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May 23, 2006

Real Cities Have Trains

I'm safely ensconced here in my Chicago hotel, and I have just four words to say.

Real cities have trains.

Wow, the El is cool. Like, wow, wow, wow. I landed at the airport, fetched my bag, and, for the princely sum of $2, was able to get a safe, stable and easy ride right into the heart of downtown (near the Sears Tower) in, like, 40 minutes.

(I can hear the collective disbelief in Seattle from two time zones away.)

So this is the second city I've been to in the last two months where the citizens have invested in fixed-rail systems. People freely admit that traffic sucks in both Chicago and London, but the big difference between these cities and Seattle is that Londoners and Chicagoans have options. If you want to get around, you can. (And, if you want to sit in traffic, you can do that, too.)

Traffic is inevitable. I think this is a critical part of the transit picture that a lot of people overlook. During the Monorail debate (with so many votes on that puppy, the specific time period escapes me...), a number of people would say things like, "The monorail is a waste of money - it isn't going to take a single car off the streets!"

Well, no kidding.

Traffic congestion is here to stay. If you've got any kind of density, you've got congestion. Congestion is the price cities pay for being popular places to live. And, given the 'natural equilibrium' of driving (when traffic levels drop for any length of time, congestion is only temporarily relieved - people notice fewer cars on the road and switch from transit back to private cars, and - boom! - congestion returns), it's a permanent state of affairs.

The transit debate needs to be about recognizing that you can't build enough freeways to relieve congestion (Exhibit A: Houston), so the trick instead is to give people alternatives. Let them ride the train, be it above ground, underground, whatever.

Seattle, to its credit, has figured this out, and light rail is being built right now to get from SeaTac to downtown. I'm getting bounce-in-my-seat excited for this thing to open ... even though it's still 3 years away. (On my way to the airport this morning, I was pretty pumped to see the under-construction stations and tracks in Georgetown and along the spur to the airport).

But airport-downtown light rail is just a first, delicate step into making Seattle a real city with a real transit system. We need more, and we need it now. And you know what? It's not going to relieve congestion at all. If you're in your car, you're still stuck in traffic. Sorry. Instead, trains will merely offer us the ability to keep growing beyond the limits of our clogged freeways.

Say it with me: Real cities have trains.

Posted by Gavin Shearer at May 23, 2006 7:12 PM. Posted to Transit | Travel.

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