Sep 16, 2008
Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. Recruits Neil Peirce For Streetcar Talk
By: Kevin Buchanan
Nifty article in the Fort Worth Business Press about Downtown Fort Worth, Inc. getting Washington Post columnist Neil Peirce to come to town to advocate for the city’s streetcar efforts.
What better time for Downtown Fort Worth Inc. to recruit worldwide traveler and journalist Neal Peirce to speak to one poignant point at its regular organization meeting: whether it’s streetcars or light rail – Fort Worth needs something.
“American cities across the board are in need of addressing this growing epidemic of public transportation shortfalls,” said Neal Peirce, a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post. “Most of us are thinking about high fuel costs and an aging population that doesn’t want to drive, but there aren’t many of us lecturing on getting us ready for it.”
Nice bit of advocacy, this article. I’d just add that it’s about more than the “aging” part of the populace – there are a lot of people my age (I’m 26, for the record) that are strong supporters of the streetcar program and better transit in the city.
In other news, the Fairmount project rolls onward. I’ve moved my Internet access from my loft to the house and thus have been out of touch for a couple of days as I’ve been packing (as well as throwing out a lot of stuff to simplify things), and this condition will persist for a little while longer yet. Stay with me. I’m going to try and take the time to get some construction photos sometime this week.
Yes!
Maybe while Chesapeake is busy drilling for gas, they can drill us a nifty subway system!
Whatever the plan turns out to be, I hope it will be thoroughly mapped out so as to encourage more New Urbanism design throughout the metroplex.
Thought I heard somewhere that the 7th Street and TCU-ish route would get built first?
That’d be great. Here’s hoping more urban living sprouts up around those lines? I want to divorce my car.
What’s the progress on the study?
The committee is preparing to go to Portland to see their system. But before they leave, next Monday they will be holding a route preference line. Up to now there has been absolutely no routing established. Only suggestions based on previous studies.
I sure hope the track gets laid before Volts and other super-hybrid electrics hit the pavement (or if perhaps gas prices plummet), otherwise I think this project is doomed.
Recyclican,
I don’t think gas prices will be going down to their old lows ever again. In fact, I think it’ll only be a matter of time before they climb again into the $4-$5/gallon range or higher.
As for hybrids and electrics, there’s another facet being overlooked – there is a growing sentiment among people, especially up-and-coming younger generations, that they don’t want to be tied to a car regardless of gas prices. There’s more to this than just gas prices – you can have cars that get supernaturally good mileage, but if you’re still dependent on them for everything then all you’ve done is reduced the pocketbook strain a little. The other issues of car-dependent development are still in place.
(I also think the impact of things like the Volt and others is being grossly overstated, but that’s another story I suppose.)
The streetcar is necessary even with hybrids and such.
My wife and I look forward to the day of owning one vehicle.
Hybrids are still dependent on fossil fuels, and one day those fossil fuels are gonna be gone and the hybrids rusting in people’s driveways.
As a fairly new resident of the Upper West Side (Firestone, Westview, AMLI, etc), I would love to see a streetcar running between downtown and West 7th St. There isn’t much food/drink or retail in this immediate area. We’re about 1/2 mile from Sundance and a full mile from Montgomery Plaza…I consider both to be walking distance, but not a particularly convenient walk – especially when accompanied by someone in high heels.
I know the streetcar/light rail concept would be great for many parts of Fort Worth, but this one small stretch would do wonders for the Upper West Side, in my opinion.
Please don’t get me wrong, Kevin, et al. I am a member of that growing sentiment that desires to walk/bike/mass transit my bum all over town. For about a year and a half my daily commute consisted of picking a friend up and dropping her off to work (so she would not have to take on the extra expense of purchasing a car & fuel); and after I dropped her off I would meet up with two coworkers at a park-and-ride in order to carpool to downtown FW. Only reason this routine stopped is because I don’t work there anymore.
I believe, however, that the overwhelming majority of people aren’t willing to give up their “independence” of commuting in their own personal vehicle. U.S. society (at least in our part of the country) has largely grown accustomed to this lifestyle, and I think it is going to take a lot more than a developer-driven streetcar to convince folks to give up those “conveniences.”
In my opinion, the streetcar proposal in Fort Worth, if implemented, will be by and large a component of driving tourism and entertainment to downtown. To a lesser degree, yes, I’m sure downtown residents and westside residents will be able to take advantage of it as well.
Nowhere has anybody said that the overwhelming majority will give up cars for a streetcar. That’s really not what this project is about. The streetcar itself isn’t designed for the entire city. It’s an urban neighborhood circulator. Expecting it to massively change commuter habits and such is unrealistic and not what it is being built for. (Though the overwhelming majority will feel more a pinch as gas prices start rising again – and they will.) The streetcar is one component of a kit of parts for creating a really livable built environment. It goes hand-in-hand with good urban development and design, and many other aspects of urbanity.
The streetcar isn’t going to go more than about four miles from downtown. It’s not a light rail system intended to bring in commuters from the outside, like DART’s system does in many cases. They’re two different sorts of rail.
The streetcar will serve many purposes. It’ll be great for downtown entertainment/tourism, of course, but it’ll also be a great circulator for residents of all the urban Fort Worth neighborhood around downtown. It’s not just going to be downtown and the west side – you can expect the Near Southside line will be quite popular with residents there, both many current and future as that neighborhood starts approaching the breaking point of big new development. Assuming the routes are roughly similar to the proposal, I’ll use it every day to get to work (Near Southside to TCU area and back).
The routes and neighborhoods intended to be served by the streetcar are perfect examples of places that will love it and use it as infill development occurs. It won’t eliminate cars – and it’s not really trying to. But to say that it has no hope because people like their cars too much is a major underestimation of the streetcar’s potential, I think. Combine rising fuel costs, increased desires to be free of the car by many groups of people who are also the sorts interested in moving into these neighborhoods, and the continued redevelopment of these neighborhoods in an urban manner, and I think the streetcar will surprise you. Streetcars attract choice riders – those who could drive but choose not to – where a bus system does not.
I agree that this proposal is one component of a bigger plan, however I could think of scores of neighborhoods where it would be more appropriate to have a streetcar other than this location.
As an example: a streetcar connector between the ITC, up along Samuels Ave through the upcoming Rock Island (err, Trinity Bluff) neighborhood, and terminating in the Northside around the stockyards. I can assure you residents in that part of town are more concerned about $4-5 a gallon than the folks that live in the Westside and Downtown. Excluding maybe the Linwood neighborhood, which I wager will be completely devoid of single-family residences in about 8-10 years.
Err, not to mention the obvious benefit of providing a convenient connector to “where the west began” and the adult-disneyland of Sundance. I can’t tell you how many times tourists stopped me at lunchtime to ask where the stockyards were in relation to downtown. I would have loved to have been able to say “Oh, just hop on that street car over there and it’ll take you right there!”
Recyclican,
Perhaps you missed earlier posts on the subject – one of the planned routes is a route between downtown and the Stockyards. The routes shown in the whitepaper would be:
Downtown to the Cultural District
Downtown to the Near Southside and TCU
Downtown to the Stockyards/Mercado Village
Downtown to Evans & Rosedale/Texas Wesleyan
Downtown to Six Points/Race Street
It is expected that all routes will originate from the ITC.
Now, obviously the routes themselves aren’t set in stone yet in terms of pathways, but those are the destinations that will be in the planning. From my own discussions with various higher ups, I’d expect the Cultural District and Near Southside lines will be first.
The CD line will just be one of several.
Dear Kevin:
Please allow me to insert my own foot in to my own mouth.
My apologies for remarking on a subject that I’m clearly not up-to-date with. When I departed Cowtown earlier this year, the last I had heard of light-rail discussions was exclusively for the CD area. Clearly I hadn’t done my homework or kept up with the topic! Blog entries and RSS feeds are no substitute for attending those workshops, it seems.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to find some floss. I have hairy feet
Kevin –
Go ahead say what you mean when you say “choice riders” — middle-class and upper-middle-class white people. Politically Correct speech (or even Orwellian double-speak) doesn’t suit you.
There’s a bus that runs between your house and the TCU area right now. I ride it quite often.
Wow, playing the race and class cards in one sentence! Nice!
Pete,
Man, you have completely misread me, and “choice riders” isn’t even my invention. It’s simply a reflection of the pretty often recognized situation that a bus system only manages to attract the transit-dependent, but modern streetcar systems have been attracting people who could be driving but choose not to. No race involved – or don’t you think middle-class black people, hispanics, or Asians would ride the system as well?
I know you didn’t coin the term. Is it just me that sees a phrase like “choice riders” as a bit loaded?
Of course, I just said it out loud, and now I see that I’ve been emphasizing the wrong thing. They’re not “choice” riders — as in, they’re more likely to spend money at transit-oriented developments — they’re “choice riders,” or those that CHOOSE to ride instead of drive. (I blame you, Kevin. Next time, define your terms better.
i.e.: “Choice riders,” or those that could drive, but CHOOSE to use public transit.)
But, even by that logic, couldn’t those “choice riders” just as easily CHOOSE to ride the bus? All changing the mode of transit does is remove the stigma of riding the bus.
Maybe the problem isn’t so much one of class or race as it is “Americanness.”
All the words you’ve said about streetcars are true, but the simple fact is that more people don’t use buses because they’re perceived as the last resort of the poor and ONLY for people who don’t have cars.
All over the rest of the world people ride public transit (including buses), regardless of class or income. Americans have decided that a car is the best indicator of rising above that, and we’re spreading that disease across the world to developing nations as well.
I’ve heard TCU students complain that they’d be willing to ride the bus, but the schedules are “SO confusing!” The next time I hear that, I’m going to ask them how, if it’s so confusing, poor folks (who are assumed to be uneducated and/or unintelligent, otherwise they wouldn’t be poor, right?) and mentally handicapped manage to do it every day.
I’m off my meds. I’m sorry if I implied that you were a racist. Every time there’s a ballot initiative to get public transit in Arlington, there’s a group called the “Concerned Taxpayers of Arlington” who starts taking out ads and writing letters to the editor about how buses will just bring “undesirables” to Arlington. Maybe that’s from whence my defensiveness on this issue stems.
I misinterpreted the term “choice riders” at first as well… but I get what Kevin’s saying, and I think he makes a good point.
I think seeing the railways in place is comforting to a commuter who’d otherwise shy away from mass transportation. When the tracks are visible, you know a streetcar’s eventually coming your way… and you know your route will be reliable.
I ride the bus from the Cultural District to the TCU area (and I’m a “choice” rider, I might add). It made me uncomfortable at first. In fact, shortly after I started riding, my route changed without me realizing it.
“Umm… why isn’t this bus turning down Vickery today?”
I ended up ringing the bell and hopping off a couple of miles further away than anticipated (in dress clothes on a hot summer day, I might add).
Other times, it seems you are waiting an eternity for the bus to appear (whether it was a tad early… or my watch was off, I don’t know). The 45 extra minutes you wait for the next bus to arrive gives you ample time to walk back home and drive yourself to work.
I guess in my mind, I imagine the streetcar will be more reliable than the bus. (I believe Portland’s system arrives every 15 minutes or so.) And at least they can’t change the route without visible evidence
The issue of choice riders is one that cities have all over the country. Do you just create a system for people who desperately need transit or do you create one that works for everybody. I believe if its created for everyone, everyone has a stake in it and that tends to create a situation where service becomes much more important, which benefits everyone. I wish that it were important no matter what, but unfortunately, that’s not what happens.
As for the hybrid stuff. Even if you have them, you still have to provide road space and parking for them all. Not to mention our urban patterns will continue to create a situation where we waste a lot of money on water, sewer, road and other infrastructure that could be spent elsewhere, or kept in your pocket. Transit essentially is a quality of life issue.
Right now I live in a transit rich and walkable neighborhood of San Francisco. I walk to the store, the bar, and to transit. I take transit to work and to hang out with friends. I drive my car once a week to my Gramma’s about 25 miles away. All in all this saves me on $12 a day parking, a $4 bridge toll, $4 in gas daily. I dunno about anyone else in this world, but that starts to add up and the more you drive the more wear and tear on the car. But that savings allows me to live in a cool neighborhood. It might cost me more but it costs less in transportation costs. It’s my “green dividend”.
I hope Fort Worth residents get to choose something similar soon. It doesn’t need to be as dense as San Francisco, but it could be just as transit and pedestrian friendly and I believe that should be the goal of the streetcar.