LRT Stimulating Economic Renaissance in Charlotte

[Metro Jacksonville]

LRT Stimulating Economic Renaissance in Charlotte



Through video, Charlotte officials, residents, developers, and business owners credit their recently completed light rail line with enhancing their community's effort in becoming a dominant people friendly urban center.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-jan-lrt-stimulating-economic-renaissance-in-charlotte

[dougskiles]

Great video.  Very inspiring.

[daveindesmoines1]

Mr. Gingrich talked about a decade old goal of reaching the moon once again. I see the benefits of where all Americans could build that goal, instead of bickering at each other. However, can we create a goal of developing  auto driven, one passenger vehicles, instead? Can new climate controlled, auto driven one passenger vehicles be built with enough space to haul groceries? They would be guided by GPS. You would simply plug your smart phone to accomplish this. Traffic lights could be programmed to not slow down traffic. Diamond lanes could be set up just for these vehicles.
Most times you will see only one person in each car. How you drive can save up to 33 percent in fuel usage. Then if you include traffic lights, this will reduce your MPG even more.
We have our baby boomers aging fast. Soon many will not be able to drive. These new vehicles could help the retirees get around.
Monetary competition could be organized among our universities to develop this new vehicle. These vehicles could be powered by natural gas and special batteries.
Closed manufacturing plants could be reopened to build these new "MADE IN AMERICA" vehicles.
I agree with the wisdom of setting a long term goal for our nation to build upon. However, I believe in building auto driven vehicles could go farther in terms of fuel demands. If we can lower our passenger gas usage by up to 33 percent. Then we reduce oil prices, according to the supply and demand curves.
The lower oil prices become; the more money will be made available to stimulate our whole economy. I believe the investment in developing these auto driven vehicles would go farther in terms in economic stimulation for our whole US economy..Then we all win in more ways than one.

[peestandingup]

Sorry, but the Boomers did it to themselves by embracing everything that is the automobile & their sprawled out unconnected living arrangements. Personal single self-driven vehicles are dumb for a numbers of reasons, all of which I won't go into here. But it mostly has to do with it being a highly space wasting & inefficient means of getting people around (opposed to public rail transit). Its basically a continuation of the poor & unconnected infrastructure we have now (which needs to change). Not to mention keeping the car ownership racket going.

If Newt said that, then he's as out of touch as they are. Sorry, not trying to be a jerk about it, but they should have really thought about this well beforehand instead of now in their old age demanding that a computer drive them around in their own little self-contained pods in the world they've built for themselves. They made their bed.

[JeffreyS]

Sure it has given a boost to Charlotte's economy and Quality of life but has the community made a mint on the fare box?  Isn't that what our city council thinks is the important part of transit?

[thelakelander]

Good question. Like toll roads, no transit system recovers 100% O&M costs at the fare box. However, Charlotte's LRT has already paid for itself, several times, in terms of property tax revenue, economic development,  downtown growth, revitalization of blighted areas, quality of life, community marketing, and job creation.

[Ocklawaha]

daveindesmoines1, We already have that vehicle, it's called fixed route mass transit. This is available right here and right now, there is absolutely no reason to stretch to some distant point in the future where mobility-pods will take over the world.

What you are speaking of is called PRT, or personal rapid transit. The investment required to make this comprehensive system idea work would stagger the budget in the best economy. You'd still have to consider the costs of construction and maintenance for these 'highways,' which by itself would not be sustainable.

Since a bare bones double track rail line has the passenger per hour capacity of a 6 lane highway we'll get much more bang for the buck if we use basic, off-the-shelf, LRT, Streetcar, Commuter Rail and a complimenting system of BRT and city bus connections.

As a baby boomer, I'm not so sure your assessment is completely correct. It was our parents, returning from a world war, that sought the 'security' and peace of tract housing in the burbs. As for our generation, we wouldn't be talking about green, walkable, communities had we not protested the status quo. Communal living, barter as opposed to cash, raising ones own food, back to the land and antidisestablishmentarianism were not just catch phrases.

Bottom line? Charlotte did what Jacksonville could have done over 30 years ago. They acted on a sound logical solution and we spent many times the amount per mile chasing a glorified horizontal elevator. They are now pulling away from us at maximum track speed.

OCKLAWAHA

[Tacachale]

^It's not just a Jacksonville problem. Charlotte's also in a more with-it state, where they are arguably the top dog and most important metro area. They're also a good bit larger and even faster growing and have stuck to some workable plans. A large part of our problem is the state makes us jump through hoops and doesn't always listen even when we do. It just compounds the problems we face locally. We need to expect more of our local leadership and elect more effective state legislators or that's never going to change.

[thelakelander]

...But for every Charlotte or a city that's the most important dog in their state, there's a Kenosha, Tacoma, San Diego, and an Orlando.  At some point, local accountability has to come into play.  LRT, streetcar systems, etc. are localized transit circulator systems.  We can pass blame on others but we had $100 million in local transit money set aside for years with the BJP.  That was more than enough to get something up and running.  Instead, we came up with a foolish idea to purchase property tax generating shopping centers and office buildings for potential BRT ROW and sat on the cash until Peyton took it and "invested" it into the courthouse.


Cedar Hills Shopping Center was one of many sites that JTA wanted to spend that lost BJP $100 million on in 2007
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2007-oct-outrageous-jta-transit-sites-selected

We suggested for years that the money should have been invested on a $100 million (or less) starter rail line and then using that investment as a local match for federal dollars to expand the line.  Instead, the money sat for nearly a decade and it eventually disappeared when the courthouse budget ballooned to $350 million.

[fieldafm]

River City Marketplace was built(in part) with city bonds...  for far more money than could be bonded out for the construction of fixed transit that could stimulate property-tax generating TOD within already built environments.

[JeffreyS]

Even if we never have a BRT line it has cost us dearly.  Letting that money just sit in the city coffers was so dumb.  You don't think someone is drooling over 100 million dollars, think JTA.

[thelakelander]

^A few years before the courthouse overruns sucked up the cash, Lake Ray tried to spend it on an ITS system.

http://www.streport.com/files/Duval_County/Jax_CC.htm

So it wasn't a surprise that it disappeared after being allowed to sit for nearly a decade.

[Ocklawaha]

Makes one wonder if a certain group of politicians and/or a particular state or city agency couldn't be sued over this breach of public trust. They made a promise to us, if we voted for the BJP and when we did, then they changed the rules! The inactivity over the proper use of these funds (IE right-of-way for fixed transit) was pure negligence, using it for a courthouse which cost many times what we were promised was simply criminal.

Who's accountable, and who's feet should be hauled over the flames? Hello?

[cityimrov]

If I remember correctly from learn all I can about mass transit in this city as a person who was educated all about mass transit in Jacksonville, how does moving poor people using fancy rail stimulate growth? 

I remember learning from everyone who lives here that mass transit is only for moving poor people who can't afford cars to and from work.  If they are lucky, there might be a stop at the grocery station but how does moving lower income residence equal economic growth? 

Yes, I think that's how mass transit is suppose to work based on all the things I've learned from this city. 

[JeffreyS]

Well I would suggest visiting cities that have embraced more mass transit and see if those trains are full of poor people.  As for Jacksonville our lowly Skyway was cited as a reason First Union built their 50 million dollar tower here that has been paying property taxes ever since.  The developer at one of the Brooklyn sites has struck a bargain with the JTA to open their station they have there to the public if he builds.(financing for the private project is looking bad). In fact just use your eyes to look at what has sprouted around the skyway on the southbank and it should be apparent.