Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Chouette

One of the sad realities of transit is that streetcars are, in general, much more cost-efficient than subways, but are also far less cool.

-Ezra Klein
Not true! Strasbourg, for instance, has an awfully cool tram system, although there is a brief (.5K or so) subway portion under the main train station. Milan has a similar system.

Posted by IOZ at 1:20 PM | email »
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12 comments:

TM said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
1:33 PM
Anonymous said...

What the fuck is he talking about? No one with the least familiarity with San Francisco or New Orleans, or the histories and museums of such minor cities as New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, could possibly make such an inane claim. There is nothing, nothing at all, cooler or better for a city than a streetcar system.

1:36 PM
ERM said...

Agreed...I'm only familiar with the Czech tram systems, which happen to roll through abnormally picturesque cities and towns, but I really prefer reserved lane tram systems to subways. Subways are dingy and a little scary and there's nothing to look at; on trams you can look out the window and take in the town as you roll through. My mother talks about taking the streetcars through Pittsburgh to visit her grandparents when she was a little girl (she grew up in Mt. Lebanon)...man, I wish they were still around. We should consider confiscating what's left of GM before they continue to piss it all away on a futile attempt to manufacture automobiles and put it to work rebuilding the systems they destroyed.

2:06 PM
Ash said...

My experience with Streetcars is that they are awfully slow. They get stuck in traffic like cars but can't go around things because they are on rails so they go slow and slow up the cars. The subway is mucho faster. Now, that is speaking as a commuter and driver but from the city which pays for the beast the streetcar is much cheaper. In my burg they are starting to put streetcars in with dedicated travel lanes. The streetcars work much better but the folks who live on the streets don't much like the area split with streetcar only lanes.

3:34 PM
Prof. George Edward Challenger said...

Mannheim, Germany has a very cool streetcar system.

Belated condolences on the breakup of your relationship.

Prof.

3:50 PM
Anonymous said...

Munich, too, has a good streetcar system. Why do you link to this person? He's so frustratingly inane so very often.

5:00 PM
paolaccio said...

Ash - San Francisco's MUNI is a subway/streetcar, and hauls a fair amount of ass, at least underground.

And if there is a sexier looking streetcar-on-tyres than Padova's tram, I have yet to see it...

7:29 PM
Anonymous said...

How about the Viennese ULF?

7:02 PM
Hattie said...

I've used that system. It is very good and safe.
Exciting footage, by the way

10:28 PM
Anonymous said...

Have you been to Portland, Oregon?

12:42 PM
windy said...

It's not nearly as much fun to drink on a subway train.

11:20 PM
P.M.Lawrence said...

And don't forget Melbourne. Our tram service used to be quite good, until they improved it.

6:18 AM

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