Comments on: Ensuring California HSR Doesn’t Become The Next Seattle Monorail

By: adirondacker12800

adirondacker12800 — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:57:13 +0000

You must be too young to remember the High Speed Ground Transportation Act of 1965
President Johnson had this to say “We have airplanes which fly three times faster than sound. We have television cameras that are orbiting Mars. But we have the same tired and inadequate mass transportation between our towns and cities that we had 30 years ago.” so he was comparing things to 1935. Second generation of Metroliners was supposed to run in revenue service at 165…..

By: jimsf

jimsf — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:21:51 +0000

you guys are dreaming. Like I said I frew up with these people and the do not want anything to do with the liberal ideas and policies of los angeles and san francisco.

By: wu ming

wu ming — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 14:48:51 +0000

if one can design an electric car, they can design an electric truck.

By: Alon Levy

Alon Levy — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 08:02:30 +0000

Adirondacker: well, it was keep the trolleys or the cablecars – going to diesel like everywhere else was a nonstarter.

And Jim, there are farmers all over the world who get along without SUVs and trucks. Small business owners are likely to live in a city, and if this city has decent transit they may not own a car.

By: jimsf

jimsf — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:48:54 +0000

and even the depths of urbane luxury living, you’re never gonna see the stars showing up at the red carpet in smart cars either.

By: jimsf

jimsf — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:46:41 +0000

It has nothing to do with climbing the hills. It has to do with the need for snow tires, chains and 4wd in the weather and mud, and the fact that those people do not live like we do. I know because I have been one of them. They have no interest in driving anything but a truck or suv and and anything smaller is not practical if you live in the mountains, or if you work on a farm, or ranch, or own your own business, or own, breed, raise, or ride horses or have anything to to with with anything that grows or walks on all fours.

You may be surprised to know that the majority of californians’ daily lives do not involve going from the cubicle to the gym to the spa to the cocktail party.

By: adirondacker12800

adirondacker12800 — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:46:29 +0000

“Nothing else” is different than “better”.

By: alexjonlin

alexjonlin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:33:01 +0000

I’m from Seattle, and it’s sad that the monorail didn’t go through, but you get the story a little wrong. Mayor Nickels was in favor of it until almost the very end, when it became clear that it was going to cost several times the original figure. Also, you say “It will probably cost more than $2 billion to build that project, and since light rail would be on the streets, it would provide slower travel times than the monorail would have.” However, Seattle’s Link Light Rail is more metro than light rail, mostly grade-separated.

By: Brandi

Brandi — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:44:37 +0000

It’s funny I remember reading about the Seattle Monorail project years ago. Then I read an article that they had got their first light rail line and I was wondering what had happened. That’s a very interesting story and its a bummer it didn’t work out. It would have been interesting to see.

Why do transit organizations shoot low when trying to raise money for transit projects? I mean say the CAHSRA would have asked for 19.9 Billion in bonds. Do you think people really care about 20 vs. 10 Billion? I mean would that have sacrificed the ability to get it passed? Just curious I mean billion is a hard number to conceptualize.

By: BruceMcF

BruceMcF — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 02:05:32 +0000

We’ve had dirt cheap oil for yonks. Last time the price of gas was anywhere near the level it reached in 2007 (never mind 2008) in real terms was the early 1980′s, before Saudi Arabia opened the spigots and drove down the price of crude oil.

High Speed Rail does not need a generally distributed energy distribution infrastructure, just one for the precise corridor it runs on, so it faces less network economies lock-in than electric versus gasoline cars.

One big factor if we switch to electric cars, though, if that the massive hidden subsidies in our crude oil-fired transport system are built in part on cross-subsidies created by charging all drivers for roads that provide the strongest subsidy for suburban sprawl development. Its a lot harder to replicate that for electric cars. And if there is not the same systematic direct subsidy, cross-subsidy and hidden subsidies, the “love’ of the car is an experiment yet to be tried – if people love their cars for the freedom they provide, that freedom is in the context of parking spaces exporpriated from property owners and a complex flow of funds made “necessary” by the driving itself. Love of freedom as in free ride may not translate into love of freedom as in free to pay your own way.