-=> Quoting Don Dellmann to Gregory Procter <=-
.............
 GP> movers". From TV pictures of Los Angeles I've seen, they could do with
 GP> something more efficient than their present system of paving over
 GP> everything so the cars can drive quicker to the next traffic jam!
 GP> (that should draw someone else into the arguement ;-)
 DD> OK, I'll bite :-)
.................
 DD> Chicago), but I have to admit, that with very few exceptions, light
 DD> rail in the United States is just NOT practical anymore.
      Right, I'll bite back ;-)
      you say light rail isn't practical anymore, and I'll accept that if you
      change it to "isn't practical at present". Sure, the way many cities 
have
      developed with the availability of the motor car for personal transport
      have made light rail impractical in those cities.
      You might notice from my first comment that I don't consider the
      automobile is a practical method of transport in big cities.
      It is easy to accept a situation that you live in and perhaps grew up
      with. (I'm not making any personal or national criticisim here)
      Christchurch New Zealand pop 360,000 is just developing the same way 
with
      big malls in the suburbs forcing residents into cars. We could think 
about
      the forthcomming problems and avoid them, but collectively we won't.
 DD> It worked well when you had large concentrations of people living in
 DD> "area A", and working in "Area B", but commuting patterns just aren't
 DD> like that anymore.  Now you're as likely to have someone living in the
 DD> central city and commuting to the suburbs to work as you are the
 DD> traditional commute "downtown" in the morning.  Also, what about the
 DD> people who live on the west side and work on the north side.  There's
 DD> just no consistant traffic pattern that will support a viable light
 DD> rail system anymore.
      OK, so change it! I don't mean go back to the 1930s, but people are 
social
      animals, we accept that many things are shared for all our benifits.
      eg. water, power, sewerage, telephone, et al. Surely we could accept 
town
      planning? Divide the cities into 250,000-500,000p units with central
      mall/business area and residential areas, or go the other way with
      residential areas as the center and run light rail routes to the
      surrounding business areas. If it can all change in 30 - 40 years from 

      neccessity to irrelavent, in 20 to 30 years it could change again with
      planning.
 DD> As far as "intercity" traffic, the same thing applies.  It used to be
 DD> you had business in downtown Chicago, it made sense to ride the North
 DD> Shore down, but today, you would have to get to the depot, and when you
 DD> got to Chicago your business was a likely to be out in Arlington
 DD> Heights as downtown, so by the time you transferred to a suburban train
 DD> and got back out there, you've spent twice as much time and dollars as
 DD> to just drive the 90 miles from your home to your destination in the
 DD> first place.
 DD> Don
      How long can the increase in traffic be continued? In 30 years, the
      population and traffic will have doubled. OK put another layer of roads
      above the present collection, add interchanges between levels using 
ore
      livable land, add a further level etc. More polution, longer distances.
Greg.P.
  
... The last thing I saw was this Big Blue Wave!
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