[U]Actually it won't do much at all for congestion.[/U] If the maximum rate of people ride the line each day then you still are barely putting a dent in the problem. Roads are going to be widened people watch and see. Guess who will be paying for that too? With as many people that are on 85, 77, 485 each day, Light Rail simply can't haul enough people to help congestion.
BTW, I liken light rail to a new ride in the amusement park right now. It’s new and everyone wants to ride it. But what about a year from now, 5 years from now. The only way they see sustained ridership is because of the the increasing population. I would like to see what kind of dropoff they will have in the next few months (that should be an interesting graph).
Where did I say it would decrease congestion? The same amount of cars or more will be out there, but in proportion to the surrounding population, if done correctly it will hold or possibly decrease. Obviously, if more people come in and shopping/commercial is along the corridor, cars will increase by number.
I’ve really never seen the argument in the widening of the highway. Yes, it will happen, but that’s b/c the train doesn’t serve all of those who would/could use it. For the train to make a dent it’s infrastructure would have to rival that of DC, which will not happen for some time. The point of the rail as of right now is to decrease the problems within the heart of the city. Why? B/c South Blvd. cannot expand anymore, nor can Tryon, or would you prefer them to demolish half a block and give you a 8 lane path through center city? It will and should help within it’s immediate vicinity, and hopefully reach even further in the future.
Can we stop with any major metro/megalopolis comparisons since the trains infrastructure is no where near it at this initial time.
I wouldn’t compare it to an amusement park ride, if anything I’d expect to see ridership increase over a period of time. Not just b/c of increasing population, but b/c as it was mentioned before, not everything is working at total capacity. I wouldn’t be surprised if after a few months there is a spike in ridership, or to see it sway with the seasons (I know yesterday I would have hated to wait for it), or for everyone to forget about it as you mentioned.
You’re right Metro. Do you like that? A bunch of shopping and restaurants will pop up, but if you can park on the south side of the city and ride the train in to an area that is VERY pedestrian friendly to eat, shop, and do whatever, wouldn’t you do that? Over driving from one place to the next and so on and so on, in your heavy traffic?
I agree with you though that it should have been along Tryon and/or I-77, but as you mentioned they used the existing rail lines. If I recall, there was some talk of a commuter train that uses the old rail lines that run near 77 to run a line up to Davidson/Mooresville. What’s the word on that?
Sometimes I wonder if people just want to see this thing fail so they can say I told you so… either way you’re not getting your money back.