Re:If We Can Put a Man on the Moon, Why Can’t We Put a Man o...
by kalleboo on Tuesday January 02, 2018 @06:19AM
(#16051238)
I lived in a Swedish city of a similar size. They had a tram network that was dismantled bit by bit until it was completely shut down in 1973 because it was seen as unmodern. And now 40 years later they're all talking about building trams again since they're so modern...
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Re:If We Can Put a Man on the Moon, Why Can’t We Put a Man o...
by jandrese on Tuesday January 02, 2018 @09:38AM
(#16052034)
Even in the US you see this. There was a light rail line[1] that ran west from Washington DC connecting several small farming communities in the early 1900s. It was dismantled and turned into a bike trail and now we are spending billions of dollars[2] to build a Metro expansion parallel to the old rail line.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_and_Old_Dominion_Ra...
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2016/02/1...
Re:If We Can Put a Man on the Moon, Why Can’t We Put a Man o...
by Tiktaalik on Tuesday January 02, 2018 @11:48AM
(#16053091)
What is interesting about the renaissance of light rail to me is that for many cities it's a restoration of how the city was originally designed.
Relatively modern cities, especially north american ones, would have grown along with the tram network, adding on "streetcar suburbs" as the city grew.
For example if a neighbourhood comprises of one major street lined with commercial with residential everywhere else, that was likely once a streetcar line.
At some point these cities threw out the trams and replaced them with buses and cars, but these cities weren't designed for that infrastructure.
Newer cities that are designed around cars are unwalkable stripmall deserts. It will be much more difficult to turn these into walkable transit oriented communities.