Quote:
Originally Posted by M1EK
There isn't going to be a lot of interest in transferring from one DMU to another DMU.
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Actually, it's interesting you bring that up because I asked myself the same question while writing my last reply. Anyone riding the ASA, as proposed anyway, isn't particularly interested in heading much further east of downtown. That's a good point, and entirely valid in the discussion of the circulator's function.
Be that as it may, hypothetically speaking and for sake of discussion, what does a "reserved-guideway rail up/down Congress and Guadalupe" do to enhance regional transit connectivity other than provide [significantly] higher daily ridership for a starter line and/or not automatically "precluding a lot of other good things from ever happening"? On the one hand, if accepted in whole, those are pretty solid reasons in and of themselves, but like it or not, Cap Metro has a regional responsibility and jurisdiction. Did they sell themselves out with this DMU-based line? M1EK, I will give you that. But I would argue that a simple LRT line running N-S along Congress and Guadalupe would be seen by the remainder of the region as a "city thing", thereby further casting mass transit as a resource-sucking government program catering almost exclusively to the urban masses. If anything, the potentially imminent failure of the new MetroRail line will be at least, in part, attributable to the suburbs as well.
I think Mayor Wynn sees your writing on the wall, M1EK, in terms of the incompetence of Cap Metro to truly develop a functional mass transit system, and I personally applaud him for opening the discussion in advance of a highly anticipated election to raise the issue for the City to potentially move forward on this in association with other interests, e.g. private entities. As I've said on these boards before, the developing tollway system has opened a new chapter in this region's transportation history most crucially in one key area: assigning an actual tangible cost of movement of road-based transit. Skyrocketing oil prices only broaden that consideration that has, for generations, been largely considered free or at least an entitlement.
Expanding on that idea more philosophically, I would also argue that the 21st Century urban and suburban American's most ideal concept of "freedom" is, in fact, in their ability to move freely. Personally, I think this ideal goes a long way in explaining a lot of society's behaviors: road rage (when impingement of this fundamental freedom has reached a limit), congestion studies, "white flight", etc.
As a final comment, what is truly fascinating to me now is the news of significant development of mass transit in cities (1) in this very state that (2) have been, if not outright are defined by, traditionally heavily auto-centric: Dallas and Houston. In this way, if the City leaders have the moxie, they can drive the point home (no pun intended) that other larger cities have only now found the error in their ways and are spending large sums of money in their attempts to mitigate their issues, the very same ones this City may face should it continue down its path of primarily automobile-based expansion of transportation facilities.
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