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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
(Post 12483773)
I have loads of experience cycling behind and around trolleys in Philadelphia in the 50's, 60's and 70's - not fun.
Not fun following a trolley if it required cycling between the rails and then having to cross them at a narrow angle in order to make a turn or pass the stopped trolley. When I am in Portland there are some places where the old trolley rail lines are still exposed but un-used and these pose quite a hazard to cyclists. |
Originally Posted by Sirrus Rider
(Post 12476588)
You bring up something that is relavent here in Houston. We also had a trolley system in the distant past; however as a port city we also had an excellent medium rail system for years including an excellent rail station right on the edge of downtown. So what happened? The mouth breathing knuckle dragging people wanted a new baseball stadium. So the Mainstream Media played up the putting it in "Blighted" east side of downtown and the Idea of ENRON field was born and the old rail station was torn down to a facade and converted to a baseball stadium. Meanwhile the medium rail right of ways were handed back to TXDOT who used them to widen the freeways. Then Guess what? The powers that be wanted to host the Superbowl, but to pull their plan off they needed light rail. However, they already plowed up the available right of ways and the logical terminal. So they created a toy train that is about as well planned as the railways in the SimCity game. It's essentially landlocked, smack down mainstreet and goes from the Med Center to the Uh campus downtown. In otherwords: Nowhere and does nothing to reduce traffic congestion. If anything it made mainstreet impossible to ride down in a car and the fenderbender tally is over 20 or more.
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Originally Posted by Brains
(Post 12483048)
An interesting take on the problem from the USA.
Here in Europe we have been aware for some years that fossil fuel cars are on a short life span. Do you know any babies ? That baby will never own a new fossil fuel driven car, (even in the USA), the oil will have become way too expensive by the time they are old enough to drive That would require a monumental cultural shift in the US and an unheralded political willingness to enforce change. I suppose one question would be whether or not you consider a hybrid car to be fossil fuel driven or not. I imagine they'll be pretty commonplace in 15 years when some of today's babies are handed a set of keys for their 16th birthday. All electric vehicles? Since there isn't a single one yet produced domestically from a major manufacturer, I doubt they'll be the only option in 15 years. The closest thing today is the Chevy Volt which only has a 40 mile range before the gas generator has to kick in. I'm sure in the next 15 years that'll improve quite a bit. The Nissan Leaf's real life range is about 75 miles. Even if you quadruple that it wouldn't be nearly enough to make the daily mileage on some of family trips we've taken. At best I could see a family like ours in 15 years owning one all electric vehicle for around town and a 2nd hybrid or gas powered vehicle for trips. |
Originally Posted by Sixty Fiver
(Post 12483849)
When I am in Portland there are some places where the old trolley rail lines are still exposed but un-used and these pose quite a hazard to cyclists. |
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