When Randal O’Toole visited Charlotte last month he said that light rail operation means fatalities. Last night, Charlotte got its first.
As we’ve pointed out repeatedly, light rail is inherently dangerous given the way it mixes fast moving, hard-to-stop trains with vehicles and pedestrians at open crossings. In fact, the only way to prevent injuries and deaths is to simply hope the general public learns to stay out of the way of the train. That’s it.
This “education” process usually takes several months and involves near-misses and some collisions, which the South line had already experienced with regard to crossing arms. (Incidentally, I knew of two crossing arm incidents — evidently there have been 7 or 8 in recent months, a sure sign the public was not getting its light rail lesson.)
Unfortunately, there is every reason to expect more accidents. That is simply what light rail does. Consider it an acceptable loss in order to be World Class.
City leaders do.
