I took it.

It asked me about perceived problems with streetcars.

"They're slow and less versatile than buses, which unfortunately lack the 'coolness' factor that the CoP wants to spend my money on."

It's more than just the apartments. This is about bureaucratic and political hubris. Local politicians are determined to prove to the world that the tearing out of the old stretcar lines in the post-WWI era was a mistake, and that Portland can lead the way back to a "sustainable" transportation system because we're smarter than everyone else, and we care a lot. The same can be said of the light rail crusade. Meanwhile, our road system, which is what people actually use, is falling apart.

I absolutely love how the current policy-makers decry how Robert Moses came to town in the 1950s and planned a freeway network that "carved up" Portland, and now they're doing the exact same thing with snail-cars.

Why in the name of sweet baby Jesus would I want to ride a 12 mph streetcar all the way down Sandy Blvd stopping at every red light, and stopping in-between to not pick up passengers? Is this 1920 or 2020 we're planning for?

We will probably ride the streetcar when gas is at $24/gallon and Portland is riding high with a network of electrified rail run on cheap electricity from Salmon-free rivers. Traffic will have dwindled, and streetcars will be much faster than walking/biking. Urban and regional transportation planning is not done with a 5-year outlook, but a 50 to 100 year outlook. Oil supplies are dwindling, and buses are not immune to peak oil (ask Trimet).

Ethan,
That your'e funnier than Bill!

You were kidding, right?

3. Demonstrate community support

Yeah right. I'm sure they'll be losing sleep over community support. They'll run this thing down Alberta for sure. Traffic flow will be non-existent for at least a year. Street parking will be eliminated. More space will go to the inevitable bike lanes. And then will have this wonderful slow-moving tank rumbling down the street doing EXACTLY what a bus could do without all the disruption and expense.

A streetcar compromise:
http://www.optimabus.com/streetcar.php

How much are drivers paying to subsidize bicyles, walking, streetcars, buses and the MAX? Is this reasonable? Anybody know a good class action lawyer?

(And yes, I ride my bikes also, sometimes the bus or MAX but rarely the streetcar. And on the bike or motorcycle I hate those tracks in the street.)

EXACTLY what a bus could do

Exactly what a bus already does. The Alberta bus is quite frequent. But it doesn't sell crap apartments.

MachineShedFred Is this 1920 or 2020 we're planning for?
JK: 1920!
Sam is planning for 1920. He said so in his city club speech. See it at: PortlandFacts.com/Vid/Adams-PortlandCirca1920.wmv

This is THE big payoff for all the fatcats (developers, consultants and Greens) that have bankrolled Sam and his former puppet master, Katz, for years. It is also his sellout to the green idiots (as opposed to genuine envornalists) who want to destroy modern civilization. Here is what on of their leaders said: “Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t our responsibility to bring that about?” (Maurice Strong, UN official, big wig in the global warming scare.)

Ethan: We will probably ride the streetcar when gas is at $24/gallon
JK: If we do, it won’t because of the cost. Driving will still be cheaper. Do the math: Portland streetcars cost $1.67 per passenger-mile. For a 50 mpg car to cost that much gas would have to get to around $75/gal. Of course most of us would be driving 100 mpg or higher vehicles, making the car cheaper until over $150/gal. (I guarantee that, at prices far below that, there will be endless supplies of oil if the greens and their fellow travelers don’t stop it.)

Then there is the plug in hybrid that can run oil free for the first few miles each day. As batteries get better, that oil free portion will become longer, eventually only needing oil for trips to the beach or Seattle. To think we will choose to live in Homer’s holes and take crime infested toy trains simply shows what deluded fools Portland Planners really are. (once again)

Further evidence is that Europeans have been driving for years with $5/gal. - about 78% of European travel is by car. European transit share has been falling for years. (Yes the planners lied to us about this too.) See: PortlandFacts.com/Transit/EuroTranistShareLoss.htm

Ethan: and Portland is riding high with a network of electrified rail run on cheap electricity from Salmon-free rivers.
JK: Actually most of future electricity will come from coal which emits mercury, uranium and thorium into the air. Unless the greens allow nukes. And we will be driving our electric cars, not taking toy trains.

Ethan: Urban and regional transportation planning is not done with a 5-year outlook, but a 50 to 100 year outlook.
JK: That is why most planners are idiots. You cannot realistically plan even 25 years out. Lets say you are a deluded transportation planner in Los Angeles. Your duty is to figure out and plan for the first freeway to open in 1939. It is 1914 and there in no affordable car and few people own them. How do you even know that a freeway will even be required before cars become popular? That is why long range planners are fools and idiots,

Ethan Oil supplies are dwindling, and buses are not immune to peak oil (ask Trimet).
JK: Peak oil is a delusion, mainly sucking in the uneducated who do not understand basic economics.

If you paid attention in Econ 101, you would know that when prices go up two things happen:
1. Price goes up and people use less.
2. Supply goes up as it becomes profitable to open old wells, drill for new ones and ramp up new sources that used to be too expensive.

We have vast possibilities for more oil, all well proven:
1. Drill in areas put off limits by the greens.
2. Tar sands.
3. Coal to oil conversion. (Hitler ran a war machine on this process and South Africa still uses it.)

Thanks
JK

Walla Walla Wa Streetcar

http://www.wallawalladesign.com/exhibits/EVT1-BusLaneActivity.jpg

Further on Peak Oil:

It's a moving target. As the price of a barrel of oil goes up, it becomes profitable to extract oil from places that didn't pay off before. It's no secret that profit-seeking entities will always go for the low hanging fruit first. Suppose the following:

Let's say pumping oil out of the ground in the middle east costs $50/barrel.
Let's also say that extracting oil from the tar sands in Canada and the oil shale in the Dakotas costs $100/barrel.
Let's finally say that the current trading price of a barrel of oil is $80.

Under these conditions, the tar sands and oil shale aren't gonna win anyone over that wants to stay in business. Change that trading price to $140, and all of a sudden they look quite attractive to anyone that answers to a board of directors. This is already happening - due to the price of oil going up, more known reserves are becoming feasible to start using.

Oh, and those oil shales in the Dakotas, Wyoming, Utah, etc are estimated to hold somewhere around 1.5 trillion barrels of oil - roughly 5x what's under Saudi Arabia.

We may have hit Peak Oil on what's already being drilled and pumped, but we're far away from Peak Oil on the entire planet. This isn't to say we shouldn't be finding a way to stop using oil - I'm just saying that the end of civilization as we know it is not just over the next hill.