Quote:
Originally Posted by CrossedTheTracks
That's a curious way of thinking about streetcars (not that you're alone...).
My frame of reference on streetcars is this: when I (briefly) lived in Toronto, I had the choice of either subway+subway to work, or a single streetcar (501). They took roughly the same amount of time, 25 minutes. I flipped back and forth depending on my mood!
There's no reason to think of streetcars as being for slow traffic, even when operating in mixed lanes. Certainly no reason to think of them as being slower than buses. There's only one thing that streetcars are really bad at: getting around obstacles on the track.
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Relative to a bus, Toronto street cars are bad at lots of things (avoiding obstacles and other broken streetcars, getting passengers hit by cars due to centre loading, wheelchair access, noise, leaving the roadway free of obstacles that pose risks to cyclists/wheelchairs/pedestrians, allowing cars to safely pass), but the newer technology can solve a lot of those issues. What streetcars ARE good at is ensuring a smooth-ish ride, acting as living heritage, making a sense of place, and psychologically comforting commuters that they are in the right spot.
I would argue that a huge proportion of the perception is just branding. People associate streetcar tracks with trendy neighbourhoods, reliable schedules, and a certain "upscale" or metropolitan form of transit. People associate busses with waiting in the cold, being in scary industrial parks late at night, etc. A related phenomenon occurred when CT incidentally changed deckles on busses at the same time as introducing express 101/104 and other routes before the WLRT. People began to associate the red busses with faster, more reliable service, even though only a few routes had any changes.
The limiting factor in terms of efficiency is Right of Way. Whether bus, BRT, LRT, Streetcar - it doesn't matter. Any of these forms can achieve the about same metrics for stops 800 m apart. Bus is by far the most versatile and inexpensive of these models until we are talking about a >50:1 passenger to driver ratio in all directions, at which point it is cheaper to operate LRT or streetcar (though typically LRT's are longer).
BUT... it's not that simple because people aren't that simple. If everyone perceives streetcars as safer, more comfortable, more reliable, etc, more people will ride them. The problem is that you never know how people might feel in the future, and I'm not sure it's responsible to offer the more expensive and less versatile option at the expense of existing services. If we wanted, we could start building schools out of sandstone again, but then again ATCO trailer portables have their advantages too, especially when we can build them for a fraction of the price.
If ever we were contemplating installing a streetcar, I'd ask:
1) Why not a bus?
2) Why not a natural gas powered bus?
3) Why not a bus with overhead power supply?
If someone can answer those three questions without bringing in psychology, kudos.
Otherwise, I think we need to revisit what we are trying to achieve with said streetcar. If the goal is generating sense of place/community/mobility for those who would not have boarded a bus for whatever reason, let's explore all the ways we might achieve those goals, and if streetcar is still the best bang for its buck (against things like improvements to sidewalks, bike lanes, new parks, etc), then so be it. I'm skeptical of mixed-traffic streetcars being the best fit for any street except those that connect disconnected, slow-moving retail streets to just-beyond-walking-distance transit hubs, for commuters travelling 1-3 km. Any less and you might as well walk; any more and the high speed you'd need to compete with a bus degrades the retail/street environment that the streetcar was intended to nurture in the first place, especially when there are already bus systems that extend all the way to the suburbs travelling in the same direction. That's why a Streetcar works well for a Neighbourhood like W Queen W (Toronto): it turns a 30 minute walk to the subway into a 17 minute streetcar ride, retail on Queen gets the benefit of being "in the loop" and a more metropolitan/urban, it honour's Toronto's pre-automobile history, and if you don't want to walk you can have shelter from rainy Ontario skies.
That said, modern low-floor streetcars with ROW are essentially LRTs. When I think STREETcar, I think of short vehicles that share ROW with vehicle traffic. Maybe the term is as obsolete as the old technology. Really all that matters is the degree of ROW.