Speaking of under approaching...

Steve Eldridge, the "Sprawl and Crawl" columnist for the Examiner wrote a very poorly articulated column about streetcars yesterday. He said he went to New Orleans to look at streetcars so he can consider the proposals in DC. See "Big Easy offers insight into value of trolley travel."

New Orleans (St. Charles line) streetcar on Canal Street, June 2006.

1. New Orleans streetcars look pretty but they are uncomfortable. I don't know if the "new" Canal Street cars were more comfortable--I think they had air conditioning--but they were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

2. If you want to see modern streetcar systems go to:
a. Portland, Oregon
b. Tampa (historic replica)
c. Little Rock (historic replica)

Photo by Jeff Jones. Central Arkansas Transit Authority. A streetcar crossing the Arkansas River along the Main Street Bridge. Currently it is a one-lane bridge for the streetcar.


3. And you can consider checking out streetcar-lightrail systems such as
a. San Francisco
b. Toronto

4. Not to mention systems in Europe.

But New Orleans... I think that was a vacation masquerading as a business trip.

DC's or Arlington's or Baltimore's or Seattle's planning for streetcars do not use New Orleans as a primary example. Neither should Steve Eldridge.

A far better story to read would be this one from the Seattle Times, "Outdoors: A streetcar to inspire, in Portland."

I wish our local transit writers would step up some... have they read the Bring Back The Streetcars report from the American Public Transportation Association?