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Relative cost of paved street versus rail track?
It's commonly understood or assumed that rail is very expensive and roads are cheap. After all we build roads and streets everywhere but rail is uncommon and a major undertaking.
Obviously if you compared a city street with a section of electrified rapid transit, or a bumpy shoulder-less 2-lane asphalt highway with a railroad with few grades and wide curves requiring substantial earth moving, then yeah the rail choice is way more expensive.
But I think this is apples and oranges, in a way.
I'm not an engineer, but when I observe the construction of new urban streets they come with curbs, gutters, sidewalks, trees and landscaping, lighting, etc and it's fairly elaborate. There is a lot of steel rebar that goes into the ground before the concrete is poured. Adding a lane, putting in a raised median, all involves workers putting in metal forms and rebar and moving utilities, etc. Then you have things like guardrails.
In light of all this, would adding tram style streetcar tracks be that expensive? What makes that suddenly so hard? There's catenary of course, but battery technology could make that less necessary some day.
Why does urban rail transit break the bank when a similar if not larger amount of resources can be easily justified on minor roads in suburban master planned communities or shopping centers?
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