OMG 'rapid streetcar' , yuk yuk yuk
BTW I hopped on ye lil streetcar the other eve 6:30 , and after the doors closed I found myself 4ft from a huge pitbull attached to a 80 pound streetgrl , at the next stop a gal w/poodle gets on the other end of the car , and GUESS WHAT... the pitbull goes ape-sh*t , lunging and barking , dragging the grl , til they stopped 18 inches from a baby in stroller.
GO BY STREETCAR
[bring doggy mace]

I think your high capacity depends on how stoned you are.

You'd have to be pretty high to call a streetcar rapid...or high capacity.

I have to wonder if any of these people ever have studied anything relating to transportation, or do they just do as they are told?

Bark and roll over!

If they could ban the tweakers and spangers from the Streetcar, I would quit using the sidewalks.

There's many insightful, questioning blogs like Jack's; there's even, sometimes the general media; there's think tanks, institutes that have respectfully examined and commented on the usefulness and the bang-for-the-buck of trolleys-and even other forms of mass transit.

Why is it that our several layers of government bodies that determine the application of trolleys and mass transit not recognize these viewpoints and inquiries?

Why is it that they don't actually put some of these projects up for a public vote-test the waters. Even if they think they are right, shouldn't they at least respect those that are paying the bills-the taxpayers?

As a militant bicycling advocate, people expect me to support street cars, but:

1. The streetcar platforms stick out into the street and make bicycling very dicey in getting past them. There's barely a foot between the curb extensions and the rails.

2. Spending money on streetcars takes money away from bike infrastructure, which has been shown to provide a far superior return on investment.

3. A leisurely biker can lap a streetcar on its route, maybe double lap it. Really, walking will get you there quicker.

There is just so much hosed with our thinking about how to get around, starting with our notion that we need to get around so much. I don't know much about the streetcar, but I do know that, for good or ill, it's not Delta Airlines, which the Port of Portland has decided to shovel MILLIONS of dollars at -- from a capital improvements fund! -- in order to persuade them to keep flying to Japan.

Talk about bizarre and counterproductive. The Obedient Oregonian lavishes praise on the idea, not thinking about what it means, which is that the airline is able to keep ticket prices lower than they would otherwise be, so that a flight that would otherwise stop will continue, so that we will have to spend even more money dealing with carbon emissions (airplane travel was the fastest rising source of emissions before the crash, don't know if they still are rising at all, but they are significant).

The point of pricing carbon emissions at all is to force prices of emitting carbon up -- now, apparently, in Portland, we're going to drive up the costs with one hand while, at the same time, taking even more money from people to try and reduce the price increases from a high emitter so that the emissions will continue and (the Oregonian hopes) increase.

So while the streetcar may be a botch, at least it's not one that's entirely counterproductive to the whole enterprise while, at the same time, facilitating corporate greed for private profits.

I grew up around street cars in Chicago. It took two transfers on three lines to get to my grandparents. They were slow then, they will be slow now. The S.F. streetcar isn't exactly a pace setter either, and everybody loves them, or did, anyway.

Stupid comparison, biking vs streetcar. Streetcars have to stop every couple of block, bikes don't. Bikes can even out run cars in the downtown transit mall, especially when they:
1)Run down the middle of the street, slowing down cars and
2) Anticipating by a couple of seconds a change in the light or outright running the red.

I rode bikes years ago, until I was old enough to buy my own car. I own a bike. And I seldom ride it because of the equally miserable attitude of many drivers with respect, or shall I say, lack of respect, for the biker. That simply wasn't true in the 1950's The worst you got then was a horn beep, occasionally. And I rode US 66 as part of my ride to school in my early teens.

And yeah, us kids ran reds, or jumped the gun as well.