Urban Street Car Fad

Motivation

Since I live myself in a major metropolitan area, Phoenix, AZ, I was immediately attracted to a new policy research paper published by the Cato Institute (Policy Analysis no. 699, 6/14/2012). Yes, indeed numerous US cities have succumbed to this fad (e.g. Jersey City, NJ).

The Great Streetcar Conspiracy

That is the title of the new Cato paper authored by Randal O’Toole. Streetcars encompasses light rail systems.

Here are some excerpts (emphasis added):

·         “Streetcars are the latest urban planning fad, stimulated partly by the Obama administration's preference for funding transportation projects that promote "livability" (meaning living without automobiles) rather than mobility or cost-effective transportation.”

·         “The real push for streetcars comes from engineering firms that stand to earn millions of dollars planning, designing, and building streetcar lines.”

·         “... the city [Portland, Oregon] also gave developers hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure subsidies, tax breaks, and other incentives to build in the streetcar corridor.”

·         “Streetcars cost roughly twice as much to operate, per vehicle mile, as buses. They also cost far more to build and maintain.”

·         “In fact, a typical bus has more seats than a streetcar, and a bus route can move up to five times as many people per hour, in greater comfort, than a streetcar line. Numerous private bus operators provide successful upscale bus service in both urban and intercity settings.”

·         “Based on 19th-century technology, the streetcar has no place in American cities today except when it functions as part of a completely self-supporting tourist line.”

I think, the last bullet point sums it up quite nicely. Buses or even taxis are much better means of transportation, cheaper, much more flexible and so on. Streetcars are jobs for public sector unions.