Quote:
Originally Posted by VaSteve
I read that GM paid cities to rip up their streetcar lines by giving them free bussess.....get ya hooked on something. Pendulum swings back.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by red-beard
If that happened, probably, it was 60 years ago. The issue here is Houston installed an extremely expensive light rail track. It is One street. That is it. We're not a long narrow city where everything is walking distance to a rail stop.
If someone had said to convert the old Katy (KT - Kansas and Topeka) rail line from Katy Texas to downtown, running along the I-10 Freeway, with parking lots nearby, I'd think it was a great idea. Do the same type of development along the major freeways, fantastic.
But this is a converted bus route and all of about 4 miles long. It is taking up 1/2 of a road and it interferes with traffic. Nothing significant has developed along the line, since it goes through a really crummy part of town, once it is outside the end points (downtown Houston and the Medical Center). These accidents happen every few weeks here.
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Grew up riding them in Germany.
Love street cars.
If the drivers in Houston are anything like in Dallas they should never have been issued licenses. Given the choice I'd rather drive around S. FL during the height of snowbird season.
The GM/rail issue was documented. Catch the film "Taken for a Ride",
New Day Films: Taken for a Ride
In a nutshell GM, Standard Oil and Firestone got together and formed a separate company to buy up existing commuter rail lines and replace them with bus lines. People hated the buses. They then launched a marketing campaign promoting automobiles as the way of the future. The end game was to sell more cars which used petroleum and required tires.
It's all a matter of public record.
A classic example of what happens when businesses go unregulated and place corporate greed before public interests.