KC Light Rail

If you're unfortunate enough to use Windows Mobile (snap!), yet wise enough to use public transit (double-snap!), today is your lucky day: Google Maps has added public transit directions to an updated WinMo client (as well as support for the Eurocentric S60). Just don't try to ask it how to cross the river on a Sunday. Can support for cheapo Java devices be far behind?

Just make the existing buses easier to use! Chicago has implemented a bus tracker that does for many bus routes what a BRT upgrade does for just one. The biggest complaint about bus service is timeliness, and this system addresses at least part of that problem by providing a real-time status.

Too expensive for our regional plan? How about SMS updates when a bus will arrive (text stop and route number to a short code and receive an automated response) or an IVR that provides the scheduled bus arrivals for each stop. Portland uses the latter approach by assigning a short code on each stop; dial one central number, enter the code, and the system tells you the next arrival time.

You don't have to buy new buses or expensive LED displays to provide what centralized technologies can do for a much lower cost.

Prime Buzz has a good recap of the operational and cost details from this week's light rail presentations to the City Council. We've added a few more details that were mentioned that didn't make their post:

– The new 3/8-cent tax would be exempt from TIF.
– Operation would not require any general fund support.
– Construction would not require the city to issue or back any of the project's debt.
– Cost estimates represent the 5-10% design level.
– Project costs include construction of a BRT line on Prospect (so by the time construction is complete the line will be fed by at least three BRT lines — State, Troost, and Prospect avenues).
– Locations for a 15-acre maintenance facility have been scouted, but no final decisions made.
– Platforms will be limited to hosting 2-car trains, so any increase in capacity would require shorter headways (not longer trains).
– North Kansas City has indicated they may synchronize their sales tax vote with KCMO.
– Ridership estimates will be available prior to the November vote.
– The Downtown Council was present to confirm their support for the project.

No indication of when any of this information will be formally released to the public or even when it will appear on the KCATA light rail website (which hasn't been updated since April?).

We're not claiming any responsibility for this, but we did post in October asking KCATA and The JO to jump on board Google Transit, since it's free, requires very little technical work to join, and far exceeds the usability of most online trip planners (besides, who doesn't use Google Maps these days?). Kudos! Now where is The JO?

UPDATE: The Google Transit trip planner is Mac friendly, unlike the ATA's existing planner. However, not all mobile devices handle the pages well. We tested on a BlackBerry and didn't get very far, but Windows Mobile and PalmOS worked okay (it's useable).

UPDATE 2: According to this article, The JO is "still working on it." We've also confirmed that Google Transit works on iPhones, but only displays text instructions.

The Star has the full story on the 12-mile recommendation. Here are the basics:

• Northern terminus: Vivion Road and North Oak Trafficway (I-29)
• Southern terminus: 51st Street and Brookside Boulevard
• Eastern branch: 18th Street, Linwood Boulevard, or along Brush Creek to Prospect Avenue
• Technology: Modern streetcar with overhead catenary in dedicated, transit-only lanes
• Funding: 3/8-cent new sales tax with federal matching funds
• Stops and precise street alignment will be determined at a later date

Now the Council must make a decision this week on how to proceed with the repeal of the voter-approved plan. It has been sufficiently tarred and feathered, but now that a real replacement exists a simple repeal by the Council should produce little fallout (other than snarky comments from the same five trolls on Prime Buzz). The Council has had plenty of time to think about the options and they've been floating in the media — and out their districts — for just as long. It's time to act.

UPDATE: The ATA has posted the Task Force's recommendations: Citizen Task Force Recommendations on an Alternative Light Rail Plan

“Light rail is where I’d start; I think light rail is the best way for you guys to start, I really do.” –Vicky Diede, Street Car Project Manager in Portland, Oregon, recommends Light Rail over Street Cars for Kansas City

In what's sure to cause some editorial room heckling, Hearne Christopher at The Star relates his conversation with Vicky Diede, Street Car Project Manager in Portland, OR.

Diede, who's spent more then 15 years working on Portland's transportation system, describes how streets cars function:

“Streetcars are inner city connectors, and they’re designed for stopping every two to three blocks,” she says. “The purpose is not to take you from the airport to downtown. Can they do it? Yes, but that’s not their purpose. … I don’t know what the ideal speed is, but (generally) they go very slow — 8 to 12 miles per hour.”

This opinion runs counter to what The Star suggested last week. It also contrasts the differing functions of faster and higher-passenger Light Rail with slower and lower-passenger street cars. Light Rail moves more people farther and faster, while street cars are "an inner city connector."