The Transportation and Mass Transit Megathread

[BrandonTO416]

Your last comment began with a phrase that sounds like a cheesy porn video title.

[satalac]

Your last comment began with a phrase that sounds like a cheesy porn video title.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i think i might have seen that one

[TopTenn]

I havent thought about it as a cheesy porn video title., Thank you for knowing all of the Cheesy porn video titles,,

[showtime21]

I believe the light rail will fail. Nashville doesn't have to community feel of cities like Atlanta, Charlotte and Miami. I believe a improved bus route will be better..

[rocket9561]

I believe the light rail will fail. Nashville doesn't have to community feel of cities like Atlanta, Charlotte and Miami. I believe a improved bus route will be better..

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I personally think Nashville has a better community feel than Charlotte but whatever. It isn't light rail anyway, it is commuter rail.

[monsoon]

When you travel to cities like Chicago, Toronto, Boston you see that their rail systems require good bus services in order to be usable.

Bus and rail go together as a public transportation network.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Tokyo has the most extensive rail system in the world. Yet very very few buses. The people don't like them. Commuter rail can and does work without buses though it does help. Most of the people in suburban locales who use a commuter rail system drive to them.

[doormanpoet]

I would love a commuter rail system. I hate to drive more than an hour!

[nashvol85]

I would love a commuter rail system. I hate to drive more than an hour!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Where do you live???

[doormanpoet]

I live in Bellevue, I just don't like driving out of town, I would rather fly. I hate driving to Atlanta.

[nashvol85]

It takes you an hour from Bellevue? It takes my dad less than an hour to get to work in Gallatin from Brentwood!

[doormanpoet]

I meant I hate being in a car for more than an hour.

[nashvol85]

Eh...I don't mind it too much...I make the Nash-Knox trip quite a bit, so I have gotten used to traveling a long way.

[it's just dave]

I hope the plans are successful. If I'm still working in LaVergne when the Rutherford County line is up and running, I plan to use it most of the time, especially if my plans to sell my house and move into Rolling Mill Hill, SoBro or downtown proper materialize.

Downtown's still too much a work in progress and I'm still too much into my landscaping passion to make the transition before 3-5 years. But, I can imagine the future, and it just might find me on a train twice a day.

[satalac]

once that rutherford county line gets up and running, i plan on taking that to murfreesboro instead of driving there. the ease would definatly outweigh the risk of getting a ticket (has anyone else noticed the increased police pressence on the way to the boro?) and driving in all that traffic.

[Southron]

It'll be hard to get people out of their cars. We'll wait and see. We'll certainly not see people abandoning their cars the day the rail opens. Building cities and adjusting attitudes will take years. I applaud our willingness to take risks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I second that applause. It is hard to get people out of their cars, but traffic is getting so bad in some of those areas (I couldn't believe the increase around Murfreesboro in the three years that I lived there), hopefully a number of the non-believers will give it a shot.

[it's just dave]

You might have hit the nail on the head Expat. The non-believers should give it a shot. This will be the tough part.

When I started carpooling to La Vergne every day, I hestitated. I didn't know what it would be like to possibly not have my precious personal transportaton outside waiting for me at my beck and call. After a couple of months, those hesitations disappeared. It's been a year now, all is going well, I'm saving money and wear and tear and I'm really enjoying the morning discussions as opposed to just sharing the ride with myself.

A quick stop at Bongo Java, a quick grab of the CityPaper and I can just sit back and enjoy the ride. I like it. We're all planning on riding the rails when )and if) it becomes available. Whn people stop seeing their automobiles deteriorating only because they drive them to work, when they discover those expensive tires last twice as long or more, and the other positives (not to mention rapidly escalating gasoline prices), they must give it that shot.

[monsoon]

If it wasn't posted earlier, there is a pretty good write up of the Nashville rail project here on lightrailnow.org. I think it is great that Nashville is doing this and it should be an example for more cities to follow suit.

[it's just dave]

I read that one, monsoon, and it made feel pretty good about the way they're going about things. Thanks for the link.

[sleepy]

Downtown's still too much a work in progress and I'm still too much into my landscaping passion to make the transition before 3-5 years. But, I can imagine the future, and it just might find me on a train twice a day.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My problem is I lived in innercity New Orleans--wooden rowhouses with a front door opening onto the sidewalk and a 10 ft X 10 ft back yard--all my adult life until I moved to small town Minnesota a few years ago. Even though I now live in a 1920's house downtown, it has a front yard, back yard--in other words I just got into gardening and the yard stuff and I love it--because it's the first time I've ever had those things.

Instead of the normal progression from "big house with yard" and then to "empty-nester downtown" plan, I've guess I've lived the opposite. I can't see living in a loft in downtown New Orleans or Memphis anymore. I'd always wonder where could I plant my astilbes. lol

I see I didn't really respond to the topic at hand----

Thoughts---I always thought the Murfreesboro-Nashville run would be the best hit in terms of ridership and should perhaps have been built first. I understand the agency got the tracks free and so on out to Antioch, so it was cheaper. Problem with this sort of thing--if ridership isn't good, it'll be used as an example to kill the rest of the routes. In other words, perhaps the transit agency may be penny wise and pound foolish, etc.

Edited March 16, 2005 by sleepy

[cheeriokid61]

Is 1350 ridership a year adequate to keep this going? That doesn't seem like much at all.

[Claws]

I know I plan on riding it for no reason other than to support it. Really, a light rail beginning in Downtown and going down the West End corridor would really be useful to me when I'm visiting my grandparents, since I don't really like to walk from Sylvan Park to Downtown.

Come to think of it, I could ride the bus. But I'll have to get a schedule first.

[rocket9561]

My problem is I lived in innercity New Orleans--wooden rowhouses with a front door opening onto the sidewalk and a 10 ft X 10 ft back yard--all my adult life until I moved to small town Minnesota a few years ago.  Even though I now live in a 1920's house downtown, it has a front yard, back yard--in other words I just got into gardening and the yard stuff and I love it--because it's the first time I've ever had those things.

Instead of the normal progression from "big house with yard" and then to "empty-nester downtown" plan, I've guess I've lived the opposite.  I can't see living in a loft in downtown New Orleans or Memphis anymore.  I'd always wonder where could I plant my astilbes.  lol

I see I didn't really respond to the topic at hand----

Thoughts---I always thought the Murfreesboro-Nashville run would be the best hit in terms of ridership and should perhaps have been built first.  I understand the agency got the tracks free and so on out to Antioch, so it was cheaper.  Problem with this sort of thing--if ridership isn't good, it'll be used as an example to kill the rest of the routes.  In other words, perhaps the transit agency may be penny wise and pound foolish, etc.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't think they are planning on killing the other legs even if this one isn't wuite what they expected. Hendersonville is planning a huge lifestyle center around its station and I don't think they would create a mall around a train track if they weren't fairly sure it was coming. I believe that by ridership, the Sumner line should have been first. I-65 is hands down the most congested interstate in Nashville and Sumner Co. sends the most workers into Nashville for work.

[doormanpoet]

I would love a commuter rail. I would love to sell my car and no longer have to buy gas at $2.19 a gallon. I would love to not have to carry car insurance. In a emergency I could take a cab, or rent a car. Owning a car is just a drain to throw your money down.

[satalac]

I would love a commuter rail. I would love to sell my car and no longer have to buy gas at $2.19 a gallon. I would love to not have to carry car insurance. In a emergency I could take a cab, or rent a car. Owning a car is just a drain to throw your money down.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

even with this commuter rail, it'll still be difficult to get around the city of nashville without a car.

[doormanpoet]

Unfortunately you are right. I have tried to talk my wife into moving downtown so I could walk to where I wanted to go, but I could not get near the size house in town as I do out in the country.