[sustran] Re: Interesting Piece on LRT in US Context - a commentary

[Kirk Bendall]

Some quick comments:
- if you are 9, or 99, a car is most likely an
encumbrance.

- what is the asset life, and value, remaining after
the 5 years suggested?, 30 years (typical LRT vehicle
life)?

- another complication is car-km/trips, or
LRT-Km/trips, or Bicycle-km/trips, will often be
substituted on a non one-for-one basis.

- a 0.5 percent increase in traffic IS significant if
it moves traffic to 100% of capacity at the location
in question - cost allocation for long-lived
infrastructure is a whole new topic - how much should
current weekday peak/weekend/night drivers contribute
to an extra lane across the Mississippi?

regards,
Kirk Bendall
Wollongong Australia 
www.illawarra.transinfo.info 

--- ecoplan.adsl at wanadoo.fr wrote: > -----Original
Message-----  On Behalf Of P.
> Christopher Zegras
> Sent: Thursday, July 01, 2004 7:50 PM
> Subject: Interesting Piece on LRT in US Context
>  
> 
> >From the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis....
>
http://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/re/2004/c/pdf/light_rail.pdf
> 
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> 
> Friday, July 02, 2004, Paris, France, Europe
> 
> Thanks Chris for that good heads-up on the LRT
> piece.  A comment and
> invitation for further discussions if I may, since I
> think this gives us
> a policy platform which stretches well beyond the
> intention of the
> authors (which was basically to be clever).  (This
> letter incidentally
> is also being transmitted to the authors of the
> piece at the Fed in
> Saint Louis for their comments in turn.)
>  
> Molly and Tom, economists let's note, have in their
> article trotted out
> a tired old trick that has been around for a long
> time in the 'give the
> poor a Beetle instead ' variant of transit bashing. 
> This is not only
> one of the oldest games in town but also I am afraid
> rather
> mean-spirited stuff, because it attacks LRT on the
> cheap, dragging it
> out of its full and necessary longer term and
> structural context.  (Not
> incidentally that I have LRT on my personal short
> list for immediate
> action to move toward  more sustainable mobility
> system, but more on
> that another day.)  
>  
> We have to look at and decide about LRT case by case
> and as part of a
> larger package of policies, actions and services.
> And indeed perhaps its
> major contribution in many places where they managed
> to get it right is
> that it works to catalyze and justify a whole web of
> related
> transportation improvements --  including for
> walkers, cyclists, and
> users of other parts of the transit system - which
> otherwise just may
> not have got done, or at least had to wait another
> and perhaps far
> distant day.  Moreover, when wisely done as we have
> seen in many places,
> let's cite Portland Oregon as one of many shining
> examples in the US, it
> helps to cluster activities.
>  
> Pity that the authors stretched beyond their remit
> and competence to
> provide such a poor assault, but it's not the first
> time this has
> happened so no great damage is done.
>  
> But the Bible says that "out of the mouths of babes
> and sucklings may
> come the greater truth", and if suckings also
> includes economists, well
> then we have to listen.  
> 
>  
> 
> By this I mean that the major contribution of their
> piece lies
> elsewhere, and specifically in the important section
> in which they
> kindly explain to us what externalities are and then
> go on the make the
> critical point in which I believe all (or at least
> most) of us are in
> full agreement: and that is that drivers should pay
> their way (just like
> airline passengers, eh?).
> 
<snip> 
> In closing, kind thanks to the Molly and Tom,
> together with an
> invitation to tune in here if they wish to learn
> something about the
> full context of the little sub-issue that they chose
> to take on without
> apparently quite understanding the greater whole. 
> Welcome.
> Sustainability and social justice is a big house.
> 
> Eric Britton
> 
>

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