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Why America should not build Light Rail – Saumik Narayanan (saumikn.com)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Oh I see. I took your first sentence as meaning you stopped a paragraph in.

I agree that buses are less efficient, I think it's the best argument for rail.

I will point out, all of St. Louis' new buses are electric.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

Even being electric, if the point is for public transit to replace personal transport, a bus will never be more desirable for most people in most places. They are slower than cars because they stop places but obey the same laws as a car going from a-b.

But I got to ride a subway when I went to Boston (I’m from a rural bus area that would greatly benefit from a local daily rail system since the rails are already run for industry) and it was so fucking amazing to just have a set of destinations I could get off and do stuff, and then get back on if it sucked and keep going.

Busses take forever to go the same distance. They will never come close, and are only good in small areas that don’t plan to expand. Cities would do better to plan for the future with light rail, even if it is a bigger upfront expense, because the long term maintenance and environmental savings (including externalized; other people in traffic etc) are worth it.