

@CityNerd Год назад

Yeah, I covered the busways in my North American BRT video -- very weird that one of them parallels a rail line! I'm gonna have to visit soon so I can experience all this (+ funiculars and your cool train station) myself.

@MK-of7qw Год назад

Definitely worth a visit. Weird and patchwork is about the best way I can. Put it, but we have 2 really awesome inclines

@linuxman7777 Год назад

If we didn't have the transit system it would be very difficult to get between the sattelite towns and downtown in any viable way, Pittsburgh while having a downtown, it is quite disconnected from the other walkable towns in the area due to the rivers and mountains separating everything, and there also isn't a ton of land to use for parking in the more dense areas, so for an area like Pittsburgh, Busses do the job quite well, and are neccesary as Pittsburgh is very car unfriendly compared to most other US cities, and needs transit for the aforementioned reasons.

@BlackMan614 Год назад

Actually, they merely upgraded the existing - still in service - trolley lines in Pittsburgh. The only changes were the extension to South Hills Village w/ construction of station and maintenance facility and the "subway" under the streets of Mt. Lebanon. Of course, downtown it was a new subway system all underground. But c'mon... this system rocks. I rode it nearly every day from South Hills Village to the Steel Tower - rarely delayed and always packed during rush hour.

@clairegillman3357 Год назад

@@CityNerd The busways are awesome if you live near one - my 5 mile bus commute through the densest/busiest parts of the city to downtown took ~12 minutes thanks to the busway. Buses every 2-3 minutes during rush hour too.

@jnyerere Год назад

"HampFolk NewsBeach" genuinely made me chuckle. My old roommate was from Norfolk and he would just say "Seven Cities." He said "Hampton Roads" is the 'formal' nickname of the area. Either way I always found the region so unique and fascinating. Each city too strong-willed to play "suburb" to anyone. Lol.

@DavidCiani Год назад

Hampton Roads works well since it's the name of the body of water that all of the communities surround.

@kazeryu17 Год назад

Lack of regional cooperation is the areas biggest problem. Each city is more concerned with competing with eachother, then competing with other metro areas, so we have alot of redundant small things, but nothing impressive on a national scale.

@kylet.4582 Год назад

The Norfolk Tide Light rail was built to connect to Virginia Beach, where it would follow a natural corridor to the beach, passing through some of VB's larger "urban" centers (VB is really just a massive sprawly suburb that happens to be a city because of Virginia's weird laws). When VB killed the expansion in 2016, it destroyed what would have been a really really useful connection that would almost certainly have significantly increased ridership. That terminal station at Military Highway is right at the city border :(

@ashleighelizabeth5916 Год назад

That would have made some amount of sense. I grew up in Kitty Hawk and when I was in high school it was a real haul out to Lynhaven Mall if Green Briar didn't have what I needed. This was long before McArthur Center or Chesapeake Square so those were the two primary options (aside from Military Circle which was dying a slow death at the time). Atlanta has a similar problem in that the MARTA rail system was originally supposed to run a a line out to Cobb County and up to Gwinnett County but both counties refused to participate (basically because they didn't want certain people coming to their areas) and opted out of the system. Then they decided to build their own buss lines instead that were eventually connected to the rail line... the Gwinnett County system is even run by MARTA now ironically. You'd think the people who plan shit in the Atlanta area would learn something from all of that but you'd be wrong because when they decided to build the new baseball stadium where do you think they decided to stick it? Smack dab in the middle of the most traffic congested area of Cobb County with no access to the rail line of course and very little room to carve out parking for the stadium on top of that. Now the reasonably good synergy of MB Stadium, Phillips Arena and Turner field all being within walking distance (more or less) is utterly destroyed and it's just another way that a very divided city is further divided...

@stevekluth9060 Год назад

Norfolk’s TIDE, like the St Louis Metrolink to the suburbs, was mostly built on an old rail corridor. You are right to say VB killed its chances of success.

@josho2153 9 месяцев назад

In the late 90s my then boss drug me to some Va. Beach Republican Party breakfasts. The opposition to the light rail was derisive, raucous and jarring. There was a very discomforting class/race undercurrent. At best it could be described as “this doesn’t benefit our group so we don’t want to spend money on it”, mixed some NIMBYism and (I think) scoffing about at-grade intersections that would slow cars. At worst it was “we don’t want low income people from Norfolk riding the train to our high income oceanfront.” There was no discussion had about possible benefits. Sad that they won that battle.

@smileyeagle1021 Год назад

One thing to be said about Salt Lake City and the Trax system, it is every 15 minutes, on each line, but with how they have the lines share track in the busier areas, there are parts of the system where you realistically could get a train every 5 to 10 minutes.

@parkpark8715 Год назад

As a SacRT rider...I can't say I'm surprised in the slightest. There's a large part of the population there which considers themselves too good for light rail, it's a horrible cultural thing which makes transit usage near non-existent in the city, on top of already terrible planning

@peterbelanger4094 Год назад

You don't expect people to WANT to ride with smelly homeless people do you? whatever call them snobs. It's nasty and gross and until they can fix that part, transit in the US will not succeed. It's just a rolling homeless shelter. ooo "to good"...whatever....

@theultimatereductionist7592 Год назад

I took public bus service from New Jersey into Philadelphia dozens of times in my youth: 1970s and 1980s. I've taken the Riverline in NJ between Camden and Trenton a couple dozen times since 2004. And to me it seems EVERYBODY takes a train into NYC, which I have done maybe a couple dozen times in my life, as much as I HATE HATE HATE NYC and curse its existence and want it NUKED the instant I set foot inside it. But I have NEVER EVER experienced anyone who thought taking public transportation was "beneath them". I've never experienced anyone who thought public transportation was "only for poor people".

@Funkenstein91 Год назад

Regarding Pittsburgh, the issue is that the light rail is mostly the remnants of the old streetcar system that serves the suburbs south of the city. The only line of the three that serves dense and walkable neighborhoods is the red line, while the blue and silver are basically light rail masquerading as commuter rail. Most of the densest neighborhoods in the metro area are serviced by the East Busway, which I’m pretty sure has higher ridership than all of the light rail lines combined. When you consider all of the busways and light rail lines as a whole, Pittsburgh’s mass transit system is a lot better than those numbers make it appear.

@urbanpreppie05 Год назад

this. 100%.

@alexgetsout Год назад

Idea for multiple videos as a longterm project: compare best cities to go carless within a given state. So if you're set on living in that state, then this is the best city for you.

@danielcid1913 Год назад

This is gold! I second this motion!

@stevengordon3271 Год назад

For quite a few states there would be zero such cities.

@ericanderson3305 Год назад

I think I can explain the biggest issue in San Jose, which isn’t actually related to frequency or TOD. San Jose doesn’t have a typical central-city job-center layout. Almost all of the employment stretches across a huge area northwest of downtown to Palo Alto, about 15 miles. Almost all of the housing surrounds this area to the south and east. The light rail lines, in an effort to connect jobs and housing, have to travel across the whole valley. Travel times from the median house along the line to the median job are probably about an hour, not including the walks on either end or the wait for the train. This is made worse by the fact that most trains have to travel through downtown (not the destination of most jobs, but the midpoint of most commutes) acting as a streetcar at about 10 mph. Efforts to mix uses along the line, the best solution to the problem, have only just started in the last couple years. San Jose doesn’t like building housing northwest of downtown because of its jobs housing imbalance. Office development ain’t gonna happen southeast of downtown. Other cities like Santa Clara, Sunnyvale and Mountain View are only just now starting to build housing along their jobs-rich parts of the line. We will see what effect that will have...

@Robin_Goodfellow Год назад

Here in Anchorage, the Alaska Railroad has a stop at the airport, but it's pretty much only used by cruise lines to send their passengers home from Seward, where they got off the ship. AKRR is not really built to be a transit-oriented train line, but you have to agree that this is a huge missed opportunity for residents of the city.

@CityNerd Год назад

Alaska Railroad actually has its own designation as a mode separate from other rail modes in the data. It's really interesting.

@williamkesler2373 Год назад

@@CityNerd yes, because it’s a fully equipped “traditional” railroad, just like Union Pacific for instance, only on a much smaller scale. It was never meant to be a local mass transit system like most of the other entries.

@JoshColletta Год назад

@@williamkesler2373 In fact, as far as I'm aware, its primary purpose is freight between Seward and Fairbanks.

@doge.a.cat2002 Год назад

Wait people live in Alaska?😳

@JoshColletta Год назад

@@doge.a.cat2002 Just over 736,000 people as of the last census.

@DavidinSLO Год назад

Los Angeles’ Green Line along the 105 freeway is one of the most maddening light rail lines on the planet - stopping two miles short of LAX, and - on the other end - two miles short of a commuter rail station. Literally, what feels like going from nowhere to nowhere.

@mrxman581 2 месяца назад

That's changing. The C line will finally connect to the K line and the LAX APM. There are also proposals to extend it further to the new Torrance transit center. The connection to the Norwalk transit center is further off.

@stephanweinberger Год назад

Why do cities build expensive (especially in the US) rail infrastructure but then only run trains every 15min at best? It just doesn't make sense. No wonder ridership is that low. I mean, I knew it was bad, but I didn't expect it to be _that_ bad. What also always boggles my mind is, when US cities build new streetcar lines but then buy trains that aren't much bigger than a standard bus. Why even bother laying tracks for that? Just paint a bus lane and run articulated (preferably trolley) buses for half the cost then. For context: I grew up in a small city in Austria with a population of ~290k, where the 6 tram lines have an annual ridership of about 52 million passengers. That's 2.3 million passengers per track mile (36km/22mi of track) or 1.25 million passengers per line mile (total line length is 64km/40mi - i.e. many tracks are shared by 2 or more lines). And there are still debates if the cost of building new tram lines (~10-20 million €/km - i.e. 17-34 million $/mi) is justified. I cannot even begin to imagine why US cities spend that money (and sometimes even significantly more) for less than 1/10th of the ridership. Don't get me wrong, streetcars & lightrail are of course a step in the right direction, but there would be _so_ _much_ _more_ potential if they were done right.

@HallsofAsgard96 Месяц назад

i get the feeling most of these systems wld get a serious boost in ridership if the trains ran more frequently and had transit signal priorty

@znoyce Год назад

Hey, look. It's my train station in a CityNerd video. I live in a single family home (because that's what there is around here and there are probably only like 100 or so housing units of any kind that are even closer to the station) one mile from that Fashion Place West station in SLC, UT. Can confirm it's not the most pleasant bike ride in the world and it's infuriating that going to the train requires me to go under multiple freeway underpasses and drive past both a plant nursery and a storage facility that are DIRECTLY ADJACENT to the station where a grand total of zero housing units have comparably good access.

@Dalenthas Год назад

Can you do a deep dive on what should happen when there's a transit disruption? Inspired by a chunk of the T (Boston's transit system) being closed down because a building above it failed a safety inspection. Ironically, it was a parking garage, once again meaning car infrastructure is disturbing public transit.

@joefitz531 Год назад

That and the fact that due to aging infrastructure and putting price over value on new equipment resulting in permanent weekend service

@TheRedheadedjen Год назад

He needs to talk about the mess of the T

@intreoo Год назад

I live in California. I hope that when/if the high speed rail project nears completion and the stations are built too, that the areas around them will be *dense mixed use areas that act as a local transit/business/social hub* . I am generally fearful that these new beautiful stations will be surrounded with a sea of parking lots instead of the mixed use zoning they deserve..

@kevinbarnes218 Год назад

Rancho Cordovan here I hate the Cordova Town Station. It always has a sketch atmosphere and you can't call a cluster of strip malls a "Town Center."

@elijah6970 Год назад

I always thought that area could be its own downtown for rancho if the replace the parking lots with high density development

@christophermclean Год назад

Hello fellow SacRT adjacent resident! Lol our system needs a lot of work. Agreed on your comment on this station, though 1 upside is its proximity to KP

@kevinbarnes218 Год назад

@@christophermclean I agree KP is the one upside to the station.

@christophermclean Год назад

@@elijah6970 TIL: according to Rancho's zoning viewer (which it says is no longer in use... weird), that area is part of its downtown 😅 and it is zoned for commercial mixed use FBSP (whatever those stand for), so maybe some day?

@EoinCondon Год назад

As someone who currently lives in Charlotte, I was just waiting for Charlotte to be on the list. It seems like Charlotte is actually trying to improve it's ridership and get cars off of the road, so I'm cautiously optimistic. It could be pretty good if they manage to extend the existing blue line to Ballantyne and get regional rail up north with the red line (those would create a ton of trips that are faster via rapid transit than by car).

@CityNerd Год назад

I was shocked Charlotte wasn't in the top ten (it was #11 lol). But when you see the competition...well, you have to be really bad.

@jenneurohr Год назад

pre-Covid I was in some forums to get input on station locations for the blue line extension, but since....all that....I haven't really heard anything about what the plan is there. I do like the proposed realignment of the silver line through uptown on the existing tracks.

@phillip3273 Год назад

Charlotte and good transit aren't usually in the same sentence. I'm hopeful for the Silver Line, but I'm not holding my breath. And I wish the street car was implemented better, but it was sabotaged from bad design.

@tgibridays Год назад

Yeah. I was waiting for us to show up. Super surprised we weren't in the top 10, though 11 isn't great either.

@CaeserOct Год назад

I visited Charlotte and stayed downtown and may have used public transit once that weekend and mostly as a novelty to compare it to DC from where I was visiting.

@personator Год назад

St. Louis definitely has underutilized stops on the way to the airport and especially across the river, but the main straight section of the blue line between downtown and Clayton is very well positioned, serving downtown, both major universities, the dense Central West End, and the urbanized suburb of Clayton.

@EdgePitSwing Год назад

And they are adding turnstiles soon! :O

@CityNerd Год назад

Absolutely

@ybrammer Год назад

I would be interested in seeing what ridership per track mile would look like if MetroLink just did not go to Scott Air Force Base. Every time I have been on the train out that far, it is almost completely empty and it adds a lot of miles to the map. And it will soon be an even longer ride with the extension to MidAmerican Airport which I believe starts construction in August. Also, with the Blue & Red Line overlap is great. If one is between Forest Park and Fairview Heights, it’s trains come about every 7.5 minutes.

@schwenda3727 Год назад

@@ybrammer why they’re still pushing for Mid-America (which that particular airport itself has been considered by some as THE textbook definition of “pork barrel project”) is beyond me. That is almost effectively past the edge of suburban development as things already stand. Wouldn’t it be significantly more prudent to extend the Blue Line from the existing Fairview Heights station onto an at-grade alignment along a completely rebuilt Lincoln Trail between IL 161 & just west of IL 159 (initially, but with potential to eventually serve the St. Clair Square Mall if crime concerns aren’t as bad as critics & NIMBYs would initially think) with two intermediate stops between Bunkum & between the Union Hill Rd & Ruby Ln signals? One could trust that will significantly boost systemwide ridership… AND it could effectively replace the recently cancelled “Redbird Express” bus (Metro as of last year has been having staffing issues). Plus, despite malls not in good shape, they have substantial parking space, much less visibility from the roads.

@jeffwebb2966 Год назад

I think Metrolink had a strong start, but security continues to be an issue where the system was designed with mostly open unsecured platforms and plans are in the works for turnstiles and closed access, but public perception is it is not safe. I have always thought to put security on each train.. but its unfortunate that not much is done. It goes lots of places people want to go, but until that is fixed it's a problem.

@all1357 Год назад

Dallas resident here, trying to figure out which DART station is in the thumbnail. You quickly realize most stations have gigantic parking lots next to them, and there are tons of self-storage places here as well. Yup, typical land use. Can’t wait to move to New York.

@colormedubious4747 Год назад

I would suggest cutting some of these cities a break for reasons noted below: 1) If the system connects to an airport, intercity train station, or other intermodal transfer point, grant it some positive points. 2) If the system is relatively new, grant them some leniency for low frequencies. SLC, Denver, and Dallas have HUGE service areas to cover and got a bit of a late start. 3) Dallas in particular has a long-term TOD vision with published guidelines. In part, they built the rail system first in order to stimulate redevelopment of the urban and suburban waste-spaces that you rightly criticize. They have built a few worthy places, such as West Village (served by the M-Line and DART's Cityplace Station), Addison Circle (to be served by the Silver Line), Legacy Town Center (to be served by NO rail at all -- oh, well), and a number of in-process redevelopments of edge city downtowns. A few (too few) other station areas are beginning to transform into actual PLACES. 4) These visions can take decades to bear fruit. Just look at Denver -- it was king of redevelopment projects in the latter 90s, with the old Elitch Gardens site, Lowry, and Stapleton in their planning stages. Fast forward to 2003 and construction was well underway in all three. Fast forward to 2019 and all of them were lush with trees, Elitch was largely built out (and many of its surrounding neighborhoods were being upscaled, repurposed, or redeveloped), as was most of Lowry, and Stapleton even boasted a rail station on the A Line. True Towns Take Time. True Trains Take Time, Too!

@JW-sj5xo Год назад

Completely agree. “Why is there not better density at the stations?” Do you want them to tear down housing to put in a station at the perfect present location? Or maybe build a system that allows for redevelopment (which is happening along many of the stations in inner ring suburbs) Density is few and far between on these converted rr lines to begin with. Maybe use money cost effectively by building on presently cheaper land and then allowing development around the hub to come later. IE Carrollton, Richardson, Plano, even Lewisville if you want to go outside DART. Even places along future routes are being redeveloped before the new lines go in, because attitudes are slowly changing to ridership. Hell, even Frisco is building hubs around perceived stops that are maybe 20 years out. That would be unthinkable in car happy Texas a decade or two ago.

@iandobbie9198 Год назад

I live in Baltimore and the local light rail station is truly amazing. Access is only via a path on a divided highway bridge over an interstate. Getting there involves crossing the interstate access ramps and walking a significant distance along the sidewalk of the divided highway bridge. Park and ride access would be a massive improvement over this!

@dragon32210 Год назад

What's the name of the station so we can look it up and laugh

@CityNerd Год назад

Baltimore deserves better

@Ekimsal Год назад

But hey let's pour more money into 83 instead ammirite?

@josephfisher426 Год назад

@@dragon32210 I think this must be the Cold Spring Lane station. It's comical. But sometimes you can't win. It's a highly sloped industrial area, and the cheap housing in the neighborhood on one side was built right up to the slope, and then the road expanded right up to the houses to allow for a lot of turning movements. There is a site on the other side of the road that is probably better for a more accessible station, which to the chagrin of some local planning nerds, the city steadfastly retains for its use as a dump. But it still wouldn't be objectively fantastic planning because it's still in a stream valley a good half-mile from any significant population.

@MarloSoBalJr Год назад

Cold Spring Lane?... That death trap? 🤣 The station itself isn't bad but the location adjacent to activate freeway access ramp is such an ADA & safety flaw that is in need of addressing. Especially with Poly-Western High School students having to dodge traffic just to reach the station from the school

@adjsmith Год назад

As someone who rode Sacramento LRT for several years to get to the city college campus, I'm both surprised to see it on the list (my experiences were generally positive) and, also, unsurprised (once you leave the city center, basically every stop is a parking lot next to the freeway).

@wta1518 Год назад

I'm just surprised he didn't discover Watt/I-80

@michaelmccoy6674 Год назад

I used to live in Norfolk and am not surprised to see it last here. The light rail was supposed to go all the way to the beach, but then the neighboring city of VA beach cancelled their plans to build that section, so it just goes nowhere

@MustardMan7321 Год назад

The Norfolk line uses existing abandoned rail lines. That explains some of the weird stop placement. The really dumb part of it is that it doesn't extend to Virginia Beach. The abandoned rail line continues to VB, but the current services stops about half way there. VB voted the extension down several years back.

@peterlarsen5194 Год назад

I think they should route the line straight down Virginia Beach Boulevard to the beach. There's plenty of room.

@gordonv.cormack3216 Год назад

In Waterloo ON, we installed a baby LRT (12 miles) just before COVID. By your numbers it seemed to be doing OK: 1,281,000: Boardings on ION trains from July to Sept. 2019. I'll be interested to see more recent numbers.

@Arkiasis Год назад

In Hamilton, and hopefully our LRT breaks ground soon. It was supposed to this year after being cancelled by Ford (cause Hamilton never votes for him) and then brought back when the feds said they'd cover the bill. But it's still in this weird limbo.

@jl3tbone Год назад

As a recent transplant from the Hampton Roads area, I was just waiting for “The Tide” light rail system to make the list. Made me laugh when it was your top pick! So much wasted potential in the greater Norfolk area with such a high population density. New to the channel; love your content. Please keep it coming!

@benhanpeter4790 Год назад

Great video as usual. Would love to hear you talk about what you do at your day job, and how people can work in transit/planning/etc.

@jaywashington2196 Год назад

As a person who grew up in Arlington with no public transportation even though we’re in between Fort Worth and Dallas, it’s sad how bad the public transportation is in DFW

@MrCzechTexan Год назад

Not so fun fact: Arlington's the largest city in the country without a transit system

@zachar-yy Год назад

Arlington had the option to be in the DART system, but they opted not to. Clearly not a perfect system by any measure but it would have at least connected people to the stadiums there.

@zachar-yy Год назад

I wish Dallas and Fort Worth had a combined public transit system. I grew up in FTW and live in downtown now.

@sbkbg Год назад

@@zachar-yy that and TRE expansion into a true regional commuter rail network. DART/TEXRail combo covering the urban cores as light-metro services and TRE commuter rail extending out. DFW metro is spread out, a lot of suburbs and rail lines extending out from the cities. Also combining the fragmented network into a regional system my Metra (CHI), SEPTA (PHL) and NJTransit would be helpful for growth.

@ashleighelizabeth5916 Год назад

And yet it's even worse in Houston if you can believe it.

@NikolaiLenney Год назад

I lived in Pittsburgh for 5 years and I only ever used the rail for one thing: to go from downtown to Heinz Field after first taking a bus downtown. I can think of a few reasons why people aren't riding the T: 1. It only connects downtown to a few sections of the South Hills (and the stadium to save a mile of walking) and as far as I'm aware there isn't much down there that would motivate people to take trips that way. The South Hills aren't some sort of commercial hub, and they're not very densely packed. The T goes part of the way towards the airport, but you have to connect to the 28X (which you can also take from downtown). The Universities are east of downtown, and I would think most hospitals trend north towards Allegheny and UPMC. 2. Pittsburgh is pretty well distributed in that you can access most services without needing to go across town, or connect downtown. There are a decent number of areas with small businesses throughout, and big box store coverage is better outside of downtown than in downtown. 3. The bus service is pretty good. The wait times can be pretty high sometimes, but you can really get around if you're familiar with the system. There may be more direct routes to South Hills destinations via bus, or bus routes that go through downtown and then continue along the path of the T (like the aforementioned 28X). I don't know why the T was built this way, it's basically a mini commuter rail. Also I currently I live in the San Jose area, and yeah, transit is bad down here. I've seen the VTA rail cars around, but it recently occurred to me that I have no recollection of ever seeing a bus. Please send help.

@brennanconway3728 Год назад

The issue with Pittsburgh is that the light rail only really hits suburban neighborhoods in the south hills. The topography there often puts the rail right of way in a steep ravine making effective TOD difficult. The denser urbanized areas of the east end and the river valleys rely on bus service because some county level politicians vetoed an actually useful eastern extension in favor of an expensive river tunnel to serve the sports stadiums. There are plans to extend the system along the Allegheny and Ohio Rivers in the future, but still no plans to extend to the east end

@danielkelly2210 Год назад

Yeah, I think you can sum up the issue (hardly unique to Pittsburgh) as "build where it's cheapest to build, rather than where it makes the most sense". A Downtown to Oakland connection is a no-brainer, but I think the Ohio River line is more likely to happen. We can dream, though. Personally, I think converting both busways to light rail and running them through a new downtown tunnel would be great but is also unlikely to happen in the current environment.

@brennanconway3728 Год назад

@@danielkelly2210 a tunnel connecting steel plaza station to the east busway already exists (that's what the 3rd track in that station is for) but they took it out of regular service for some reason. I actually converting the busways could be feasible and a good idea

@scout8145 Год назад

On the bright side, at least better rail service to the North Shore meant better public transportation to the stadiums, which meant better development. Yeah, it’s not immediately helpful to a lot of people’s daily lives, but there’s definitely an urbanist silver lining.

@billkramme5443 Год назад

Many of the problems with MetroLink in St. Louis come down to the red line passing through historically segregated and poor neighborhoods abandoned by white flight after WWII. The red line was clearly constructed solely to connect the airport to downtown, and we all know that cities don't typically put airports where people want to live, so the whole north side of the metro area is a weird paradox of sparsely populated old houses, dead industries, and a population that often relies heavily on public transit but is also separated from it by huge swaths of the aforementioned dead industry. It's a sad situation to be sure.

@CityNerd Год назад

Yeah, it was the weird dead/industrial locations that really got me. I have taken the red line from the airport before but it didn't strike me quite as much from ground level.

@spd_bird Год назад

@@CityNerd Another big reason for the alignment was that it was only by using previous rail right of ways could the original red line get federal funding since it would save significant amounts of money. Therefore, it had to run through old industrial sites that used to connect to freight rail, creating environments where Transit Oriented Development is difficult. Making matters worse, St. Louis County consists of multiple different municipalities, each with different demands and expectations that make politics a major consideration when planning transit. I'm currently looking into TOD around Blue Line stations which see even lower ridership than the Red Line and I can tell you that St. Louis is just too spread out and poverty is too concentrated in one area for transit to be a concern for anyone outside of that small area.

@scottsinger7110 5 месяцев назад

@CityNerd St. Louis is planning a Jefferson Ave. Metrolink line. I believe it will operate more like a streetcar and replace the busline. Hopefully, it helps St. Louis. We need all the help we can get right now. One of the problems with St. Louis is that there is not enough civic pride.

@billkramme5443 5 месяцев назад

@@scottsinger7110 I think there is a big chunk of civic pride, but when the largest tax base in the state is a county surrounding you and your state government wants to constantly subjugate you, it’s a bit precarious trying to develop things that need government funding to move forward. A lot of the civic pride simply doesn’t show up at the ballot box, unfortunately.

@ericfuchs123 Год назад

I’ve ridden the San Jose light rail and all I recall was waiting forever for a train that then dropped me so far away from my destination I had to take a taxi anyway.

@michaelbodell7740 Год назад

I waited nearly 2 hours for a light rail in the middle of the week day when my late morning train was missing (when I was without car for 2 weeks of repairs about 12 years ago). It certainly isn't frequent service.

@zacharygoldstein3665 Год назад

Topic suggestion: what cities can do to increase bus ridership, like signal priority, bus lanes, etc. with examples of systems that do each one.

@ghmasterjj Год назад

@ashleighelizabeth5916 Год назад

Well finding a way to convince people that aren't brown to use public transportation in large numbers would be a good start.

@iJoshDG Год назад

I was in SLC last month and actually saw some TOD (a large apartment building had a banner that said "Live here, ride TRAX free") while on the light rail and I thought that was pretty neat and unexpected, especially after transiting through Fashion Place West Station on the blue line lol. The area does also have decent, through-running regional rail service as well between Provo, SLC, and Ogden. Definitely not bad, but I understand why TRAX was on here.

@mjohnson9563 Год назад

Denver's was built for the future as the rail stations in many locations would attract high density living near those stations over time as it takes time for projects to be developed and built. Check back in about 20 years and you should start to see the difference. In the mean time the system is quite comprehensive as it exists nowadays and remember it was built to meet future needs. This was the same concept when they built Denver Intl Airport. Build for tomorrow, not today. I was glad to see Houston has done a very good job over the last decade. Houston has come a long way.

@k_schreibz Год назад

Problem is most of Denver's stations are built in places where there will never be high density due to NIMBYs, and the few places where there is space to build dense, walkable communities are being bought up by the big developers with buddies on city councils that have no desire but to build ultra lux apartments with parking garages and lifestyle centers and house residents that won't actually use the transit. Lines like the W and G are better situated to transport large numbers of people, but again most of their destinations are suburbs rather than locations in the city. Ironically the B train would probably be the most used and accessible of all but its never going to be built at this rate.

@mjohnson9563 Год назад

@@k_schreibz all of this may just be a mute point as employers are starting to realize that COVID will be here for a long time and more employers are starting to think that working remotely at least some of the time is much safer for the staff then having people packed into an office where everyone takes a packed bus train or elevator to get to the office. 20 years ago the thought in the workforce was working remotely part of the time would be something realized in the near future. We just never concieved why it would happen.

@lakeyface Год назад

Delighted to see St James' featured! I grew up in the Toon and have been watching the subscriber count tick up, hoping it'd get the capacity shout out. The Tyne and Wear Metro is a really decent light-rail service with one of the highest riderships in the UK (755k trips/track mile). St James' weird appearance has come about from wanting to increase seating capacity without having to rebuild the stadium further from the city centre. The odd shape is well worth the better urban integration and keeping the city's cultural heart.

@christophermclean Год назад

I think your station choice for Sacramento was generous… we’ve got a lot of terrible stops: looking at you swanston station.

@jyasutin Год назад

You hit the nail on the head with VTA. I lived there in the early 2000s and when riding the light rail, you'd go by stop after stop after stop of low-rise business park. Very little housing and virtually no commercial along the line made it impractical except for commuting -- which might explain the park-and-ride lot at VTA's headquarters. As a bonus the schedule was perfectly timed so you'd see Caltrain pulling out of Mountain View as the light rail pulled in. You could always find an empty seat on VTA, maybe an empty car.

@joshbutt5777 Год назад

Loving how dry your delivery is, great video too

@sammyrice1182 Год назад

Will you consider elaborating on the "politically difficult" aspects of many of the problems that you describe in this and other of your videos? Or would that be beyond your bailiwick? In any case, I love your videos and quirky channel.

@paulkelly5035 Год назад

Rail is politically difficult in Detroit. The auto companies pay taxes that fund the city, and they don’t want their tax money spent on anything that will decrease car ownership.

@CityNerd Год назад

Yeah I have a topic idea like that on my list. I'd just say generally it's hard to build things that are for the collective good in this country. It does happen, but more slowly and less completely realized than in most other countries.

@derek20la Год назад

@MH NIMBYs exist all across the political spectrum. In LA, there have been several rail capacity improvements canceled over opposition. And this area is strongly Democratic and leftist. But please keep spewing broad generalizations and stereotypes.

@tonywalters7298 Год назад

@@paulkelly5035 there is also a large socioeconomic divide between the city of detroit and the detroit metro area. Honestly, with the size of the detroit metro area (like auburn hills being almost a full hour away from downtown detroit), I feel a regional rail network would make sense. Plus with many arterial roads in the area having wide rights of way, those could be used for rail corridors.

@Jasoncw87 Год назад

@@paulkelly5035 The car companies supported the TALUS and SEMTA plans in the 1970s and they supported the RTA recently. In the last few years they've lobbied in Lansing and they've given speeches at businesses events and signed open letters.

@Katthewm Год назад

For St. Louis did you include the mileage on the Illinois side of the river? If so that would massively impact numbers because very very few people use that side (it literally goes through corn fields on that side). Otherwise on the Missouri side it is underused, but stations tend to be pretty convenient with stations nearby big universities as well as a connection from the downtown Clayton and downtown St. Louis.

@mercilessidioms Год назад

I wondered about that as well. But the geography and history of the East Side make it difficult to justify light rail politically there unless you build to Belleville, which requires running through relatively unpopulated (or depopulated) stretches.

@sykoskier18 Год назад

I live in pittsburgh and the issue is that the T doesnt go to the most populous neighborhoods. The places where everyone lives (east end) is serviced by bus and they're always packed but lightrail is dreadfully underdeveloped and underused

@pjkerrigan20 Год назад

Excellent video as always. Would love to see one about where airports should be located. Which airports are too far from their cities? Which ones are too close? What’s the ideal place to put one?

@jlpack62 Год назад

I live in Miami and use the Metromover pretty regularly, but I rarely use the Metrorail. I bikeshare from Miami Beach and catch the Metromover on the other side of the causeway. As all of the residential towers have filled up downtown/Brickell, I have noticed a noticeable increase in ridership compared to 5/10 years ago.

@Distress. Год назад

It'd be nice if the metrorail actually connected to the beaches and had some stations in the suburbs.

@jlpack62 Год назад

@@Distress. I'd take an extension of just the metromover to start!!! I know that it's been talked about from Museum Park to around 5th and Alton.

@user-yy4ux9zf4r Год назад

Great video! Loved to hear you pick on DFW’s dart system. As a resident, every time I see a train it’s completely empty. Even when I have taken the light-rail during “peak” times, like after a Mavericks game, its never more than a quarter full.

@ErrorNameNotFound123 Год назад

I have taken the DART train and I see a lot of ridership. The DART system is massive and has places with both high and low ridership. I can go into downtown by train or car and it takes the same amount of time, so I take the train to avoid the hassle of parking and traffic.

@KingAsa5 Год назад

Idk about the completely empty part. I use the red line and it’s quite packed during Peak hours. But they should do better on how to design the rail network

@user-yy4ux9zf4r Год назад

@@KingAsa5 I have heard the line going up to Plano can get quite busy, I have personally never taken that. I assume at some point people have to board them lol, but at least where I live( Grapevine/ Colleyville) they are almost always completely empty.

@KingAsa5 Год назад

@@user-yy4ux9zf4r you must be using TexRail? DART doesn’t extend out to Tarrant county

@user-yy4ux9zf4r Год назад

@@KingAsa5 Ahh yes you are 100% correct! But when I take the orange line from North Irving to go to downtown Dallas, called the Belt Line station I think, I believe that is DART, and that ridership is no better.

@johnborges5938 Год назад

Would be interesting to see a per-capita weighted measure as well - trips per track-mile per capita? But it looks like you've given me a great start at that. Another terrific video.

@grahamturner2640 Год назад

The thing I find funny about Phoenix being in the middle of the road (but probably on the lower end) is that its light rail services only have 15 minute frequencies. There also isn’t a ton of TOD, though there’s some, primarily in Tempe.

@stevengordon3271 Год назад

The relatively low number of miles of track, mostly through areas that already had high residential density (relative to the overall metro). I would be curious to know how much the numbers differ between winter and summer.

@grahamturner2640 Год назад

@@stevengordon3271 there’s probably a bit of a difference with university students.

@ThreeRunHomer Год назад

Video suggestion: weird things about the Norfolk/Virginia Beach/Hampton Roads region. Such as … why did all of the counties surrounding the city of Norfolk officially big “cities” (big by land area, they’re actually a mix of low-density suburbs and rural)? It was done to prevent Norfolk from annexing more land.

@moartrainz4242 Год назад

Heck yeah, the 314's on a good run of making CityNerd videos. As always, love the work. Was excited when I saw the video pop up because I just knew we'd make it. Our system here has *very* good bones: great vehicles, good East-West connectivity, links to the largest employment centers in the region. You might notice, however, that there's a sizable portion of STL city-proper that isn't served by fixed-rail transit. I'm a housing planner, only took a few transit courses in school, but I'd guess that our main issue isn't land-use or headway oriented, but it's where service is and who is being served. Unsurprisingly, there's quite a bit of fearmongering regarding the metro system here as many who use it are poorer folk without cars etc. As such, expansions to the system have been terribly few and far in-between as many of the suburbs fear the 'crime' the system would bring to their community. This, in addition to STL's unique political organization (Independent City, Donut county, outlying suburbs etc.) has left the metro system without much of the funding or local support more successful systems enjoy. The result has left much of the city's population density without transit expansions that just make sense, all while the operator focuses on making the system 'safer' by adding $50M worth of fare gates (wtf are we doing). There is a North-South MetroLink expansion in the works, it's been studied multiple times, delayed, restudied etc. as local politicians grapple with how to pay & justify spending so much up front for a system which will only serve the city-proper in its first phase. Moreover, many regional observers claim the system is broken and "already doesn't work". Key thing to note here is that the area's not served by the current system are much of the former red-lined neighborhoods of the city, including the long-distressed northside (which is where the highest rate of car-less households in the MSA are located). We've also been slow to adopt TOD schemes like other well-performing systems, but this has been changing some recently and is likely to continue as developers recognize millennials and gen-zers appreciate the ability to traverse a city without a car.

@argh523 Год назад

What city are you talking about?

@randy2993 Год назад

@@argh523 Not OP, but OP's talking about St. Louis (314 is the area code there)

@CityNerd Год назад

Great comment, thanks!

@schwenda3727 Год назад

Regarding St. Louis, I always wonder what could be if the agencies separate from Metro built BRT/LRT expansions. Like St. Charles County & MCT (Madison County Transit). Since it seems the likes of Granite City would be more thankful for better options, I can foresee not one, but TWO LRT/BRT lines following mostly existing rail ROW or bike trails (to which MCT conveniently owns). Both pipedream MCT lines I imagine could originate either ON the Eads Bridge @ Laclede’s Landing or Emerson Park, so transferring to/from Metrolink is doable. One line goes from there and primarily serves the sprawling Gateway Commerce Center/Tradeport warehouse developments (forming a one way loop around to serve 3-4 stations given how huge the complex is) with secondary service to SIU(e) if they’re up for a bike ride. The other line is a straightshot to Alton with service to the Granite City Steel Mill and Lakeview Commerce Center (another warehouse park), effectively serving multiple major employers AND areas most likely to be thankful for new transit service than fighting it…

@moartrainz4242 Год назад

@@schwenda3727 I often wonder this too, especially with all the ROW we still have here that could be easily upgraded for, say, suburban rail to the metro east and west. Tbh I don’t think it’d be all that expensive outside of track upgrades w/TRRA, stations, and rolling stock. Kinda like what Nashville has done

@80spaul Год назад

I love your channel. Eventually I'll watch them all.

@samtrak1204 Год назад

Thanks for sharing. Please explore more urban transit disasters.

@Parborway Год назад

The reason that the Tide's alignment makes no sense is that It was originally supposed to follow a frieght ROW to Virginia beach, running through nowhere to get somewhere, but Virginia Beach pulled out, so it was left to terminate at the city limit of Norfolk, running through nowhere to get nowhere.

@donzeigler1021 Год назад

Even within Norfolk, the Tide does not serve the largest university or the naval base or the airport or Norfolk’s beaches on the Chesapeake Bay. It’s a failure even without moaning about uncooperative Va Beach.

@neilwilson5785 Год назад

In the UK it makes total sense to put stations near areas with large number of subururban homes. They will use them. Even then, the car lobby is still strong here, and many people see public transport as "beneath" them

@jaytuberr Год назад

I’ve been loving your videos recently as an urban planning nerd myself. I had a video suggestion for you about green painted crosswalks/bike lanes and the way they alter the course of effective planning in the future. Whenever I see a green painted crosswalk on a stroad I can’t help but to think about all the people who see those and think “well the problem must be getting fixed now” if you know of any videos of yours that covers the topic that’d be great too

@ianriley9923 Год назад

Just for fun I did the math for my city, Calgary Alberta and it came out to 955k/mi. Pretty proud of that considering most stations have significant park and ride space.

@AustinSersen Год назад

Calgary is freaking awesome! Never second-guessed my decision to move here over American cities that all seemed kinda sucky from my experience.

@doktarr Год назад

I go through that Southmoor station when I use the light rail to get to work, and it does feel like a tad head scratcher of a station location. Notably it's a pain to get to the station from the adjacent neighborhood (no way around the retaining wall)

@spiderpickle3255 Год назад

The neighborhood fought the station having direct access and won. The entire station and LRT line only exist because it was able to be shoehorned into the T-REX project that widened I-25 from only 3 lanes each way to what it all is today.

@kaikorzonek922 Год назад

Was just looking at the Newcastle Metro ridership per mile. Excited for the continued development on the system. And great to see St james park in the video.

@ericleroyfr Год назад

Just subscribed! I reckon this video could have been a little more condensed (just my opinion). I love the channel and what you stand for.

@adherry8142 Год назад

As a tidbit from the other side of the pond: Here in Germany we made a 9 for 90 program, where in the months of June, July and August you can get a card that works for the whole Country apart from high-speed trains for 9 Euros a month. It led to 24 of 26 observed cities reducing congestion rates, hiked public transport usage by 25% and now suddenly in the debate things like "extend the rail network" and "make an affordable, more subsidized ticket" are not laughed out the room any more with "thats too expensive".

@borealssb1384 Год назад

And as a neat little side effect, it's annoying the shit out of rich people on Sylt. This ticket was definitely the best idea since sliced bread.

@benp9442 Год назад

Would even pay 30 Euros for such a ticket. My current network (Bonn/Cologne) is so expensive for what you get (old 40+ year old trains that are always full and broken)

@darthwiizius Год назад

On this side of the channel I'm incredibly jealous of your 9 Euro train ticket, having said that if they introduced it in Blighty how would the train companies fleece the commuters before 9.30AM?

@adherry8142 Год назад

@@darthwiizius BVG also complained that they cannot keep it as their finances include fleecing foreigners of cash for expensive tickets.

@darthwiizius Год назад

@@adherry8142 Ahh! The universal constant of corporate greed is alive all over it seems. Can you imagine how revolutionary it would be for living standards and for environmental issues if we could get past this? You'd only need a car if you lived out in the sticks.

@ajcgyoung1 Год назад

Interesting analysis - and as a Brit living in the US, who tries to use transit as much as possible I’ve also been surprised by the diverse quality of system design across the country - reflected I’d guess by the range of trips per mile this video highlights. I believe the degree of localism which exists in US urban development does not help with building effective transit systems - especially in new sprawling cities such as those in the south which see parochial small cities suddenly becoming major urbanized areas but urban development’ planning and transportation seems to be stuck in the small town mindset. Side note - and not wanting to come across as a pedant or worse… it is pronounced St “James-es” Park. Hence the apostrophe. Exeter City, at the other end of the country, play at St James Park. Now that really is a true football stadium - classic mid war structure and being a lower league team still having the wonderful terracing (standing).

@billieirish5451 Год назад

Loved this man

@charliemango Год назад

also, please never stop making these videos. I love them

@aphillips4703 Год назад

Love the channel! I would be really interested in seeing a high speed race on the Vancouver BC - Seattle/Portland corridor

@matthays9497 Год назад

This is one of the most natural HSR corridors in NA -- three cities with strong cores and good-to-decent transit ridership (Van>>Sea>>Por). ROW would be a huge challenge, hence the $50b price tag per recent analysis...but worth it vs. the alternatives.

@CityNerd Год назад

It's on my list! Gonna have to get creative...the race genre started feeling stale. But as a frequent Cascades rider, it's one I'm excited about doing!

@PalmelaHanderson Год назад

I'm sure the terrible land uses around light rail stops has a lot to do with things like eminent domain. Like, it's easy for the city to shove in a lightrail stop right along sisde the freeway since the land is probably already in the city right of way, anyway. Or to put a stop in the middle of an industrial park or somewhere that's surrounded by acres upon acres of parking lots. Businesses and landlords are probably much less likely to put up a fight in those areas. But then, as you said, cities then wonder why no one uses light rail. It's not really much use to anyone if it doesn't go anywhere that people want to go, or if the closest destination from a stop is a 20 minute walk away. Also, for the "surprisingly honorable mentions" as it were, I can only speak for Houston, but if you happen to actually live in the walkshed of Houston's rail network, it's actually pretty good, so I'm not surprised to see ridership as high as it is per track mile. It just serves a pretty tiny section of Houston's population.

@bradr2693 Год назад

Yeah I take the light rail to work every day in Houston and it’s great! Trains every 6 minutes means I never have to check a schedule and they’ve finagled a way for it to rarely get stuck in traffic. The lack of zoning helps it have good land uses around every station from downtown to the med center. Park and ride at the end of the line (seen in this video) mostly services the med center and is reasonable considering it’s right by a freeway and several miles from downtown

@spyone4828 Год назад

Specifically the last system mentioned, in Norfolk, has exactly the problem you mention. The eastern half of the light rail follows a right-of-way purchased from Norfolk Southern as they no longer had any freight customers along it. The Military Highway stop is next to a cloverleaf interchange because that's where the right-of-way is, parallel to the interstate that is crossing Military Highway there. They are currently seeking funding to move the tracks to run to the shopping centers a bit north of there instead. And there is a station that serves a little housing community that used to be sandwiched between the river and the freight rail because that alternative would be no station. They didn't get to pick the route.

@geassrailfantitan3414 Год назад

nice comparison! i'd love to see a video on Most and least useful rail systems outside north america. this vid and the Top 10 Train Networks That Connect Suburbs to Cities and the 10 Worst Transit Cities r my favorites!!

@ryanlargent9320 Год назад

As someone who lives in Baltimore, I'd say the issue is (1) the Light Rail & Subway lines primarily servicing as rail to bring suburbanites into the city rather than move within the city and (2) the lack of expansion to places that would actually use it intracity (see: the cancelled Red Line).

@fwizzybee42 Год назад

100% Baltimore’s rail is commuter rail without the name. I lived for 7 years in various neighborhoods but all east of downtown and therefore never used it.

@Adam-bh4zp Год назад

Yep. RIP the red line. Maybe one day

@NIMRODWARDA Год назад

FYI, Kenosha's streetcar line (which is a one mile loop in downtown) is a "heritage" system only meant for tourism and entertainment. I wish it was more robust and serviced adjacent neighborhoods, but it was literally created to attract people back into downtown (and it has been successful in helping achieve said goal).

@paveladamek3502 Год назад

I checked the loop and one of its "sides" before it makes the U-turn is shorter than what an average Wallmart shopper walks between the car, aisles and car again. It sure looks beautiful but you can definitely see more of Kenosha downtown by just walking.

@NIMRODWARDA Год назад

@@paveladamek3502 Yep. There was a plan to expand it, but it was shot down.

@TomHoffman-uw7pf Год назад

"FYI, Kenosha's streetcar line (which is a one mile loop in downtown) is a "heritage" system only meant for tourism and entertainment. " I lost any respect I may have had for Kenosha when I learned it doesn't run in the winter (then again, maybe that's changed). If that doesn't spell TOURIST, nothing does. Commuters go to work all year. Duhhh. '

@NIMRODWARDA Год назад

@@TomHoffman-uw7pf Thankfully it does run year round. I took my kids on it this past weekend when we went to two different museums at opposite ends of the line (Kenosha Public Museum and Dinosaur Discovery Museum). I think it can at least help people get used to riding public transit.

@NIMRODWARDA Год назад

@@paveladamek3502 By the way, that plan still wasn't a practical alignment for regular service. In my opinion, the City should still expand, but run it from roughly Library Park on the south end to Carthage College on the north end. Depending on how that goes, they could then even later expand it west to Uptown via 63rd Street and create some TOD along the way.

@brianhorlor2558 Год назад

As someone who lived in the Ingleside neighborhood in Norfolk, I know exactly how they arrived at that track location. It's where Norfolk-Southern owned some tracks that weren't being used any more. The city bought it since it was deemed to be cheaper than just laying track outright. Next, NSU sucked. They had approved the route along the edge of campus but changed their minds after work had already started. That change ended up making this awful S-turn coming into the ballpark where it's right at the turning radius of the train. The squeal is awful. Why they chose the path downtown to the medical school is anybody's guess. They tore down a historic building and still get the privilege of waiting at red lights (like at city hall or by the mall)> It doesn't serve the Naval Station. It doesn't go to Virginia Beach. It doesn't go anywhere anybody wants to go except downtown, but why would I park at the Military Hwy or Newtown P&R to make a 30-minute train ride instead of making a ten-minute drive? However, there are two advantages: baseball and hockey. I could get schmammered at home and/or at BWW, then get a single beer at the stadium/arena. I didn't have to park and I didn't have to drive. Win-win!

@CaeserOct Год назад

To be fair to Houston, your example of the Houston light rail station is the end of the line. Most of the light rail is in the dense core which does mean that nearby land use is decent although the other side of that is that the system is very limited especially given our sprawl.

@jg-7780 Год назад

One thing to note about Southmoor station in Denver is that due to NIMBY opposition there isn’t even a way to walk to the suburban homes directly adjacent to the station

@drdreidel101 Год назад

I am utterly shocked that Buffalo, NY isn't on this list. The NFTA Metro in its current form certainly feels useless for most folks.

@Tall_dark_and_handsome Год назад

After living in Buffalo for the past year and having to rely on it to get from the north part of town to downtown, I agree, vary useless. At best, trains run 10 minutes apart, has 5 semi-useful above ground stations that you can walk from the one end to the other faster than it would be if you just waited for the next train to take you. And below ground it’s $2 one way, or $75 for the month! Busses are included in that $75 but still….USELESS and way overpriced!

@drdreidel101 Год назад

@@Tall_dark_and_handsome Welcome!! I've been living in Buffalo for 10ish years now and while I love it the public transit leaves much to be desired. Luckily the city's footprint makes it incredible for cycling regardless how little investment actually goes into cycling infrastructure. We have much to aspire too. I just wish I had a lick of faith in the current administration.

@zoicon5 Год назад

It probably didn't make the list because the system is so small. Less than 7 miles long. So it could still escape the list without all that many riders. And if the ridership numbers include people who don't pay because they're in the fare-free part of the system that would help even more.

@dragon32210 Год назад

I had to take the bus from Buffalo to Niagara Falls...wow was that ride long

@billbanas Год назад

Facts: Buffalo’s light-rail ridership is about 700,000 per track mile (2019). Quite good, relatively speaking. And the system is about the same length as Norfolk’s, which came in worst on the list.

@AnttiImpio Год назад

Frequency is freedom.

@notjamesstockdale3563 Год назад

The alignment in Norfolk is mostly an old freight line between Norfolk and Virginia Beach. It was supposed to go between the two city center areas but Virginia Beach had a referendum and banned it from the city.

@rowan4772 Год назад

I take the E Line in Denver pretty frequently, Southmoor Station is easily one of the worst stops to be at. + the trains tend to not stop there for very long so you have to scramble to get on before the doors close. You have 10 seconds at best.

@sklegg Год назад

I rode the Seattle light rail for the first time a few months ago and it was an absolute joy. I can’t wait for it to get extended even further.

@VanillaMacaron551 Год назад

Just returned from a one-month stay in Seattle. Something weird is going on in the eastern extension - a whole lot of track is built and sitting there but not being used for some reason, a construction delay somewhere else, I think - sorry I don't have the details.

@iwearcrocs9970 Год назад

I drive past a major light rail station for VTA when dropping my sister off for soccer practice, and I’m always amazed at how very little destinations I can actually go if I got onto it. With the Berryessa Bart station really being the only access to quick transit for the South Bay, the fact I can’t get there from Levi’s Stadium in under an hour by Public Transit is really saddening. Plus there’s a significant amount of the line that just tracks a freeway with Park and Rides beneath overpasses, which is also not optimal. That all aside though, I was curious if talking about College Campus’s connections to mass transit would be interesting.

@quintinityzero Год назад

I don't know where you've been looking, but Berryessa BART station to Levi's stadium is under 40 minutes by taking BART and then connecting to VTA light rail at Milpitas.

@JoeJoe-lq6bd Год назад

For months after they opened the Milpitas station, the bus to the VTA station was still coming from the South Fremont BART station because the VTA said they didn't get enough notice. They literally said they needed more than a few years to figure out a new route for a bus.

@EmmaKAlexandra Год назад

So many stations on the DC metro look like these stations. Especially out past Ballston on the Orange and Silver Lines. You can really tell why the Silver Line hasn't made it to Dulles yet. There's just not much out there in terms of density.

@thomasaly7624 Год назад

As someone who lives over near Tysons Corner, it is still really nice to be able to take the Silver Line to get into DC. I'm about a 25 minute bike ride from the Spring Hill Station.

@braincandle Год назад

Last time I checked St. Louis Metrolink schedules they were running every 10 minutes. Still not great in the grand scheme of things. Other things worth mentioning: transitioning to closed platforms (likely turnstiles) appears to be happening, which will greatly improve security and potentially ridership. Also, a new North/South line through the city and county seems to be gaining traction and could happen sooner rather than later. I think security has been one of the biggest problems, as there have been homicides on the train and in station lots. That’s a whole other can of worms to open when you start to try to come up with solutions to gun violence in St. Louis…

@Motive9366 Год назад

I'm skeptical the turnstiles won't improve security. The consultants the city hired recommended not to install them, but the city is doing it anyway🤦‍♂. The reason the turnstiles are being built it because of the late Centene CEO Michael Neidorff pushed it along with other business leaders that surely don't use MetroLink themselves.

@rorypaul153 6 месяцев назад

@@Motive9366one of the system’s biggest criticisms is safety.

@rorypaul153 6 месяцев назад

Right now it’s every 15 minutes because of flooding in 2022 that knocked out signals for a 1.5 or so mile stretch of both lines. Trains that normally run at 35 to 40 MPH through this corridor are cut down to 15 to 20 MPH so they can stop if they have to. Repairs are ongoing and will hopefully be resolved soon and be back to normal frequency.

@gandhihype Год назад

I live in San Jose, right outside a stop on the light rail, and it's literally useless because it's so slow and there's no transit oriented development. It's genuinely painful seeing it pass every 20 minutes and knowing its easily one of the worst systems in the country. What's worse is that, like every US city, we had streetcar lines in the early 1900s and we built streetcar suburbs around them. EDIT: VTA has improved frequencies to every 15min, and is looking to further improve to every 10min + 24hr service with bus coverage. They need the funding to do it but when they get that funding it's gonna massively improve the system. They're actively looking at downtown grade separation too, so they know where their problems are.

@soaringvulture Год назад

The San Jose light rail is indeed useless. I lived very near the transit center and my workplace was right by a station. The distance was about 5 miles. It took 45 minutes for me to get to work by light rail. It took me 20 minutes by bicycle and 7 minutes by car. I took the light rail about 2 times in the 10 years I was there. And of course, it specifically does not go to the airport because they didn't want to lose the parking revenue.

@pabloaguilar578 Год назад

So right. I only ever take the Green Line between downtown Campbell and a buddies' place when we go out drinking, but even then, the last train is 2 hours before last call at the Irish Pub so most nights we just uber anyways. He and I met through studying in Japan so as you can imagine comparatively it's a real travesty.

@cardenasr.2898 Год назад

Idea for next video on rail transit: new lines or extensions currently under construction, like that Interborough line in NYC that goes from Brooklyn to Queens, or the Suburban train to the new Mexico City Airport. Also it really messes with my mind why transit agencies push for lines and stations in the middle of nowhere with the hope of potential future demand instead of improving already existing services. I get that transit should aim to expand ridership but actual existing users should be the priority

@davidtowle6822 Год назад

Here in Kenosha the streetcar line is more of a tourist attraction than a transit line. The line is only two miles long and goes through part of downtown. There was a proposal to expand it out of downtown but it was blocked.

@mdhazeldine Год назад

I don't know how, but you seem to find ways to become even more sarcastic and jaded every week. Impressive! You'd feel right at home here in the U,K.

@HallsofAsgard96 Месяц назад

especially with the cancellation of most of HS2

@connor5890 Год назад

Interesting, but I have a question, you put DFW on the list but that's a huge area, with 3 transit agencies. None of them are good performers, but Dallas Area Rapid Transit performs waaay better than Trinity Metro (Fort Worth) and Denton County Transit Authorities rail systems. Then you used Dallas as an example. Was this an average of all 3 of those transit agencies, or were you just talking about DART? Also, interestingly enough the station in your thumbnail is Parker road station, and it is one of the best performing suburban stations in the system. The parking lot is full of commuters, and pre-pandemic it got more than 3,000 station riders per day. It's the most utilized park and ride in the system. Trinity Mills, the station you showed off, has a very underutilized park and ride that DART is actually selling to developers for new high density development. Doesn't change the fact it was built by an interchange thought so...

@oscarvega1943 Год назад

Welp you took my words out of my mouth 😂😂

@usernameusername4037 Год назад

The calculations probably incorporate all the systems, since he mentioned all the various ones in the NY metro

@connor5890 Год назад

@@usernameusername4037 ah gotcha, take away the low performing tex rail and the low performing denton county rail, and DART by itself still wouldn't be s great performer. The new orange line that connects to the airport has terrible ridership. For the blue lines connection to Garland, they had better risk right of way (the Santa Fe) they wanted to use, would have added 20,000 extra riders, but they used a worse for ridership rail right of way due to nimby opposition, and state representatives sabotaging DART. And now they are building the silver line, 26 miles for 8,000 projected daily riders (pre pandemic). Not great, but they had to keep promises they made decades ago when the agency was first formed.

@saxmanb777 Год назад

The NTD lists all three DFW transit systems separately. The TRE has its own line item thought as it’s commuter rail. There’s got to be better connections to the other rail lines though. Having to change trains at Trinity Mills to get to Denton is a huge ridership killer.

@connor5890 Год назад

@@saxmanb777 Denton wouldn't qualify under his rules because it's the only train line they operate. Trinity Metro should, but it's more debatable cause the TRE is jointly run by DART and Trinity Metro, and their other rail line is TexRail. But DART is the interesting one to look at imo, TexRail's ridership is just pathetic

@Kirbywonder2468 Год назад

as someone from the bay area, the transit here is definitely very weird! very self indulgent ask but i would love to just have an in depth video about the different transit in california, like socal vs norcal

@idcanthony9286 Год назад

I live Colorado Springs an hour south of Denver. I would take the E Line into downtown Denver everyday. One day I grabbed the wrong train and got stuck at Louisiana and Pearl Station. Which is right next to I-25 underneath an underpass… noisiest place I’ve ever been. I am an aircraft mechanic…

@GussyMate Год назад

Wow, I always wonder what you'd think about Newcastle upon Tyne - my city! Even if this reference is all over get, I'll be happy! We have wonderful parks, a metro system and a great mix of historic and new infrastructure. What a coincidence!

@kennywood9911 Год назад

Would love to see you do a deeper dive regarding the urban transit systems in other countries. I'm partial to Madrid and Barcelona. (Any chance you could take your show on the road and write it off as a business expense?)

@CityNerd Год назад

Oh man, throw in Sevilla and Valencia and we're in business

@Alex-ky4bv Год назад

Great video as always! As for a topic, most overpriced transit fares might make an interesting video, as in, what you get for the money. (Ether single fare, daily or monthly.) Most affordable might be too easy. Personally, I feel like I pay a lot for what I get but it would be interesting for a comparison to the rest of the US/North America.

@CityNerd Год назад

Hmm, that's a new one! Interesting, I'll note it down.

@AshmewStudios Год назад

BART…

@Donot30 Год назад

I would love to see a video on how you would improve a city. Like for example, in Milwaukee there’s the Marquette interchange which is huge and in the middle of the city. What is the best way to fix it?

@LawAcieIV Год назад

The San Jose VTA is actually pretty good the problem is the wait time. Anywhere from 15 mins to an hour usually its about a 30 min wait. If you time your trip you can easily get downtown in 30 mkns max from most of the city. The other problem is switching from lines which can often take 30 mins as well.

@alexweech451 Год назад

Here's my personal commentary on Fashion Place West since it was my local station for a while. There badly needs to be a crosswalk on the east side of the tracks. Right now to get to the station (legally), people have to cross the busy tracks, wait for a long light, and then cross the tracks again. Otherwise I can't really fault its location much though. The freeway interchange sucks, but it is right at the junction between the red and blue lines. The only other place between Murray Central and Midvale Fort Union that could have worked for a station is 5900 South, and I think that Winchester is better. In any case, the station is always busy! I would have called out the Sandy stations (which are largely in SFH areas and even some fields) or South Jordan Parkway (which is literally in the middle of nowhere but will eventually be in the middle of a road (it still blows my mind that Salt Lake designed a greenfield rail project and decided to put it in the middle of a street with traffic signals)).

@parkersackewitz6266 Год назад

Also an SLC local here. There should be some redevelopment in the immediate area. My idea would be to build a park with bikeways over I-215 from the station to the state street bridge. Then “Fashion Place West” makes more sense especially if this hypothetical project is named Fashion Place greenway or whatever. But if we’re not going to do that, just change the name to Winchester.

@smiskimins Год назад

Would love to see a video on good examples of suburban infill! The example that comes to mind in my area is the Mosaic District in falls church, VA. Its expensive and definitely qualifies as "drive to urbanism" but is still better land use than most of the rest of NoVA!

@CityNerd Год назад

Ooohhh, I like this idea a lot. Been looking for something useful to do with the suburbs!

@thomasaly7624 Год назад

I've been to Mosaic quite a few times. It's probably one of the better places to access by bike from where I am in Vienna. The W&OD truly is a God send (if only they kept the rail line though and just had the bike path next to it).

@derpmansderpyskin Год назад

It's irritating because most or all of these agencies struggle with funding, but could probably gain significant amounts of revenue from better land use. RTD was originally supposed to open the B line to Boulder & Longmont in 2016, but it's been delayed until TWENTY FIFTY due to lack of funding. They're also planning on retaining reduced 'pandemic level' service on many lines for the next ~5 years due to, again, lack of funds. Maybe if their light rail lines didn't lose so much money, they wouldn't struggle so much with funding.

@michalvarga8515 Год назад

This is incredibly disingenuous. RTD planned the B line based on the pricing for the usage of the BNSF right of way, which BNSF increased tenfold and made that project impossible. Boulder got the best bus service in the region (Flatiron Flyer) with HIGHER frequencies than the B line is planned to have. Don't get me wrong, I would love for the B line to be finished, but it's not like it's actually RTD's fault. They built the A line, W line, G line, N line, R line and extended E and C lines for $6b. That's incredible, considering how much other cities spend on rail. And they did so even though the project got started in the middle of an economic crisis.

@derpmansderpyskin Год назад

@@michalvarga8515 I'm not criticizing the FasTraks project in general, I think it was great, and all things considered ('08 recession + increases in construction cost) executed quite well. Although it might be worth asking why RTD ever thought they could get the B line alignment from BNSF for 66 million dollars, when BNSF actually wants $535 million. I'm just saying that RTD has some terrible land usage around it's stations, and might make up some of it's revenue shortfall if it could get some decent ridership.

@linuxman7777 Год назад

As a guy from a walkable Suburb of Pittsburgh, I can tell you that I never use the Light Rail outside of the free section. I use the busses and busways all the time, but the light rail isn't that great. And I do agree with you that more grade separation is needed on the T And due to the geography of mountains like in Denver and Salt Lake, it is very hostile to rail which needs less steep grades to work than Busses or Funiculars both of which Pittsbugh does well.

@evanzinner6589 Год назад

It’s actually not that similar to Denver & Salt Lake City. Those two cities sit on flat plains adjacent to huge mountains. The mountains are not that in the way in those cities. Pretty different than Pittsburgh where the mountains are smarter but very much in the city.

@linuxman7777 Год назад

@@evanzinner6589 Didn't know that, because I haven't been to a city in a valley between mountains except Kofu in Yamanashi prefecture Japan, and it is far from being a huge metropolis. Usually mountains hinder and make development more difficult.

@thomaskeane5723 Год назад

Agree that the bus system in Pittsburgh is pretty efficient. And pre-pandemic while working downtown, I used the rail system every day to travel from the parking lot to my building. But the light rail system only services the South Hills and downtown, so if you live in the other directions around Pittsburgh, including most of the fastest-growing areas, you are car-reliant, even with many old existing rail passageways.

@linuxman7777 Год назад

@@thomaskeane5723 You aren't car reliant though in the places not served by rail, places like Bellevue, Ambridge, Coraiopolis, Sewickley, Homestead, Lawrenceville, and so many other places are very walkable, and have access to the bus. The places that are car dependent are the places away from the rivers on the hills far outside the city, all new development.

@MikyleChristian Год назад

One thing that’s really interesting is when comparing Metro Houston to DART, you can really see that Houston was targeting density vs cheap ROW built into highway medians ( I don’t think Houston has any built into highway row). It’s resulted in Houston having far less ridership, but generally a more useful system in some ways, especially when the extensions are getting built. Hopefully Houston can try to focus on density ink instead of expanding highways even more.

@seanshen8325 Год назад

Houston red line is already at capacity, due to short platform length and poor grade-separation (limits headway). Houstan is not a successful case for transit development, of course, Dallas is another failure- poor TOD and car-oriented development leads to poor ridership per mile

@wnphn7653 Год назад

Houston decided to build BRT instead of light rail along highway ROW. The BRT connects major nodes with minimal to no stops in between, allowing for pretty great service and avoids rush hour traffic. I'm not sure what extensions you are talking about for MetroRail though, everything planned has been shut down by NIMBYs for a few years now.

@MikyleChristian Год назад

@@wnphn7653 the metro next extensions should've been green lit already but not under construction yet. They include extending the rail network to Hobby and BRT to IAH