Long-Term Investments
Andrew has the must-read rebuttal to Sims. Money graf:
For an example of how rail can more more people more cheaply, we need only look to Washington DC. The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, the operator of DC Metro, spends almost exactly the same amount of money as King Country Metro does, $560 million to $580 million. Except for that $560 million DC metro moves almost a million people a day on rail (three times what KC metro moves per day with its buses) and the WMATA agency provides buses that carry another 120,000! It’s only possible because of the investment put in place years ago, and residents there can reap the benefit of a reliable, traffic-separated transit system that’s relatively cheap.
And DC's population density is roughly the same as Seattle's, so it's not like they've achieved this amazing transit ridership simply by crushing everyone into Manhattan-style apartments.
- Frank's blog
- Login or register to post comments
It helps that there are other agencies as well that serve areas outside of the WMATA zone, connecting outer counties with the Metro, and a good network of commuter rail, MARC's trains stretch to points North of Baltimore, and into West Virginia. VRE should go to Richmond, but it does not. What I like, is with the big MetroRail network, rail carries more riders than the bus, yet I am sure some rail critics will use that as proof it is at the expense of the bus. One of the stops I visited on the Red Line while I was there, was Silver Spring, and that station, is bus city. Montgomery County Ride-On, and WMATA buses, in addition to the Red Line, and a MARC train.
True, although we have other agencies here as well, like Community Transit, bringing people in from up North. But you're right in that KC Metro is the main agency in the region.