Quote:
Originally Posted by wwmiv
Even if our goal is to have 25% transit share in 2040, there will be more cars on the road then than now I’m Austin because of our explosive growth. Busses are NOT a solution, period.
We aren’t gonna be eliminating or reducing cars no matter what happens.
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Dallas-Fort Worth area has the largest light rail network on the continent (150km) but it also has easily the worst transit ridership and mode share of the big four in Texas, one of the worst in the country (12 boardings per capita, 1.5% of commuters using transit). Despite their lack of light rail, Austin and San Antonio still have much better transit ridership and mode share than Dallas (19 and 20 boardings per capita, 2.7% and 2.2% mode share, respectively). Transit in Dallas doesn't even come close to Austin and somehow you use Austin as example to attack buses. It doesn't make any sense to me.
Of course you can look at places outside Texas like Las Vegas (31 boardings per capita, 4.1% commute mode share), Seattle (63 boardings per capita, 8.6% mode share), Honolulu (70 boardings per capita, 7.9% mode share), Halifax (83 boardings per capita, 12.5% mode share), and Winnipeg (98 boardings per capita, 13.4% mode share).
You can also look at cities with the most successful modern light rail systems like San Francisco, Calgary, Portland, they all have massive bus ridership. In the San Francisco-Oakland area, light rail gets around 220,000 boardings per weekday, heavy rail 450,000, commuter rail 90,000, while buses get around 850,000. Portland gets 120,000 boardings per weekday on its light rail system compared to 180,000 on its bus system. Calgary gets 310,000 boardings per weekday on its light rail compared to 260,000 on its buses.
Light rail can't function in isolation. Cities need to build the foundations for light rail for it successful. A light rail line, like ANY transit line, needs to be part of a wider and comprehensive network. Dallas for example only finally saw ridership growth after massive expansion of bus services last year. Ridership grew by 14% in 2019 (+30% for buses, -2% for light rail).
Winnipeg, Las Vegas, Quebec City, these are probably the best candidates for new light rail systems right now. Systems each around 70 million boardings annually, the ridership getting too much for buses to handle. That's why you build light rail. Light rail is not a solution for low ridership. Light rail is a solution for high ridership. You build light rail because the ridership is too high, not because the ridership is too low. With ridership of 30 million, Austin probably is not at that point yet, but with enough commitment (bus expansion, TOD) it can get there.
