Quote:
Originally Posted by drew
At grade along the previous streetcar lines that existed throughout the city (and around which the city grew) would be my choice for the first and most important leg of a "rail"based transit system.
This would be by far the most bang for the buck in terms of visible impact and public perception of transit...
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Completely agree: any new transit plan must be able to make a direct, positive impact on Winnipeg's old urban, transit-oriented neighborhoods; making commerce and residence along the old "main streets" of downtown and urban neighborhoods (Corydon, Sargent, Selkirk, etc) desirable again.
Transit must serve people and commerce. Abandoned or under-used rail rights-of-ways might be the path of least resistance, but how will an abandoned right-of-way serve the corner of River and Osborne? Portage and Arlington? City Hall? Sargent and Balmoral? Euclid and Main?
The current third-rate scheme for "bus rapid transit" and their "quality corridors" will actually make downtown and neighborhood commercial streets
less desirable, eliminating on-street parking (bye-bye, residents and shops) while making the pedestrian environment less enjoyable (unless people like getting splashed by a bus going 60 km/h a few feet away from the sidewalk). Bus rapid transit is a traffic engineer's dream, and an urbanist's nightmare.