Quote:
Originally Posted by ardecila
^ it’s hard to argue an alternate history. That initial study was 41 years ago. Perhaps Detroit, both it’s neighborhoods and downtown, would not have fallen so far, so fast with a rail system in place. Perhaps today it would be a far more transit-oriented city - probably not on the level of Chicago or New York, but certainly like Los Angeles or Atlanta.
Obviously Detroit had serious economic issues with de-industrialization that would have happened either way, but the lack of a functional transit system is a big reason why Detroiters were able to abandon the inner-city and employers to abandon the downtown to such a large extent.
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I don't know, I look at Ottawa for example it's basically the same ridership as Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver. There also Dallas, the worst transit ridership and mode share among the big 4 Texas cities, and the one with the most rail by far. Or you can just look at Detroit, compare the falling QLine ridership to the rising SMART ridership. If rail instead of bus is a factor on ridership, it is just a minor one, not enough to justify its cost.
What happened to Detroit, the flight to the suburbs, the hollowing out the core, that probably came first. The decline of the inner city is more likely to be one of the root causes for the decline of transit than the other way around.
Maybe lack of transit makes it harder to get people to return to the city. Lack of transit means one less advantage for the city. Too much demand for parking space in the city also makes it more difficult for development, especially office development. Investing in transit is important for the revitalization of the city, and rail is important part of that, but Detroit is just not at the step yet. They have the People Mover and QLine, that's already more than they should have built.
Again, I think Seattle and Las Vegas should be the models for US systems like Detroit. Honolulu is another high ridership system just mentioned that is also bus-only. Vancouver? In 1991 its system had over 100 million linked trips (around 160-170 million unlinked), basically the same size as Seattle's now. Detroit with around 33 million unlinked trips is not even close to that stage yet. One step at a time.