KCMO Downtown Streetcar

[kboish]

Can we merge the other street car thread?

[smh]

I also think it is attractive because in this country, whatever the reasons, busses have a stigma as we’ve discussed many times before. I wish people would just get over it—but they haven’t. We seem to view streetcars as sophisticated and modern while busses are cumbersome and outdated. I don’t agree with that view. I ride the MAX and a few other routes and find them to be very comfortable. Much of the quality of my bus experience is determined by the driver. Some of them are terrible, starting and stopping and curbing every turn, while some would make you think that you were riding a train with the smoothness of their operation.

That said, I like the open design of the streetcar, the offboard fare collection, and level boarding—and potential for dedicated lanes. All things that could be provided by a bus. But a bus isn’t a streetcar…

[bahua]

What's with the screwy characters in your posts, smh?

[GRID]

Oak = BAD PLAN.  

We don't need to spark investment east of Grand.  We need to spark investment on Grand; in the CBD in general.  

The horse is dead.  Don't focus on developing other parts of downtown until we've acheived real density in the CBD.  Plenty of dead space on Grand, Walnut, Main to address before we start heading out to the hinterlands.  

I don't have the words to explain why Oak is such a bad idea.  In short, if this thing is a circulator, it must be close to the people it's intended to circulate (i.e. residents, workers, tourists).  Oak is the furthest route from all of these people.  

Broadway, on the other hand, I could support.  Maybe this would kick start development of the west-PAC zone.  Grand/Main still best options IMO

I would agree with all of this for the same reasons I think developing the riverfront or west bottoms is kind of premature when so much of the core of downtown is still undeveloped.

But I was thinking more along the lines of Cordish dragging this out for years in court to keep the streetcars away and as often as they sue people, that wouldn't surprise me in the least.

[GRID]

So are these built in the USA or not?  That is always a huge issue with federal funding.  If this is locally funded, KC would have a lot more to choose from.

[smh]

What's with the screwy characters in your posts, smh?

Hmm... I don't see any screwy characters on my end. Elaborate, please.

[KCMax]

So are these built in the USA or not?  That is always a huge issue with federal funding.  If this is locally funded, KC would have a lot more to choose from.

Its a Japanese company. Not sure if they manufacture here or not. They produced the cars for the rail systems in Seatte, Boston and Detroit among others.

My impression was KC is not waiting for federal funding.

[bahua]

Hmm... I don't see any screwy characters on my end. Elaborate, please.

http://bahua.com/pics/other/smh.png

[chrizow]

smh is a spambot.

[mean]

He's using ’ in his posts as an apostrophe instead of '. Works fine for me, though, and I think they're both the same character in UTF-8 so I dunno wtf the deal is and I am too lazy to figure it out.

[smh]

I'll be honest--sometimes I type my posts in Word and then cut and paste them into the post box. I will discontinue that practice henceforth. Community admonishment stings.

[smh]

It's also apparently infected my signature. Well, crap. It's like I've been walking around with food on my face this whole time. hehe.

[mean]

I'll be honest--sometimes I type my posts in Word and then cut and paste them into the post box.

That is, in fact, exactly what I suspected. I have seen similar weird character encoding issues when people paste from Word.

[KC Sporting Life]

the Streetcar is definitely slick, and very modern looking.  I was a bit surprised at the layout of the seating though.  Definitely not trying to maximize occupancy, and definitely going for "comfort".  The way the seats, in many places, were single and back to back takes up a lot of room without actually having many places to sit. 

I guess I was envisioning something more like the subway cars in larger cities, with rows of seating.  But a very cool look, nonetheless. 

[smh]

the Streetcar is definitely slick, and very modern looking.  I was a bit surprised at the layout of the seating though.  Definitely not trying to maximize occupancy, and definitely going for "comfort".  The way the seats, in many places, were single and back to back takes up a lot of room without actually having many places to sit. 

I guess I was envisioning something more like the subway cars in larger cities, with rows of seating.  But a very cool look, nonetheless. 

I think the idea is that the streetcar is for shorter trips and thus most people will stand. Hence, why the seats are mostly up against the sides.

[KC Sporting Life]

Makes sense.  And they were definitely comfortable.

[pash]

.

[KCMax]

I think the idea is that the streetcar is for shorter trips and thus most people will stand. Hence, why the seats are mostly up against the sides.

And the headspace is huge. That's what really struck me. Shaquille O'Neal could carry me on his shoulders in one of those things.

[pash]

.

[mean]

They're weird characters insofar as they don't exist on the keyboard.