Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Streetcar barely faster than walking

(man with cane outpacing the streetcar)


An Enquirer investigative report has revealed that the $100 million streetcar project will barely travel faster than a brisk walk. The reporter was able to walk the projected streetcar route in 34 1/2 minutes, not far behind the 28 minutes the streetcar is expected to take. When you factor in waiting time, a fast walk can get you to your destination in roughly the same amount of time as the mighty $100 million streetcar.

Naturally this revelation has caused much consternation in the downtown urbanist community, who as always are crying "bias" at this article, as they do every time an article doesn't completely shill for the streetcar. In response the Enquirer asked its readers to walk the route themselves and post their time. As of the time of this writing, a grand total of one person reported their time. Yet dozens of YP urbanists wrote in to complain about virtually everything. This leads me to wonder, are YP urbanists too lazy to take a 3 mile walk, or are they so out-of-shape they won't even try?

The streetcar's inefficiency is just one of many questions about this project. What is the purpose of spending $100 million on a transportation project for a 3 mile loop that is barely faster than walking? A bus can serve the same purpose at a mere fraction of the cost. And walking, last I checked, is free.

5 comments:

  1. 5000 pound station wagonMay 25, 2011 at 1:30 AM

    All I want to know is how long does it take to drive the streetcar route in Brad Thomas' car?

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  2. Anti-tax groups like COAST are the same as communist revolutionaries -- they don't actually believe in their own purported ideology and employ rhetorical trickery to take advantage of what the public doesn't know. Our pathetic local media is obsessed with certain elected officials, when clearly this anti-tax group and Chris Smitherman are the real crooks.

    Bill Cunningham was outed as a streetcar supporter last week by Laurie Quinlivan and has probably votes for Democrats in every election since he ran for office as one back in the 60's, in direct opposition to his on-air persona. No doubt the COAST boys are themselves actually streetcar supporters -- the home owned by Mark Miller in Hyde Park is just a block from the Wasson Line, and would be much more valuable today if Metro Moves had passed in 2002. Smitherman's family business looks to collect a handsome paycheck when this thing is built.

    As for streetcar supporters being lazy, here's a video of me biking 125 miles to Columbus in one day: http://youtu.be/NaJqtvRp-D8

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  3. Power to the people!May 25, 2011 at 8:25 AM

    It wasn't COAST who did this investigative report - it was the Cincinnati Enquirer. This blog entry is merely commenting on that report, something blogs often do.

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  4. Barry Horstman is a experienced marathon runner. I'd LOVE to see Mark Miller hoofin' it along at that pace.

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  5. Where's the streetcar in the 100 year old picture???

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