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| Questions and Answers about Light Rail This is the interactive part of this site. If you have questions about Light Rail and public transit and Tucson, please email them to us at info@TucsonLightRail.org Please also indicate whether we can use your name. We will post questions and answers as we get them, so keep checking back to see what we've posted... Q: Does Tucson have the population density to support Light Rail? A: The density issue, raised by many opponents of Light Rail, has become a red herring for at least three reasons: The first is that the Federal Transit Administration, which doles out federal funds for Light Rail projects (and is thus very careful to make sure projects work), has in the past decade considerably loosened their requirements for population density for effective Light Rail. They recognized that in most sprawl-type western cities, people will nt simply be walking to the rail station; they will most likely be driving to a park-n-ride lot, taking a feeder shuttle or bus, or biking. That enables a much larger pool of the population to draw from for rail ridership. Second, the real key to density is not where people live, but where they are going to. In Downtown and the UofA, there are more than 65,000 people coming to work or school every day. If you string that together with a line which connects PCC, Park Mall, Williams Center, three major hospitals, the future Rio Nuevo, many park-n-ride lots, and endless other attractions, you have a very dense corridor of trip generators. Especially given that the 8 Broadway bus route is already carrying more than 12,000 passengers each day on substandard buses running at 164% of seating capacity. Third, and primarily for these reasons, density has not shown a strong correlation with the success of modern light rail systems. Some of the most successful systems, among them Portland, Salt Lake City, Denver, and Dallas, are in relatively low-density cities. Here are some comparisons of population densities of Tucson with those cities: Tucson: 2656 persons/square mile (which includes all that empty land on the southeast side, skewing the number further downwards) Portland: 3572 persons/square mile Additionally, there are census tracts in Tucson which have the same population density as Miami, Providence, and Berkeley. These tracts will also likely be adjacent to the proposed light rail lines.
Q: Light Rail is expensive. Can we afford this? A: Yes, Light Rail is expensive. But so are roads. Let's try to do some apples-to-apples comparisons to see whether roads or rail are the better deal. We estimate that a light rail system in Tucson could cost about $35 million a mile. This includes all capital costs: the tracks, the overhead wires, the power generating stations, the right of way, the tracks, the design, the construction, the maintenance facilities, the park-n-ride lots, the stations, the specialized signals, the fare collection equipment, and the light rail vehicles. All the costs are visible and paid up front. We estimate $35 million a mile to be on the conservative side. Light Rail lines which have opened in the last two years in Baltimore, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, and Denver all came in under budget, costing between $14 million and $24 million a mile. Let's do some road comparisons here in Tucson. Adding one lane in each direction of I-10 through Downtown Tucson is costing an estimated $20 million per mile, and that cost will likely increase before the project is over. Widening Speedway in the early 1990s cost $30 million a mile to add one lane in each direction. Barraza-Aviation Parkway from Golf Links to Broadway cost $37 million a mile to carry only 11,000 cars a day. County administrator Chuck Huckleberry has estimated the cost of a Tucson crosstown freeway to be more than $100 million per mile! And keep in mind that on roads projects, you provide the car yourself (and its power supply and its maintenance facilities) with your own family's money. Let's look at capacity: two tracks of rail carry the same capacity as 16 lanes of freeway. Even if we decided we wanted to plow a 16-lane swath across town, the economics would make it impossible. Extrapolating from our example of $20 million a mile for two new lanes of I-10, it would cost us $160 million per mile to build a freeway which could carry the same number of passengers as two tracks of Light Rail. The cost of right of way, the effects of pollution, and the loss of businesses and residences would add to the economic penalty for a freeway. If you add in Light Rail's economic development benefits, Light Rail looks like even more of a bargain. In Dallas, every $1 in public money invested in their light rail line returned $1.20 in direct private investment in the vicinity of stations within the first four years of operation. That means more jobs, a better local economy, and a larger tax base. Freeways cannot deliver that kind of economic boost. And we won't even talk about the drastically different effect Light Rail and freeways have on property values in their vicinity... The Pima Association of Governments' 20-year Regional Transit Plan calls for $20 billion in roads spending over the next two decades. Even if we decided to build a no-holds-barred $1 billion Light Rail system, complete with a doubling or tripling of a re-vamped bus fleet, that would only constitute 5% of the total projected spending on transportation in the region, with the remaining 95% for roads. Does that seem like an unreasonable sum to spend on a transit system which has been proven to do so much for communities across the country? And let's not forget that the Federal Transit Administration offers to pay for up to 80% of the total budget for Light Rail projects, meaning that a $500 million system can cost us as little as $5 million a year for 20 years in local funds. Yes, light rail is expensive. But compared to roads, it looks like a screaming deal!
Q: Does the organization have any plans for meeting the transit needs of the 250,000 Pima County elderly or disabled residents who do not have their own transportation? A: We haven't yet focused on all of the details of the plan (watch for news in early September), but beefing up other forms of public transit, including VanTran, will undoubtedly be an important part of it. We have been working with Tucson elders as a part of this program (Cele Peterson is one of our biggest boosters), and one of the best reasons for a good public transit system is to allow continued independence for seniors and disabled people who are facing the loss of their driver's license or are unable to drive in the first place. Light Rail in particular is perfect for people with walkers or wheelchairs, as the station platform level will be flush with the floor level of the vehicle, so these folks can simple glide on without the use of lifts. The interconnection with other services will also be crucial in order to increase the convenience and desirability of using transit, and will include a doubling of the bus fleet at minimum, and a minimizing of waits between transfers. A neighborhood minibus service may be a part of it, as well as a dial-a-ride and expanded VanTran. I am well aware of the current problems with Van Tran and that will be addressed in some way. The Phoenix transit plan which passed in March 2000, and which features a Light Rail line, also included $336 million over 20 years for improved service on their VanTran equivalent. We will likely include similar increased levels of service on our preferred plan. Of course it will take all of us to make sure that our plan is the one which will be placed on the ballot come next May!
Check our Links page for other sources for more questions & answers. And see our Member Quotes page to read what Sensible Tucsonans are saying about transportation. |