Transit use hits 50-year high
Not in KC, of course… just nationwide, according to the APTA. A couple of snippets worth noting:
- "Mass transit use increased by more than 2 percent in 2007 to the highest level in 50 years, with Americans taking more than 10 billion trips on public transport while the number of vehicle miles traveled was flat in the first 10 months of the year."
- "Cities with less than 100,000 people also saw a large increase — 6.4 percent — in public transportation use."
By contrast, KCATA ridership was a little over 15 million in 2007, compared to 46 million* in 1957 (the last year of the streetcar — coincidence? — after which ridership declined almost every year, hitting a low of 13 million in 2001).
* From Monroe Dodd's A Splendid Ride: The Streetcars of Kansas City, 1870-1957.
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Even if we are no where near the record high, at least we are climbing back up from the record low.
Still wonder why streetcars are not talked about at the meetings. Wonder what thei population was in 1957?
Streetcars are light rail.
Not if a streetcars weights 50,000lbs, and a Light Rail car weights 100,000 lbs., cost 3 times as much,and has higher construction cost.