We love our streetcars here in Portland. Great thing in SF too.Originally Posted by Reds4Life
But I guess if you live somewhere where people mostly live in the suburbs and the downtown isn't highly utilized.....
We love our streetcars here in Portland. Great thing in SF too.
But I guess if you live somewhere where people mostly live in the suburbs and the downtown isn't highly utilized.....
School's out. What did you expect?
Put me down as somebody who doesn't support marginal upgrades to 100 year old transportation infrastructure that will not produce marginal productivity gains nor serve as a down payment on the next big improvement.
I'm a huge fan of commuter rail if it's really high speed and connects high density areas. But if we're going to invest, let's do it right the first time. Inefficient half solutions merely kick the can down the next people to deal with. Doing something poorly or half-way is a great way to sour the idea altogether.
Games are won on run differential -- scoring more than your opponent. Runs are runs, scored or prevented they all count the same. Worry about scoring more and allowing fewer, not which positions contribute to which side of the equation or how "consistent" you are at your current level of performance.
That is the situation here. Downtown Cincinnati is a ghost town after working hours, and empty on weekends.
Cincinnati hasn't been very bright with their decisions. We took the most valuable piece of development real estate on the riverfront, the space between PBS and GABP, and built the underground railroad museum. An "attraction" that nobody visits, and is bankrupt. Pure comedy.
I live downtown. I challenge you to actually come down here at those times and your opinion will change. As a former denizen of the suburbs I would NEVER go back. There is always something to do downtown. The suburbs are an endless stream of blah chains; if that floats your boat enjoy.
Name me a gov't funded road that turned a profit.
All models are wrong. Some of them are useful.
Even before the election UA/Continental announced direct flights between Cincinnati/Clevleand. About 45 minutes gate-to-gate. I did the Cincinnati/Cleveland route several times last year but I had to go through Chicago. Total pain in the butt. With this announced route in place I'm on it in a heartbeat and forget the train.
BTW, I spent a month living DT and it was great. If I ever lived there again it would either be DT or Mt. Adams. Having said that, the trolly is folly.
Rem
Density first, steetcars second. Oregon does it right:
http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/en..._use_planning/
Yeah, I can't stand it. And I'm not really a snob. I eat fastfood from time to time and enjoy it. I just don't want to have to get in my car to get a quart of milk.
Funny thing is that in the city you know your neighbors better. The guy who owns the bodega on the corner will forward me a pack of smokes if I don't money on me. He knows I'll pay -- I live on the corner!
Try that at 7-11.
Part of Portland's advantage is that it's homogenous, it doesn't have to deal with people voting against city projects because they fear black people.
Last edited by paintmered; 11-04-2010 at 07:06 PM.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Last edited by paintmered; 11-04-2010 at 07:07 PM.
There is some truth in that
School's out. What did you expect?
I fear Hipsters
Aaaaannnd we've gone political.
Benzinger backing and calling! And the 1990 world championship series belongs to the Cincinnati Reds!
I re-opened this thread after the offending posts were edited. Keep politics and race out of the conversation please.
Benzinger backing and calling! And the 1990 world championship series belongs to the Cincinnati Reds!
Here's an idea I've had on this. It would probably never work, but I'll throw it out anyway.
The main reason that's been given for the slow transition to high speed rail is because they need to use existing infrastructure - since ROW is hard to acquire, etc.
There are two rail lines that connect Cincy to Dayton, CSX and Norfolk Southern. Would it be possible to get CSX and NS to share one set of ROW, while giving them federal dollars to make that set have much more capacity - probably 3 tracks, while giving the other set of ROW to a high-speed line?
The thing about high speed I've read on rail forums is that - to go high speed, you can pretty much only run passenger movements on thos lines. High speed lines require different rail, and less sharp curves in their routes. Freight trains generally need heavy rail with different types of ballasting, drainage, etc.
So I don't think we could ever truly achieve high speed in Ohio if the passenger line is also used as a freight line.
If the govt. could convince NS and CSX to share CSX's Cincy-Hamilton-Dayton line, and then still find NS a connecting route to Columbus - maybe the former New York Central line that goes directly from Cincy to Columbus could be devoted to high speed passenger upgrades.
Now, that would still leave a dilemma on getting the line connected to Cleveland. I'm not as familiar with the routes up in northern Ohio. But I think it will take thinking outside the box regarding rail routes in this country if we're ever going to get passenger rail moving on a massive scale again. Because it's just so expensive to build a rail line from scratch these days. It can take years just to get the land appropriated.
Of course, it's all moot if our Ohio leaders are intent on halting it all together.
Phil Castellini puts the FUN in Trust Fund.
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