Given the reluctance of Congress as a body to pass any long
term reauthorization of federal funding for public transit, and the desire of
tea party Congressmen to repeal all federal money for mass transit – “let the
poor folks walk” seems to be one of their popular rallying cries – most of the
new urban mass transit construction going on these days is for short run
streetcar lines. Atlanta, Cincinatti,
Dallas, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Oklahoma City, Salt Lake City, and Washington
D.C. are all beginning or continuing with construction of short run street car
lines, at project costs ranging from $18.5 million per mile in Salt Lake to
$77.0 million per mile in Los Angeles.
Why street cars? The obvious answer is that the
municipalities already own the streets, and therefore right of way acquisition
cost is always zero for these projects. Add the obvious lack of any requirement
for elevating the tracks or tunnelling them underneath the urban landscape, and
if you have to spend 100% of your own money, why, the streetcar is the way to
go. While a few streetcar projects have received federal cash from the mass
transit portion of the Highway Trust Fund, or from TIGER grants under the Obama
stimulus legislation, many are fully funded by state and local governments. If
you have a short urban commute and don’t want to drive yourself, you may soon
be riding a streetcar.
