The Pedestrian Accelerator

I came to transit on foot, I like to say.  Of course one always accesses transit on foot, that is as a pedestrian, but I also mean I got into the transit business because I enjoy walking so much, especially in places that make walking a pleasure.  I used transit occasionally growing up in Tampa where transit service was occasional and walking was torture; much more often as an embassy guard in Seoul,...

Long time passing

Hail Mary passes, hotdogs, and one’s own life:  the longer the better.  Add streetcars to the list.  The Toronto TTC takes streetcars very seriously and they are about to add 130 foot vehicles to their fleet.  These are streetcars, not light rail.  They are a single car in length, but a multiple-articulated car with four bends, 5 sections with special seating areas for families, wheelchair ramps,...

A Tale of Two Cities’ Streetcars

Philadelphia and San Francisco are rarely compared to one another.  One is America’s founding city, the other America’s European city.  One is east, the other west.  The city by the bay is known for its mild winters and cold summers and the City of Brotherly Love isn’t.  But there are some interesting similarities, and unfortunate differences, in the streetcar lines both cities operate the...

Wow, What a Difference!

My friend and rail expert Gregory Thompson loves the movie Chinatown.  He grew up in L.A. in the same time period the movie takes place and appreciates the details in director Roman Polanski’s film, especially the streetcars.  “It’s the bells,” says Thompson.  “You never see any streetcars in the movie, but you hear the streetcar bells coming through the open windows.” Streetcars are...

The Space Between: shaping community with transit

This photo simulation juxtaposes a modern streetcar vehicle (photographed in Tacoma Washington) with the newly built home of the Live Arts, a community theater in downtown Charlottesville. Image by Okerlund Associates. by Gary Okerlund and Todd Gordon Charlottesville, a small city in central Virginia with a population of 40,000, has been home to three presidents, Madison, Monroe, and most famously...

Through the Looking Glass

This is a visual metaphor of the Philly streetcar, an anachronistic machine that does not fit well into the contemporary urban fabric. Photo by Scheib. It looks like transit, sounds like money, and smells like politics.  It must be Philly’s Girard Streetcar Line. Philadelphia is home to over 118 miles of bona fide, in-the-asphalt, exposed streetcar rails, the greatest quantity in the country. ...

The Streetcar in American Life

From 1888 when Frank Sprague implemented the world’s first successful streetcar system in Richmond, Virginia through the 1920s, the electric streetcar symbolized the American transit industry.  In cities throughout the country the press followed the expansion and financial scandals of the traction industry, “traction” being the term that the public then used for streetcars.   Baltimore streetcars...