Quote:
Originally Posted by drpgq
That's just not right. Have you ridden the HSR lately? Buses are way less uncomfortable than they were 30 years ago. With the low floor buses, most of the seats are on the side of the bus, often with poles separating the seats and in any case if those seats are all filled they are not at all comfortable if yourself or the people beside you are not tiny. Further there's way less seating than on buses 30 years ago.
I split my time between Dresden and the Hammer and just returned to Hamilton on Saturday. I used the Dresden light rail system (whose Bombardier trains I'm guessing will be pretty close to what Hamilton would get) every day for two weeks and the difference in comfort between them and a Hamilton bus ride is night and day. The vast majority of seating is in pairs and quite roomy compared to Hamilton low floor bus seating. If people had the option I'm sure the vast majority would pick the LRT experience. And I say that as someone with experience riding transit systems in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.
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I rode the HSR yesterday... A lot of the time it's pretty unpleasant to me because of overcrowding. Not all buses have to be that way, and buses I've taken elsewhere haven't been. Did you mean to say "Buses are way less uncomfortable than they were 30 years ago"? I agree with that (possibly not in Hamilton), but think you might have mis-spoke based on what you went on to say.
I've had experience taking transit systems on a few different continents (not that I'm going to suggest that I don't have a right to have an opinion on my city's transit system otherwise...). I took transit (different types of buses and BRTs) on a daily basis in South America for a time. I wouldn't mean to say that LRT isn't generally better, but it doesn't have to be. Buses done well can be very comfortable, very smooth, very dignified experiences, with express service and limited stops that are well designed. A lot of systems have stations with ticketed access, and feel more like a metro than some street cars do.
Again: I'm not saying that LRT isn't generally better. I'm saying that the true believers are going to trap us into saying that it's the only thing worth anything, and we're going to wind up with the status quo. Telling people they're unsophsticated and if they could only afford a vacation in Europe (sorry: I know that was not what was actually said, but that's what these things can sound like to some people) they'd see things more clearly...bad way to convince people of anything.
Some BRT systems are better than some LRT systems. Is anyone actually disagreeing with that? Is anyone able to state "the worst-executed LRT system is better than the best-executed system"?
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