(San Francisco) Streetcar(s)

San Francisco Streetcar
Originally uploaded by rllayman

Paul sends us this photo from San Francisco. The Market Street Railway specializes in providing heritage streetcars from around the world in service on the line. I don't know the story on this car, it's likely to have been a streetcar system service related vehicle.

So it becomes worth mentioning SF's desires to improve transportation throughput on Market Street, as discussed in "Despite efforts, Market Street traffic lingers," in the San Francisco Chronicle.

This Chronicle photo shows the overhead wire infrastructure on Market Street in San Francisco.

Plus, Reconnecting America and the Seaside Institute have been running streetcar workshops around the country. I didn't think too much about it, but seeing the agenda for the Los Angeles workshop next week makes me realize that we probably need to have such a workshop in DC, to jumpstart planning and organizing at the local level.

To get streetcar development moving in DC there are three main issues:

1. Dealing with the electrical power/overhead wires issue. Apparently it's not likely that Alstom's in-ground power system will ever be brought to the U.S. as it isn't very salt tolerant (corrosion).

To get overhead power in DC, in the L'Enfant City, will require a change in federal laws.

The original City of Washington designed by Pierre L'Enfant in 1791.

(There is a nice discussion of electricity and cities in the book Outside Lies Magic by John Stilgoe.)

2. There needs to be a commitment to funding. Maybe going for some federal fund is in order. But other sources are required (developer contributions, tax districts, TIF funding, etc.) and there is no movement afoot at the present to organize a funding system to build a streetcar system.

DC transit advocates prefer the 8 lines proposed in the DC Transit Future study to the 4 lines suggested in the DC Comprehensive Plan.

3. To my knowledge, DDOT doesn't have a full working group tasked with bringing the comprehensive plan for streetcar implementation forward.

Rendering, streetcar service on Columbia Pike, Arlington and Fairfax Counties, Virginia

Contrast this to Arlington and Fairfax (although Arlington is the lead), which have dedicated resources to the effort, including staff, consultants contracted, and they still pay for the website (Columbia) Pike Transit, whereas DC allowed the domain for the DC Transit Future study to expire, and it has since been hijacked by some for-profit Internet commerce venture.

But if you check out Archive.org, you can find old listings for the DC Transit Future website.