Quote:
Originally Posted by Doady
Looking the system map, Linwood has no bus service, and the busiest east-west bus route in the city appears to be the corridor just 200m to the north, 31st Street. This proposed streetcar might also interfere with the existing bus service along Main, which appears to be a BRT route. It would also interfere with the bus service along 39th Street, which is also one of the busiest routes in the city.
If they want to improve transit connections to this hospital maybe add some new bus routes to southwest? The bus service on the Kansas side appears to be non-existent. I'm not sure if there are political barriers but it looks very odd. Literally, there are only two east-west all-day routes connecting the Kansas side to the Missouri side. This streetcar is already a guaranteed failure.
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Kansas and Missouri are two different states with different legislatures, different governors, different taxes, and different political priorities. Of course the local bus networks interchange poorly.
I disagree that this east-west streetcar route will be a failure. As you implied above, the heaviest used bus lines parallel the streetcar route on both its north and south sides. So apparently there are many existing transit users to attract, and I suggest a streetcar will attract more non-existing transit users.
And as always, politics build public transit systems. No public transit system in the USA builds anything without the political support of its community. So it will always be considered successful to the citizens of Kansas City Mo no matter what experts think elsewhere.
As for your transit line to the middle of a low density residential area, the busiest bus route in Dallas was to the closest, richest neighboring suburb city to downtown Dallas. The single family owners of these mansions did not wish their household help parking in front, or in their driveways. So the help arrived and left everyday by bus. My point being is that there are always exceptions to a general rule of thumb.