Quote:
Originally Posted by exit2lef
If this happens, it just underscores my belief that Tempe would have been better off with an east-west streetcar running along the entire length of Rio Salado Parkway rather than the C-shaped route that is about to open.
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Good point. If I recall correctly, the current street car route was basically chosen to game the federal grant requirements to make it more likely to score higher than the initial proposed route that went south on Mill to Southern. I'm not sure where they are in the process, but I know Tempe and Mesa set aside money within the past few years to study extending the street car along Rio Salado to Sloan Park in Mesa. If this goes through, hopefully they expand the study to include going the other direction too. I can already imagine the snazzy, over-workshopped name they'll come up with for the 'Stadium to Stadium' line or whatever. Mesa already has the 'Stadium Connector' MUP that goes from Hohokam to Sloan. Maybe they could call this the Stadium Connector Connector.
Anyway, biggest problem I see with that is that Tempe's conception of Rio Salado has been as a car-mover, in a way that may be incompatible with an in-traffic street car. But I guess if they continued the street car grade separated as they current line runs down Rio Salado, at least until it gets to Rural, it could probably work.
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