It worries me somewhat that Tarrant County Judge Glen Whitley has been placed on the streetcar study committee, when he has shown that he simply does not understand urban transportation. Case in point - this recent Star-Telegram article on the reworking of East Rosedale:
County Judge Glen Whitley and Commissioner Gary Fickes said the bond program was intended to expand roads to reduce traffic congestion, improve mobility and ease air pollution.
The widening would cost about $17.4 million and is scheduled to be completed in 2011.
The city also has tentative plans to include a trolley line on East Rosedale, which has become a stumbling block for some commissioners who are concerned that a streetcar would further limit traffic.
“I think my support depends on whether they put that trolley down the street on a four-lane road,” Whitley said.
“We are looking for an absolute assurance that if they put a trolley on that road, it is going to be six lanes.”
There’s so much wrong in Whitley’s statements, it’s tough to know where to begin. Let’s go from the top:
1) You do not expand roads to reduce traffic congestion. Widening roads is never more than a temporary cosmetic fix for traffic congestion. It’s called “induced traffic,” and I’ve written about it many times before. Traffic expands to fill capacity. It’s a terrible idea to widen East Rosedale to six lanes and leave it - it’s an unfriendly blight on the neighborhoods. It will encourage speeding and encourage more driving, increasing traffic.
2) It’s no solution to air pollution, either. A big, wide road that encourages more people to drive it isn’t going to to jack squat to fix air pollution.
3) Of course streetcars can run on four-lane roads! This is insane. Judge Whitley needs to go visit Portland, Oregon to see how streetcars actually operate. There is absolutely zero need for any road to be six lanes to accommodate a streetcar! A six-lane road would actually hinder streetcar appeal in many ways, because it’s less friendly to pedestrians and encourages more speeding traffic. A streetcar doesn’t take a right-of-way from cars - it runs in mixed traffic. Nobody needs to be driving faster than a streetcar can go on a neighborhood street!
4) Streetcars help reduce traffic problems, not increase them. Getting people out of their cars and into streetcars (which attract “choice riders” that buses simply do not) means fewer cars on the streets and even less need for a big, wide road.
Judge Whitley appears to me to be one of the old guard Fort Worthians who thinks the car is the sole most important thing in urban planning and street design. That’s simply not the case. There is zero need for any part of Rosedale to be six lanes. It’s stupid that West Rosedale is six lanes, and it’s stupid that East Rosedale’s getting expanded to six lanes. Neither should ever have happened, and it’s good that the city recognizes the stupidity of it and wants to bring them back to four lanes. The streetcar does not need a six-lane road - it’s simply wrong to think otherwise, and shows a mindset still addicted to the post-war auto-centric form of city planning that we are now realizing is a mistake.
I know that the earlier study had designated East Rosedale for transit, but you would think that the current committee is started with a fresh slate. The earlier study also was trying to pay for the system with federal funding, which dictated where portions of the route had to be located. If the city is looking at the circulator more as a development tool, the old question of East Lancaster vs. East Rosedale may come back up. Alternatively, southeast Fort Worth may not even be considered until later phases of the project, due to the distance involved.
The whole article dealing with Rosedale points to the inflexibility of TxDOT. After theW. Rosedale design was finished, local stakeholders decided that a 6 lane thoroughfare was not want they wanted ripping through their neighborhood. TxDOT wastefully finished the construction knowing that the city planned to reduce it back to four lanes. Same thing is happening with E. Rosedale - TxDOT working in spite of the City and resident’s needs.
How do people like Whitley get into positions of authority? Can we say Peter Principle?
I think Whitley has a lot of exposure to various transportation issues, so he is probably just as qualified as other public officials. The streetcar issue seems more Fort Worth specific though, and I wish that the committee consisted only of FW residents. Based on my personal knowledge of Whitley - he’s a mid-cities guy.
Once upon a time, we had streetcars, in the middle of streets.
I want streetcars, light-rail, and limited car traffic. I don’t want to drive. I want to buy a pass, swipe it, get around town, go to DFW and go to Dallas
My daughter tells me stories about how she got around town. She only rode a bus, when I took her. To this day, she thinks weird people ride the bus and she won’t. I love the bus!
She will ride street cars. She rode them in San Francisco.
I think a street-car from downtown through the cultural district would make money. I also think the city should list previous trolley routes. I think they would make money.
I also think the proposed highway should be a light-rail system.