US Streetcar Systems to Scale

[wpipkins2]

Pittsburgh was not included? The system is underground in the downtown and north shore area. Its at grade for most part though.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by wpipkins2

Pittsburgh was not included? The system is underground in the downtown and north shore area. Its at grade for most part though.

When it's at grade, does it run in shared or dedicated lanes? I'm thinking the answer to that question is dedicated, making the system operationally more light rail than streetcar - even though the vehicles themselves are more streetcar than light rail.

[photoLith]

Where's Houston's?

[Nouvellecosse]

^ Did you check down in aisle 14? Should be in the Light Rail section, just past Pittsburgh.

[Tom Servo]

Originally Posted by photoLith

Where's Houston's?

Streetcar

www.stacywitbeck.com

Light Rail

blog.chron.com

If you'll note Portland. It does not include the MAX light rail system; it only shows their downtown streetcar lines.

[Beedok]

Toronto's new streetcars look closer to that light rail than that streetcar.

http://o.canada.com/news/new-toronto...night-test-run

[texcolo]

New Orleans has a neat heritage system, it would be nice if modernized a bit though.



Photo by ME.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by lrt's friend

I totally agree, most of the routes are so puny that they look like toy railway circuits.

THey will never return to their original size, and quite frankly, they shouldn't. Streetcar networks of epics sizes seen in early 20th century America aren't the wisest investment in 21st century America. They have their place without a doubt, but largescale networks aren't really important. Land use patterns have simply changed too much in too many cities for them to be effective. They retain legitimacy in legacy systems largely because they preserved the land use they originally served. Most of that original land use has been ripped up in US cities, resulting in the realistic network of the 21st century being much smaller.

Commuter rail and BRT systems are the 21st century transit response to most American cities. Low density, long distance corridors need to be covered on the cheap, and that is what those provide.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

THey will never return to their original size, and quite frankly, they shouldn't. Streetcar networks of epics sizes seen in early 20th century America aren't the wisest investment in 21st century America. They have their place without a doubt, but largescale networks aren't really important. Land use patterns have simply changed too much in too many cities for them to be effective. They retain legitimacy in legacy systems largely because they preserved the land use they originally served. Most of that original land use has been ripped up in US cities, resulting in the realistic network of the 21st century being much smaller.

Commuter rail and BRT systems are the 21st century transit response to most American cities. Low density, long distance corridors need to be covered on the cheap, and that is what those provide.

When it comes to large systems, that's the role of buses today. Streetcars existed long before automobiles and buses.
Never-the-less, it wouldn't have been bad for some of the more highly used streetcar lines to have remained in service. But we're reviewing the age of private transit companies before cities or transit agencies took them over. Just a few lines couldn't compete against an entire system.

[fflint]

Originally Posted by electricron

Streetcars existed long before automobiles and buses.

That's not obviously true. According to Wikipedia, horse-drawn buses date back to the 1820s, while horse-drawn streetcars didn't arrive in the US until the 1830s.

[Cirrus]

I wrote a long post about the differences between light rail and streetcars, and how to tell them apart.

[TexasPlaya]

Originally Posted by texcolo

New Orleans has a neat heritage system, it would be nice if modernized a bit though.



Photo by ME.

Just a bit... no more. I love New Orleans.