SUVs, plastics and “tin cans”, but no mention of light rail? See John, if we all rode rail, we’d miss so much fun stuff. And I don’t have to back into trash cans, I can see out of my rear window.
On a more serious note (or not), Alan Ehrenhalt (Governing Magazine) had an interesting piece on rail systems. His arguments essentially say that rail systems fail because they are not big enough. His choice of phrases is that systems should be an “octopus” rather than linear with “tentacles into every mertopolitan area. I disagree but it is an interesting premise, if the system incorporated Cary, Garner, Knightdale, Wake Forest, Durham (ad nauseum) then we could afford for it to fail.
But his final paragraph points out one hilarious example of why transit is sometimes truly ridiculous:
“Just last month, after decades of planning and delay, Washington’s Metro system finally opened a rail station in suburban Largo, Maryland, at the site of the Capital Centre, an arena built in the early 70s for basketball and hockey. It’s a nice station, but it won’t help sports fans much: The Capital Centre was demolished in 2002.“
