While Phoenix's bus ridership remained stable, the light rail ridership declined 5.30% in 2018. But Mesa's "big bet" is on light rail instead. The new streetscape really does look nice though, but they probably could have done a similar thing with buses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by IMBY
I was deeply saddened to learn that the first light rail line for Las Vegas, which was to go from the Airport to downtown via Maryland Avenue, has been scrapped. When I lived in Las Vegas I went to a number of the RTC meetings about the Maryland line and they were all hopeful it would get built. In lieu of that, they will have Bus Rapid Transit instead. One of the last big cities in the country not to have any light rail.
Most couldn't understand why they wanted a line down Maryland, and not from the Airport to the Strip and to downtown, but many don't realize that if you want Federal funds to help pay for it, it must be for residential use, not for tourists.
Bear in mind there's 9-10,000 taxi drivers in Las Vegas and they've long been campaign contributors to the Clark County Commission members. A rail line from the Airport to downtown might put how many out of a job.
A very sad day for Las Vegas, and have no regrets leaving there last August for Tucson.
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Seems like Las Vegas has reached the point where it should start building LRT, but don't act like it doing worse than all those cities with LRT, or that they are actually trying to stop people from using transit there. The numbers speak for themselves:
Code:
City Riders2018 +/-
Portland 97,070,600 -0.96%
Baltimore 95,309,400 -5.54%
Las Vegas 66,384,500 +2.75%
Salt Lake City 44,200,400 -2.04%
St. Louis 37,000,300 -5.63%
Cleveland 31,164,200 -3.35%
Charlotte 21,425,400 -0.82%
Sacramento 20,802,900 -4.99%