The City of Seattle recently completed construction on a streetcar that runs between Downtown and South Lake Union. I just learned that they are planning on dramatically scaling up the network, which is an excellent idea. I think we need to move to electrified mass transit ASAP if we are to have a decent chance of dealing with Peak Oil. I was especially psyched to learn that one of the new lines will pass just a few blocks from our house.
The only concern I have about the streetcar is the potential hazard it poses to cyclists--getting a wheel stuck in the tracks while pedaling through traffic is extremely dangerous. Seems like Portland has done a pretty good job dealing with this, but I'm looking forward to the public meeting on Tuesday night to hear how Seattle is going to address it.
The really ironic part about this whole proposal is that Seattle used to have a rockin' street car network, which (naturally) was completely ripped up after the advent of cheap cars and cheap gas. Now that gas is really expensive, we get to rebuild it!
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