On Mon, 8 Nov 2004, John Birrenbach wrote:
"...you have to do it smartly kinda like Chicago does. Pick a point (Union Station) and have all your communter trains from the burbs converge there ..." A correction. Chicago's commuter trains do not all converge in a single location. In addition to Union Station, Chicago also has suburban commuter lines terminating at LaSalle Street station and Randolph Street station. This doesn't negate John's point, of course. It's important to have the various lines intersecting so that the entire system is useable without having to go from one mode to another (i.e., it shouldn't be necessary to take a bus to get from one rail line to another). However, I'm not so sure that it's necessary to have the lines converging at a single point. It seems that would require an in and out ride anytime one's origin and destination were on different lines. There are probably other configurations with distributed intersections that would work better (NYC's or Paris' subways e.g.) More seriously, John's argument that the Twin Cities is designed around the automobile may, at this point in time, be true (It wasn't always so). However, that doesn't mean that that design is appropriate for the future. Can an almost exclusively car-based system accomodate a million more people in the region without causing immense problems. Remember, miles driven don't increase in a linear fashion as a region grows in size. They increase geometrically. We simply can't depend on roads and freeways to deal with the traffic that will be present in the not allthat distant future. I happen to believe that a combination of heavy rail, light rail (including streetcars) and buses has to be added to the road system to keep us mobile. It will be expensive to build but the costs of not building this system will be large as well. And let's recognize too that we can learn much from looking at how other regions have dealt with the problem, both here in North America and abroad. We can emulate solutions that work and avoid the mistakes that are evident in some places (Atlanta's freeways, e.g.) Charlie Swope Ward 1 _____________________________________________ To Join: St. Paul Issues Forum Rules Discussion Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] _____________________________________________ St. Paul Topics - This Week: Light Rail http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul-topics _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/
