Sometimes when watching videos on effective ways of public transport and trams come up, I get a bit annoyed at people not addressing the fact that they seem to share the road with cars. Why do people twerk for trams so much as a form of light rail if they share the road with cars and are subject to being affected by traffic? Doesn’t that just make them rail buses without their own bus lane? Doesn’t that make them more obsolete? Why do people like them so much?

Edit: Also, does anyone have any resources about the cost to benefit ratio of different intratown/city forms of transport (bike lanes, BRT, trams and other forms of light rail, subways etc)? Would be much appreciated.

  • ginerel@kbin.social
    3·
    1 year ago

    My city has started separating tram lines from the roads with fences, and it’s all just great. We had next to no bus lanes until this year, and I still have none where I live. The bus sits in traffic and can stop for around 5-10 times at a traffic light, while the tram only stops once. Sometimes even the bus driver opens the doors before getting to any station. This never happened with trams. On the other hand, if one tram breaks, the others have to wait for it to be moved - although this doesn’t happen that often on the line I’m using the most.

    Another thing to note is that even when there is no separation from the traffic and the lines are asphalted, it’s still illegal to go on the tram tracks (albeit this is one of the rules that is not that well enforced, because our police sucks, it’s good that it’s there).

    Our municipality also purchased longer trams and plans to purchase some more, some even longer than what we have now, but it’s great. It’s a good way of making public transit more attractive for the people, hopefully getting them out of the cars and solving congestion.

    We also have a metro system, which is also great and highly appreciated, but it doesn’t go anywhere in the city, and its extension has been rather slow in the last 30 years. The company managing it is also owned by the government directly, so that’s another hurdle in its development. The tram network, on the other hand, is owned by the local transit company, and is denser. I’m sure there will be more extensions to it if the municipality will throw the right money at the right projects.