Wash your hands twice -- it's contagious
Here's a funny one out of Boise. They're going linchpin over there, replete with a proposed streetcar line. And get this part of the sales pitch: "Installing a rail system can revitalize an ailing bus system, according to an address from the former Mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina."
Really? They ought to come over here to Portland, where with every new streetcar project, more and more bus lines are dismantled.
Anyway, this person's not buying the propaganda.
| Posted at 9:03 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (5)
Prescience is as close as your library periodicals reading room: Read the construction trade rags. There are trends in the projects being proffered; Trolleys are this years black...er, green.
Go back through the years and find what is (was) gonna' be pitched atcha', the infrastructure project du jour: Convention Centers, Convention Center Hotels, Lighting Your Bridges, Stadia, Light Rail....
With apology to the Irish and the Roma, these folks are Travellers, grifting their way across the country selling their snake oils to invigorate flagging downtowns and rejuvenate the lost pep of the citizenry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEZjzsnPhnw
That is not to say all projects are scams, and I truly want full employment for design professionals as well as my brothers and sisters in the trades, but sometimes a con is just a con.
(That episode was written by Conan O'Brien, BTW)
Posted by Old Zeb | January 23, 2010 9:54 AM
OOOh! look at all the pretty pictures!
This one is probably a done deal.
Drink the Kool-aide kiddies of Boise, and pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.
Woo Woo! go by streetcar. Now that is a crock!
Posted by portland native | January 23, 2010 10:01 AM
Thanks for using "linchpin" as a verb. It warms my heart.
Posted by Garage Wine | January 23, 2010 11:59 AM
Ooooohh. Shiny.
Posted by Allan L. | January 23, 2010 5:25 PM
Installing a rail system can revitalize an ailing bus system
How? Just...HOW?!!!
Anyone who believes THAT line of total and utter B.S. really is beyond help.
It would be true, IF...and this is a very specific IF...a transit agency took an ALREADY popular bus line (or a bus line that had been popular, but ridership was declining solely because of the inability of the transit system to provide the needed level of service) and installed a streetcar line DIRECTLY ATOP the bus line.
Of course, one could simply build new bus stops and buy new, higher capacity buses and accomplish the same exactly thing for one-tenth the cost. Every city that has actually invested in their bus system has seen ridership increase dramatically afterwards; and even if the bus upgrades don't materialize, the only thing that is truly wasted is concrete for the bus stops. (The shelters and other fixtures can be removed and re-used, and the buses, of course can be moved to other routes.)
Posted by Erik H. | January 23, 2010 11:04 PM