In my experience, mass transit works best in densely-populated cities. Â There is a lot more actual demand for mass transit, and city systems can be full at least during rush hour. Â Unfortunately, the Leftists who run West Coast cities are enamored of mass transit, and totally ignore the fact that they simply lack the “mass” to make it work. Â Seattle is in love with “light rail,” and their mostly-leftist voters voted to increase taxes on everything (sales, property, cars) to pay for a light-rail system. Â That system is partly running now, from north Seattle to the airport, but it really isn’t drawing many riders.
Of course, they hadn’t counted on a pandemic of respiratory disease that shut down the system for months, then had few riders when it re-opened; they had successfully persuaded citizens that they should fear all their fellow citizens, which doesn’t contribute much to the demand for packed rail cars or buses. Â Of course, Sound Transit bemoans its funding shortfalls, which could have been expected in any case. Â Then, they let kids ride free, contributing even more to the funding shortfall. Â And their trains have become rolling homeless shelters, making legitimate riders very uncomfortable.
Now, they are extending the light rail to Tacoma, and there are some very unhappy business owners there, as shown by this story today: Construction Delays Pile Up. Here’s a quote:
The extension is set to have six new stations as free bus shuttles will replace Tacoma Link service for a few weeks this summer while crews connect the existing line with the Hilltop extension.
“They broke ground in front of my shop in summer of 2019. Fast forward three years, they’re still closing roads here all around my shop,” Salamone said. “They still got construction materials and construction vehicles strewn about alongside road signs, closures. They’re still digging up parts of the rail that they already installed, and then just chip it all out. And, you know, I can’t even imagine what the carbon footprint of this project is.”
Salamone stated a dip in sales occurs immediately with each closure or construction project that his business has to work around.
“The more trouble people have coming to patronize your business, the less people are going to come,” Salamone said.
Exactly what we would have expected. Â But the Left never listens to reason, they just go by their feelings. Â And WE pay, and pay, and pay.
Published in Domestic Policy
You don’t need just mass, you also need to set up transit between places where people are and/or want to go. But many times they just seem to plan what looks good on a map somehow, and figure the people will move to where the transit is.
You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen California’s “high speed rail.” Or not.
Good one RB. And QPi said it best. The BART in the San Fran area started in 1972. First just Oakland to SF. Then expanded. Now, especially in Oakland, as dangerous as the NYC system. Lots of homeless and gangsters. Still trying to expand it to San Jose. A money losing joke. Will never got on one again.Â
It works just fine in Los Angeles, but then, we do have some key parts of the city that have Manhattan-like density.Â
Funny how the Left loves to go backwards. Â They want us to use 100-year-old, immovable-rail technology to get to our high-tech jobs. Â They want us to depend on the Sun and the Wind to power our high-tech gadgets, our factories, and our homes. Â They want us to give up our high-efficiency fertilizer and efficient tractors, to go back to plowing our fields behind horses. Â They need to do it first, so we can see how successful they are.