[sustran] Re: More on Denver thread

[BruunB at aol.com]

Alan and company,

This debate could go on and on....

I want to add one other fuzzy attribute to the evaluation process. Wendell 
mentioned
that rail is a waste in Portland. But what if people like what rail has done 
to their city?
It has created an option to live without a car along a corridor and has put 
employment possibilities along it as well. I feel that if I have to pay for 
professional sports stadiums I don't use and breathe dirty air from cars I 
don't drive, these same folk can help me build better public transport 
options. Livability is a real concern, even if it is
hard to quantify.

Also, we can agree that metros are expensive and hard for poor countries to 
afford. But from someone who tries to estimate performance of alternatives, I 
see no other
solution that can move the numbers of people and with the speed required to 
span large cities. Metros can also be electric, which jitneys will never be. 
(I am not against jitneys, but they can not be the main form of public 
transport for large cities.) Thus, the problem is that large poor cities need 
rail, even if they can not afford it. In my opinion, the richer countries are 
just going to have to help finance them instead of trying to just make money 
from selling consulting and hardware. 

Eric Bruun