gusterfell t1_j6lgdau wrote
Reply to comment by laterbacon in A team of people studying noise pollution in Providence says the city is inordinately loud for its size – a problem that impacts public health as well as the environment. by GoxBoxSocks
Cianci proposed doing exactly that back in the 90s, at least for the downtown stretch. I don’t know how much traction the idea got at the time, but maybe it could be revisited.
laterbacon t1_j6lh21c wrote
I made this comparison a while back: https://i.redd.it/fjqd58yj00v91.png
It's sad to think about what the city would be like if the US hadn't gone all-in on cars - look at all those streetcar lines!
[deleted] t1_j6p78cm wrote
As someone who lived a block from the Powell Street cable car line in San Francisco and later a couple of blocks from the N-Judah streetcar line, I can assure you that streetcars are plenty noisy and rather frequent. It’s just a different sort of noise than interstate noise.
laterbacon t1_j6pduzk wrote
The San Fran Streetcars are antique novelties that are loud and rattly. Modern updated rolling stock can solve that problem.
[deleted] t1_j6pe1pw wrote
At what cost to install and maintain though? And would people use them?
Philly ended up ditching most of their streetcars decades ago because people stopped riding them.
And the tracks and electric delivery system in that photo can’t be cheap.
laterbacon t1_j6pf7xg wrote
Philly intentionally neglected their streetcar system. SEPTA is a mess for a whole host of reasons, but the main one is that all the counties involved in it have to all agree on projects. Suburbanites don't want to fund urban transit. That's oversimplifying it, but it's a major impediment to improving transit in Philly proper. Here's a good recent video about the streetcars there (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYXx3CgwmHY)
And people will use transit if it's reliable and frequent. And yes, infrastructure isn't cheap but how much money have we dumped into the 6/10 rebuild and the downtown viaduct on 95? Putting tracks in a street and running wires overhead really isn't very expensive, and the savings in maintenance on vehicles that have no combustion engines, and aren't subject to potholes more than makes up for it. Trams are ubiquitous in most of the developed world, except here. Take a look at the transit networks in places like Bilbao, Bordeaux, or Utrecht. They are all similarly sized metro areas to Providence and it really emphasizes what a joke transit is over here.
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