Charlotte's Ringstrasse?

Mary Newsom has an interesting post about the wishful thinking that some local business leaders have about taking down the freeway noose that encircles Charlotte's downtown. At the same time, there is a long shot hope to turn part of Uptown into a thriving Rome copycat. Of course both of these things are both dreams at the moment, but what happens when instead of bringing Rome we start to think about Vienna, Austria and its Ringstrasse.

Vienna was once a medieval city surrounded by a wall that was later torn down by the Hapsburg King Fraz Joseph who built a ringed boulevard around the city. Today that boulevard is known as the Ringstrasse and carries people, cars, and trams around the medieval center city.

At the same time, Charlotte's freeway has cut off the city from its surroundings and could possibly learn from Vienna's teardown of the moat and walls as well as other cities who have decided to tear down thier freeways in search of a better life. Here is downtown Charlotte as it stands now:

and here is the center of Vienna:


The Vienna ring U shaped is 2.5 miles while the Charlotte U ring is 3 miles. This makes them strikingly similar in size and Charlotte very adaptable to the possibility of creating a ring road that actually ties Uptown together with the rest of the city versus the freeway which separates each area.

Here is what this might look like if Charlotte finishes its transit plan and adds the ring. The cool thing about this would be that it would open up a lot of the land that was taken by the freeway off the tax rolls and put it back on as well as increasing the value of land inside and just outside the loop tremendously over time.


In thinking about this through the network paper from the streetcar planning effort in Portand, it's likely that this could end up being an integrated circle line with radial streetcar lines pushing out from the center ring.

This would also be highly dependent on a rapid transit network that moves to the center. The Vienna system can be highly dependent on the U Bahn which connects to points in the center city with three minute headways. Charlotte already has one piece of this with another in the Silver Line rapid transit coming in from the east. It's an interesting excercise and something that could sit at the back of people's minds because it won't happen anytime soon. This might also be another good reason to go visit other cities and you know, learn from them.

A Challenge

I challenge any city to draw lines in the street and run a bus, then run a streetcar and see what happens. And again, why are we so worried about overhead wires? Lungs don't care about your aesthetic.

Night Owl Links

Here's a little something to keep you going:

Edmonton planners hope a TOD plan in the suburbs will reduce the need for driving every trip.
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When is Mayor McCrory or Charlotte gonna realize that their transit goals aren't compatible with this loop obsession?
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Crosscut now talks about how to do density right. Hugeasscity links to all the times they were against it.
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The Green revolution in Iran will continue with available subway operations.
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HNTB is part of the dinosaur establishment in transit engineering that thinks the cost effectiveness measure is going to be the end all be all for capital transit funding. Wake up, it's gonna change. Ray LaHood has been telling you over and over and over again.

It's Psychological

From the Charlotte Observer's Steve Harrison:

The streetcar proponents say it will be far more successful than a bus because people respond positively to trains. A big part of the light-rail line's success – more than 15,000 weekday trips – is psychological: It's doubtful that buses offering the exact same service as the Lynx Blue Line would carry as many people.

Something must feed that psychological feeling. My favorite thing about rail is how smooth the ride is generally. Sometimes you get a really awful Muni driver who doesn't know how to slow down or accelerate correctly but for being able to read on transit without tossing your cookies, rail is the way to go.

Oh the Memories...

Anyone remember these comments in February?

Hartgen said he thinks ridership will drop further because uptown layoffs are only starting, and that the drop in ridership should spur CATS to consider halting its ambitious plans to build more rapid transit. “We should be saving for our operating budget,” Hartgen said.

Ridership seems to be doing ok to me.

The Lynx Blue Line averaged 15,121 weekday trips in April – surprisingly high ridership given the severe recession. Charlotte's light-rail line had been averaging roughly 14,000 trips for much of the year, and the Charlotte Area Transit System expected it to decline because fewer people are working. But the Lynx carried 380,186 passengers for April, up more than 10 percent over the same time a year ago.

That's good, because expansion is going on as planned, they'll just have to find more funding.

On a seven-to-four party-line vote City Council Wednesday kept the eight million dollars set aside in the budget for engineering work on the streetcar, which Councilman Andy Dulin wanted to strip from the project. Dulin wanted to use the money on road resurfacing. Others who voted for Dulin's proposal did so because they said there's no concrete plan to fund construction.

We've got to think long term and invest in the future. I'm glad to see Charlotte continues to look ahead, even amidst tough economic times.

The Battle for Charlotte 07

Locals might remember these commercials. I was at the transit initiatives conference this weekend and folks played these spots that were made for the Charlotte repeal effort back in November of 2007 when opponents tried to take away a half cent sales tax. It got destroyed at the ballot box 70% against repeal. I asked if we could post them up to share with folks and Brian Rasmussen at R&R Partners was nice enough to send them along. Check them out. My favorite is the mayors. What do you all think?

This one was set in a bar. Apparently these two folks had a lot in common:



This one was two former Charlotte Mayors who apparently never agree on anything. They agreed on this:



Finally, they got recently retired and fan favorite Mike Minter to do a spot on saving the transit tax:

Links for Night Owls

I often wonder what proponents of BRT mean when they say BRT. Apparently so will people in Minneapolis.
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I haven't quite gotten my head around Yonah's funding idea but check it out.
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Shocker! Only 17% of downtown shoppers drive to San Francisco. Now can we stop playing the car game?
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Tucson orders 7 cars from Oregon Iron Works. More American Made Streetcars! Boise might have an order in soon too.
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Apparently the recession hasn't beaten down Charlotte's LRT too much. It might be that lunch crowd I saw when I was there.

For Every Dollar Spent

A study for the North Corridor in Charlotte shows that for every dollar spent on transit, $3 will be returned in the form of tax base and economic development. But I thought it was all a socialist plot! You can check out the study for the University City Partners here.

Linkfest: A Matter of Fact

Apparently concrete ties are better than wooden ones.
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CATS Cheif Keith Parker is leaving Charlotte for San Antonio (Why?). I wonder if its because they are going to do some rail building.
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Can high speed rail really be called transit? And if not, is the transbay terminal a multimodal transit hub? Just a thought.
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He not only lied about the bike numbers in his recent Newsweek column, he also doubled the cost in his head of the California HSR line. Apparently facts don't matter to George "Jean Shorts" Will.

Transit Space Race Continues

Atlanta and Charlotte are still fighting it out on the pages of the AJC.

“We could’ve easily become a Knoxville, Greensboro or Richmond,” McCrory said. “Instead we compete, fortunately, with Denver, Dallas and Atlanta.”

Charlotte, the Queen City, maintains pretensions of one day surpassing Atlanta as economic King of the South. Sam Williams, head of Atlanta’s Chamber of Commerce, says dream on.

“We don’t really compete tooth-and-nail with Charlotte because the companies we go after (are) in the international trade, logistics and biomedical fields and they’re not looking to go to Charlotte,” he said. “Dallas, Tampa and northern Virginia — those are our consistent competitors.”

But some observers say recent missteps by Atlanta — over traffic, transit, water, the environment and politics — may enhance Charlotte’s position.

How you plan your region will make a difference in its competitiveness for the future. While Atlanta might blow off Charlotte, I wouldn't be so quick to cast them off.

Charlotte Leaders Want Money for More Roads

Ughh. Don't they have enough roads already? It's really upsetting to see that knowing what they saw happen along the south corridor, they are still looking to build more roads. What about sidewalks? What about bike lanes? What about real expanded transit. Charlotte itself knows what happens when you invest more in service. You get more riders! But never give a single family developer (who is the chair of this group) an inch, or a few miles of highway, cause they'll take it. From the Transport Politic:

The argument goes something like this: Charlotte approved a 1/2¢ sales tax for transit back in 1998, and the business community helped work successfully against a repeal vote in 2007. Now, though, whatever the needs of the transit system, roads need to be better funded, because the region’s highways are not keeping up with demand. The development community - focused mostly on building single-family houses and office parks entirely designed for the auto-dependent - is adamant in its push for more roads.

Thursday Linkfest

H Street Streetcar tracks going in ???
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It looks like some electrification will make the difference between Zurich and Munich. About an hours difference. That's a lot of time.
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Some twists to the NAACP vs the Streetcar story in Cincinnati.
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Certainly the repeal folks in Charlotte would have given up by now. They got shellacked 70% to 30% in the last repeal try but gosh why not come back for more pain. Anyone want to explain why these folks get a voice at all after such a drubbing? Especially when the highway overruns were far worse than the LRT line that is performing beyond expectations.

But I did find out why it will cost so much:

The Lynx extension's 50 percent cost escalation from the 2006 estimate is largely because it's become more complicated. The original plan called for 10 bridges to separate the train line from roads. The plan now calls for 16 grade separations, including burying 36th Street under rail lines in NoDa. Despite the higher costs, the success of the Lynx Blue Line (between uptown and south Charlotte, along South Boulevard) still makes the project viable, CATS said.

In other words, the improved ridership from the South Corridor allowed the line to enjoy a "rail bias" in the ridership model that was demonstrated by the first line. Also, 16 grade separations is really going to bust any budget, though I still don't think $100 million per mile is low enough.
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Sign of the times: Edinburgh won't move forward with a tram spur due to the economy.

Guestimate

Why must they cost so much!!!??!!! Surely this is just the result of the engineers throwing in the cost of reconstructing Tryon, the sensitive nature of some wetlands near the University, and some crazy aerial structure that doesn't really need to be built. Also when was this estimate performed? Not when stimulus projects were coming in 30% under budget right?

No one will ever build light rail if it continues to cost this much. It's ridiculous that people aren't asking harder questions to the engineers, such as do we really need that overpass there? Can we single track it here with room for double if needed later? Can we hop on another agencies train order? etc etc etc. Cut out the gold plating!

Today's Heros

That would be the North Carolina House.

In a 77-40 vote Tuesday, the House gave preliminary approval to a local-option sales tax for bus and rail transit service, after turning back a move to let some of the money be spent for roads.

Turning back the tide is hard, but things like this begin to send a message.

A Different View

It's generally known that places like San Francisco, New York City, and Europe draw the ire of conservatives for their "liberal" tendencies. But do they really hate those places? Or is it a reflexive action based on the views projected from a southern base?

It would seem to me that this views of these places also translates to modes of transportation that are seen as "european" or basically foreign as well such as light rail. Which to me makes it all the more amazing that Charlotte has been able to move itself towards transit expansion that is seen as the cutting edge in cities around the south, even those that have existing systems such as Atlanta. The amazing thing there is the changing political will towards a more transit centered, urbanism. I would argue that Charlotte in particular is a function of outsiders from the Northeast. The Urbanophile has laid out why outsiders have a way of making changes to a community because they can see something different.

Outsiders are willing to imagine things being different in the first place since they already experienced and indeed grew up in an environment that is different. It's sort of like visiting a foreign country for the first time. We notice how all sorts of little things are different, prompting four reactions. The first is, "Hey, things are different here." That can be a revelation itself. When we grow up and experience only one way of doing things, we tend to think everybody must do it that way or that there is only one way to do it.

A possible function of the Southern feeling towards San Francisco or Europe is that they haven't been there before and their impressions are based on what they are told rather than what they experience. How many people do you know have changed their view of their own places after seeing a foreign country? I also have to wonder how much of the south is bigger cities as well and how much the lack of cities might lead to a similar feeling.

I remember visiting my parents from college when they lived in Rotterdam for a year and being amazed at the different transportation types, streets for people instead of just cars, and the fact that my dad could just walk to work. I was amazed and I believe it was one part of how my views changed towards the ones that I have now. Before that, I just hadn't been exposed to anything like it and didn't know it existed.

It's not that they aren't open to the experience, they just haven't had it. Not sure how that could be fixed, but it might explain some of the reasons for the San Francisco and New York bashing from the South. We're generally afraid of what we don't know. What do you all think?

McCrory Gets on the Streetcar Wagon

It's interesting that the Charlotte Mayor is pushing for a streetcar over the maintenance bay that Keith Parker has lined up for stimulus money. Some of the tracks for the line are already in the ground and it would connect an east side destination with downtown. I walked the route when I was there but it's certainly a case where the streetcar would make a more physical connection between the two places. However I tend to agree that fixing the bus barn is of greater importance though I would like to see them do both.

But here's another idea. CATS laid tracks on Elizabeth Avenue that aren't being used. Why couldn't CATS install more streetcar track in phases but not operate it until it has a line long enough to span across uptown?

There's another thing I don't think McCrory gets. He says there was not enough stimulus money for roads. I think there was too much for roads. If more money was allocated for transit, they could have done both of these projects.

Wasteful Stimulus Project?

The continued construction of the Charlotte Outerbelt is probably one of the most wasteful projects going on in the country right now. If it had to go through a process like new starts it would never ever pass. Yet another example of the double standard for roads versus transit. Build for the future with roads, its providing infrastructure for growth. Build for the future with transit, and its a boondoggle. And this particular investment in sprawl could get stimulus money. Great.

Just One More Thing From Charlotte...

David Hartgen is just looking for a backdoor way to bring down Charlotte's transit expansion. Even after getting beat down by 70% in the last election, the other side just won't give up trying to kill rapid transit expansion in Charlotte.

Hartgen said he thinks ridership will drop further because uptown layoffs are only starting, and that the drop in ridership should spur CATS to consider halting its ambitious plans to build more rapid transit. “We should be saving for our operating budget,” Hartgen said.

If anything, we should be building more transit to create jobs and shape the next housing boom. If we wait till the next housing upswing to build these types of lines around the country, we'll miss a huge opportunity to shape development. We can't afford it.

Not Dense Enough

Even in the downturn the Charlotte light rail line beat its projections. Currently ridership is down from its highs, but it makes me think that there needs to be a working over of the transportation models at the FTA. Under the current process that requires a medium rating for cost effectiveness, Charlotte would not have made the cut with its ridership projection as it was. It had a low medium rating in 2003, yet was recommended because of its land use planning. Which brings me to a second point.

An excuse for Kansas City not going back after light rail is the usual complaint. We're not dense enough. Via the Urbanophile from the KC Star:

The city is set up for cars. As a result, most of the metropolitan area is not densely populated...Generally, an average of 6,600 to 10,000 people per square mile is needed to score federal funds. But Kansas City isn’t close to that number along the 14-mile route that voters rejected in November.

So now, since they aren't dense enough currently(even in AC's weighted density) and use that as an excuse to not move forward, there will be no change and they'll continue to drift in autodom. But the problem here is not just the lack of imagination and foresight, but also that the current FTA gives no hope of change. People will continue as long as we let them to refer to the cost-effectiveness index as god's law. It's all about the now when in reality we should be planning for the future.

The point of building a rail line today, whether it's light rail, a subway line, or a streetcar is the shape the future development of a corridor but this is something that isn't measured in the current process, at least with any meaning. This is something Congressman Oberstar is looking to fix, but we need to help.

At this point, however, the Federal Transit Administration has declared the cost effectiveness index number and not transit oriented development as the critical factor in giving a thumbs up or down to a project. It's time for the CEI not just to be amended, but eliminated, says Rep. Jim Oberstar, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee says.

"As soon as there is a Federal Transit Administrator I will encourage that person to, by executive order, erase it from the books. And if they don't we'll do that in legislation."The cost effectiveness index became the deciding factor for transit projects in April, 2005. That's when the FTA received a letter from the Bush administration's Office of Management and Budget proclaiming the CEI's primacy.

So Charlotte gives us some clues as to what we can look forward to in terms of changing neighborhood dynamics and creating a demand for future density in transit corridors. It also shows that the cost effectiveness index does not determine the success of a project, no matter how much weight seem to put on a single metric based in auto engineering. That doesn't mean we shouldn't look at the costs and weight it against the benefits. It just means the way we're doing it now is weighted towards killing meaningful projects. Places that need subways are forced by cost shock and the CEI to look at light rail and places that should have light rail are forced to BRT and so on down the heirarchy. I hope this changes, and that the "not dense enough" canard can't be used against a city looking to change its ways ever again.

Charlotte South Corridor:

Rainy Saturday Links

Looks like planning for the streetcar and future fixed guideway transit is in the works for Portland. You can find more info here at Metro's site.
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More proof that the Republicans are morons and have devolved to a party that just tries to win the news cycle. The cries that Harry Reid wants HSR to Vegas to get all the money is just ridiculous and is unfounded. Give me a break guys. Grasping at straws. And the fact that the media is reporting this dreck is disgusting. Yonah has more info, and it shows what kind of junk we'll have to fight back against. Good thing we've had some good training against the likes of O'Toole, Cox and the lot. Quote of the day from the LA Times...

(Dem Rep. David) Obey also took issue with Republicans' efforts to portray the rail funding as an earmark. "The worst thing that people can do in this town is to believe their own baloney," he said. Noting that funding decisions will be made by the Department of Transportation, he added, "The last time I looked, the new Cabinet secretary was a Republican."

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Bills are expected to go through the Texas legislature soon that would allow Dallas - Ft. Worth to have a vote to build a regional rail network.
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Salt Lake City is looking to use redevelopment districts to help pay for the streetcar. I think consultants and locals are not thinking outside the box on funding. This seems to be the first answer they come up with, as we saw in Charlotte recently. Consultants, stop being so boring!!!
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An interesting story about streetcars that once ran in Jamaica.