St. Louis: More Light Rail vs. Streetcars vs. Bus Service

Few topics raise so much debate as public mass transit. Some, mostly wealthy suburbanites that profit from sprawl, suggest we shouldn’t subsidize mass transit (leaving money to subsidize their sprawl). Others strongly advocate expensive light rail systems including our own MetroLink. Still others advocate an expansion in bus service as a means of reaching more people, in particular those that can’t afford private cars. And finally you have streetcar advocates looking to use their retro charm to invigorate areas while providing transportation.

In July Post-Dispatch reporters Shane Graber and Elisa Crouch questioned the $550 million being spent on eight more miles of MetroLink:

Graber and Crouch continue their argument with some interesting math:

So for $550 million, here’s how many more buses Metro could have put on the road every day of the year for 16 hours a day: 241 new bus routes for five years; 120 bus routes for 10 years; 80 bus routes for 15 years; or 60 for 20 years.

That is a lot of buses. Perhaps too many? But their point is well made. Light rail is very expensive and doesn’t always serve the population that needs it most.

I’ve been utilizing our bus service in combination with my bike quite a bit over the last few months. I’ve been very impressed with the cleanliness of the buses, their on-time rate and the friendliness of my fellow riders. The economic difference between riders on the bus and light rail is pretty apparent but in the end not a deterrent. But the stigmatism of the bus is alive in many people’s mind.

Streetcars are basically a bus on a fixed rail. Well, in truth, the bus was a streetcar removed from the rails and given a diesel engine. People universally seem to love streetcars. Even new streetcars that don’t have the retro look. Something about the rail and the overhead wires. Not even the wires so much. Seattle’s buses become electric in the city, connecting to overhead wires. It really comes down to the fixed rail.

You’d think the flexibility of the bus would be more appealing but I believe we all have this secret love of railroads and the rails. The streetcar is the most accessible form of rail transportation. Light rail is superior to streetcars in that one train can hold many more passengers. Each operator carries more passengers a day than would an operator of a streetcar or bus. This is ultimately the big argument in favor of light rail. However, the cost to get those people from place to place is high.

Before people start attacking me let me say that I love our MetroLink system and I’m glad we are expanding it. But I’m wondering about the wisdom of expanding the system further. I’m not suggesting we stop building our mass transit system, just changing from light rail to streetcar.

Part of my reasoning is purely selfish. Where I currently live MetroLink will never be convenient. In about 20 years I might have a stop about a mile West of me that will take me downtown. Twenty years! I’ll be pushing 60 years old by then. Sorry, but I’m not that patient. The #40 Broadway bus is just three blocks to the East and it gets me the six miles to downtown in very short order.

I see the future Northside MetroLink route as being a critical component to repopulating and reinvigorating North St. Louis. But can we afford to wait the 15+ years for it to be finished? As much as I love light rail I think we’d be better off substituting streetcars along the Northside and Southside routes. We can have an efficient system in place years earlier and for millions less. Streetcars offer the lower cost per passenger of buses while increasing ridership through their magical charm.

Ultimately, the sooner we get more mass transit in place the better off we’ll be as a region. Streetcar lines would reach more people in more neighborhoods than light rail. And, after all, that is the goal of mass transit.

– Steve

SLU Research Tower Should Not Be Awarded a LEED Designation

Saint Louis University is putting a friendly spin on its new Research Tower under construction at the SE corner of Grand and Chouteau. A new story in the St. Louis Business Journal had this to say:

Many are all excited about the building. Some like the way it looks. It will have bike racks and showers for researchers that want to bike to the building. Some parking spaces will be dedicated to hybrid or low emissions vehicles.

The “green space” is my issue with the building. This is not a massive building at 206,000 square feet yet it is being placed in the center of a massive nine acre green. The site was, until recently, three and a half city blocks. The 10-story building would easily fit on a fraction of one city block. Click here to see the project website including drawings and a site plan.

Everyone from City Hall to locals is hailing the “investment” this project represents. Indeed, I’m happy to see $66 million being spent. The wasteful use of land and the destruction of the interconnected street grid is not offset by any “green” building methods. SLU and Architects Cannon Design must be fooling themselves to think this is friendly to the urban environment.

In typical SLU fashion the nine acres will most likely be surrounded by fencing that says the public is not welcome here unless you’ve got big bucks for tuition. At the corner of Grand & Chouteau a fountain will decorate the lifeless intersection.

Preliminary drawings indicated planted medians along the center of Grand which will present challenges for building future street car lines. The drawings also show no street parking along Grand nor any any street trees. Basically the sidewalk along Grand and Chouteau will be a miserable place to walk. SLU and the architects fail to understand that such a sterile sidewalk will not benefit from the adjacent green grass.

Nine acres! I can’t get over it. Keeping the street grid in place you could create a very interesting and urban area. Once again in St. Louis we are applauding a major institution for their wasteful and anti-urban “investment.”

Connecting SLU’s main campus and the medical campus should be a high priority. Rebuilding three and a half city blocks at Grand & Chouteau is an opportunity to create storefronts to enliven the sidewalk experience, provide services for students and researchers and even create some additional housing. Why is this corner so important? Couple of things. First we already have the Grand MetroLink stop between both SLU campuses. This stop is used by many students as well as residents connecting to local buses. A future Southside MetroLink line will run along Chouteau making it even more important to our future. And big plans are underway to make the bridge between the SLU campuses more pedestrian friendly. From the St. Louis Business Journal:

So we are going to spend $25 million to make the area more pedestrian friendly yet at the South end of the bridge the new Research Tower in the big green will be a big dead zone of activity. According to the Mayor’s site Republican US Senator Kitt Bond “found” $15 million to move the project forward. I love how elected officials responsible for dividing up our tax money for transportation projects suddenly find money. In congressional terms $15 million is sofa change.

Building interesting cities is not easy but common sense tells you blank sidewalks with no activity is not the way to go. The bridge project is a good idea but tragically it will be underutilized due to the new SLU research building taking up space that could be put to use encouraging more pedestrian traffic. To go for green accreditation is an insult. This new building may employ some energy saving techniques but in the big picture it is hardly friendly to the environment.

Forgive me if I don’t join others in applauding SLU.

– Steve

Thoughts on Rita

Once again I’m glued to CNN despite some of the stupid statements from both reporters and officials they interview. The following are some of my thoughts and observations.

On the issue of the clogged highways I’ve heard some suggestions about expanding the road network. Amazing! Americans already use more than our share of the world’s energy plus we create for more pollution per capita than others. Yet our solutions only compound these problems. Typical.

Having more gas along evacuation routes will be part of future plans. I guess that is all good and well for a hurricane that you can plan for in advance. However, when evacuating due to another disaster such as an earthquake, tornado or terrorist attack you can’t plan to have extra gasoline along highways.

Also on the gas front early reports indicate a couple of closed refineries had damage — one indicating “significant damage.” Well, duh. But the media is stepping over themselves to try to assure the public that energy prices will stabilize shortly. The message — go ahead and buy that new house 30 miles from work and enjoy the drive in your new Hummer.

“You can’t have a strong economy unless you have a strong highway system.” was spoken by Republican Rep Tom Delay on CNN. Well, there you go. Other countries seem to have similar or better economies along with superior high-speed passenger rail service and urban mass transit. Clinging to our highways and single occupancy vehicles will be the death of our economy.

How is it that I can watch CNN for weeks and not hear anyone suggest that perhaps we are too dependent upon gasoline and other oil products? CNN can find all kinds of experts to interview but they don’t seem capable of doing a simple Google search to find someone to say we need to think about how we use energy just not how can we maintain our high level of use.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer is a putz. Other CNN anchors can be annoying but Wolfy takes the cake. One anchor very early this morning was getting on my nerves by asking field reporters about damage and the answer each and every time is, “once we have daylight we’ll know more.” After a half hour of this I turned off the tube and went back to sleep.

Republicans and Democrats are putz’s as well. The Republican’s are all saying how great Bush’s leadership and Democrats saying how bad it is. I don’t like Bush but I’m not sure of the benefit of this back and forth attack and praise game.

I’m not really a believer in “God” but if I were I’d have to conclude that he/she is trying to send a message to poor people: Red states are no place for you! Or is this just Mother Nature at work reminding us that we are fallible?

– Steve

The Folly of Highways as Evacuation Routes

Sitting here watching CNN this morning as people from Galveston & Houston are attempting to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Rita. Soledad O’Brien just did a phone interview with a guy that has traveled 48 miles in 13 hours. Evacuees are running out of gas on the interstate. Others are overwhelming gas stations along the evacuation route.

Interstate highways were sold to the public back in the days of the Cold War as means of evacuating cities in the event of nuclear war. Maybe in the 1950s they had few enough cars to actually evacuate a city in a reasonable time frame. Today we can’t even get people home to the suburbs without congestion.

When I can bicycle faster than people in cars it is a clear sign we are too dependent on cars. Some Republicans in Congress are suggesting we take a look at Amtrak. But, they aren’t thinking we bolster our passenger rail service to help our transportation needs! No, they are suggesting we cut or eliminate Amtrak to help pay for Katrina cleanup. Such a move would place us even more dependent upon private cars and fossil fuels.

– Steve

Kunstler Continues to Push Peak Oil Issues

James Howard Kunstler, author of now-classic books, The Geography of Nowhere and Home from Nowhere is pushing the peak oil issue on his blog which is known as Clusterfuck Nation.

Kunstler’s entry from today addresses the foolish thinking that hybrids will allow us to continue our auto-dominated society:

Kunstler’s latest book, The Long Emergency: Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-first Century, is on my reading list. From what I’ve read from the blog so far Kunstler is highly pessimistic about the future. Although maybe he is simply being realistic?

First up is home heating costs for this winter. It will be a serious issue and tragically we’ll have stories here in St. Louis of people dying because they couldn’t afford to heat their homes. But high natural gas prices will lead to higher electricity costs. Both will mean higher costs of goods and services. Can you say recession?

As a region we simply cannot continue subsidizing sprawl. All the experts predict the number of cars and auto congestion will continue to increase. I disagree. Within 20 years our auto ownership and traffic congestion will be less than, or equal, to today.

Yet our political leadership is moving ahead on massive auto subsidizing projects while more sustainable transportation projects take a back seat. The rebuilding of I-64 (highway farty to natives) and a new Mississippi River Bridge are just two examples.

Based on cost estimates to build two miles of street car lines connecting the Loop to Forest Park you can get about fives times as much coverage with street cars over light rail. For a cool billion dollars we can get a new bridge, the proposed Northside & Southside MetroLink extensions or 4-5 times as many street car lines covering much of the city. Currently the bridge is the highest priority. It should be the last priority.

The claim is we need the bridge and auto capacity to grow our economy. This, of course, assumes the cheap gas auto economy we’ve been used to. My feeling is we need to shift away from subsidizing the dead-end auto “experiment” and build a first-class mass transit system. Reactionaries will attempt to read into my views that I want to ban all cars from St. Louis but that is not the case. I want to shift the balance back to a sustainable means of moving people from place to place. That is walking, biking, and street cars.

Twenty years from now large McMansions in Chesterfield will be vacated like homes of Lafayette Square were thirty years ago. The difference will be that the vinyl clad boxes in suburbia will not be worth saving. Transit will be the key and the wealthier will move closer to mass transit and the poor will be left on the fringes struggling to get to jobs. Bedroom communities will be the hardest hit and will become the new ghettos. At least the poor can now get on a bus (or several buses) and get to the jobs. In the future we’ll finally have mass transit for the wealthier in the core and the poor will be on the edge with substandard service as they try to get back into the core for work. The new Mississippi River Bridge will be little comfort.

Man, I’m as pessimistic as Kunstler!

So what do we do? Again, I think we need to move now to connect as much of the city to mass transit as possible. But if my prediction of the wealthier moving to the core you are correct to wonder won’t this just serve the wealthy in the future? Well, yes and no. My thought is if we plan a network of streetcars to connect the city and inner-ring suburbs we can build denser neighborhoods around transit that accommodate all income levels. Waiting until the crisis point and we’ll see the affluent get transit and the poor get the shaft. If you don’t believe this can happen just turn on CNN for continuing coverage on Katrina.

Unfortunately we will probably ignore the warning signs and come into this crisis as unprepared as we were for the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Major sprawl projects like the bridge and rebuilding of I-64 will be started or at least “funded” when the experts finally realize we need to support dense neighborhoods and mass transit rather than continue to subsidize private autos. Despite all logic against continuing these massive and misguided projects they will go forth simply to create needed jobs.

Enough of my rant because the Daily Show with Jon Stewart is about to start…

– Steve