Streetcars on the ballot amid trolley revival | The Columbus Di...

Maybe Columbus needs to put the streetcar on the ballot- before it becomes a reality. It ain't dead yet folks.

Coleman will build the trolley before he gets a payraise to CMAGE. He can't get any priorities straight !

COTA_FAn wrote:

Maybe Columbus needs to put the streetcar on the ballot- before it becomes a reality. It ain't dead yet folks.

Street cars will help avoid global warming. Hopey dopey baby. Time for hope and change. Carterbama foreva!

Mike Coleman & Dan Williamson take notice of what's happening in Cincinnati it will happen here if you decide not to listen to the taxpayers.

Start with complete police and fire staffing first.

Ok I voted for Obama, but this idea is nuts. There's a reason these things went out in the 50s: THEY NO LONGER MADE SENSE!!! And they still don't. You can buy a LOT of buses and new routes for the money that would be spent for streetcars.
Toy trains is right.

The author of this article has mistakenly used "streetcar" and "trolley" as interchangable terms that refer to the same thing. They are not.

A trolley has wheels that it rolls on like a bus and is powered by an overhead wire by electricity.

A streetcar is a train, modern in design, that runs on tracks imbedded into the road surface.

Cincinnati and other cities are pushing for streetcars, not trolleys.

What do you know wrote:

Mike Coleman & Dan Williamson take notice of what's happening in Cincinnati it will happen here if you decide not to listen to the taxpayers.
Start with complete police and fire staffing first.

Fire and police staffing funds come out of a fund and budget that is entirely independent of the fund that would be used to construct a streetcar. Whether the streetcar in Cincinnati is built or not, it will have zero effect on the city's financial ability to staff police and firefighters.

Yup - just what we need right now, isn't it? Is this where the .5% tax increase is going? What a freaking waste.

liberal AND proud wrote:

Ok I voted for Obama, but this idea is nuts. There's a reason these things went out in the 50s: THEY NO LONGER MADE SENSE!!! And they still don't. You can buy a LOT of buses and new routes for the money that would be spent for streetcars.
Toy trains is right.

Streetcars made perfect sense, however misguided planning practices and visions of the time that were auto-centric caused municipalities to abandon them and allowed them to fall into disrepair. We've had over 50 years to see what bus services can do and it has been painfully clear that they are not the answer.

Columbus is too car-oriented for streetcars to work at this time. The current mass transit is not in enough demand to warrent streetcars, here. How will streetacrs increase demand if busses aren't even at capacity?
Portland spurned massive freeway projects in their downtown in the 1970s and their downtown is virtually free of surface lots. Connecting OSU, Fairgrounds, and ArenaDistrict/Convention Center with a 3-station rail system loop and suppliment with reduced-fare busses within that area would create demand. Future expansion from those 3 points would be feasable when benefits are realized.
This 'build it and they will come' attitude didn't work with the City Center and won't work with streetcars.

What do you know wrote:

Mike Coleman & Dan Williamson take notice of what's happening in Cincinnati it will happen here if you decide not to listen to the taxpayers.
Start with complete police and fire staffing first.

American highways are subsidized by the tax payer at a much larger margin than other subsidized forms of transportation. If you really want to save money on your taxes you should be asking your reps to turn all major highways into toll roads so that they can finance their own necessary improvements.

If you believe thate government has the responsibility to provide transporation infrastructure than a streetcar should be no different. It provides an alternative mode of transportation that is cleaner and requires far less maintenance.

Don't even think about it Mr. Coleman

I need to have someone explain to me WHY going to the massive expense of having streetcars, they would be better than just jumping on our current COTA buses?
Have the proponents of the streetcars noticed those big red/white/blue buses going up and down High St. from one end of Franklin county to the other and not just one short stretch of High St.? The buses are versatile, can detour if need be and do not have a 'one track mind'.

GAR--142 wrote:

I need to have someone explain to me WHY going to the massive expense of having streetcars, they would be better than just jumping on our current COTA buses?
Have the proponents of the streetcars noticed those big red/white/blue buses going up and down High St. from one end of Franklin county to the other and not just one short stretch of High St.? The buses are versatile, can detour if need be and do not have a 'one track mind'.

Ashley and Erin in Powell won't come downtown to shop (wait, where would they shop?) with their matching 2 yr old kids and $800 strollers if they have to get on a lowly COTA bus, because, well, you know, of THOSE people who ride the bus. So let's build a fancy new streetcar! Only problem: the grand poobahs have already said the streetcar would be the same price as the bus. Unless there are streetcar police to forcibly keep off THOSE people, THOSE people will ride the streetcars also. And Ashley and Erin will ride the streetcar one time, then go back to shopping at Polaris. That's one of many reasons why streetcars won't work in Columbus.

Johio wrote:

<quoted text>
Streetcars made perfect sense, however misguided planning practices and visions of the time that were auto-centric caused municipalities to abandon them and allowed them to fall into disrepair. We've had over 50 years to see what bus services can do and it has been painfully clear that they are not the answer.

So did the horse and buggy, in their day. If you are talking about the old interurban lines, yes those should have been kept. But not the in-town streetcars. People want speed and convenience. Why ride a slow-asss streetcar, and have to walk several blocks off the path, when you can drive and park right next to where you are going.

I can see putting money into a high-speed rail system from Columbus to Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Chicago, but trolleys/streetcars? How ridiculous.

Idaho?

Alpha1 wrote:

I can see putting money into a high-speed rail system from Columbus to Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Chicago, but trolleys/streetcars? How ridiculous.

Hey, it gives people a little something cute and different to come downtown in, so they can have some fond memories and good photo ops before they get mugged and/or killed!!

I just love a good trolley. Like the one in Mr. Rogers' neighborhood. Hey kids, lets' just imagine we have a trolley and leave it at that.

Streetcars and subways!?

NOT IN MY BACKWARDS OHIO, NO WAY!!!!