BIKE: Re: Rails with Trails

[Roger Baker]

I thin we should support any rail we can get locally, even if it is 
monorail, which I consider a dumb step but at least in the right 
direction.

We're now running nearly a two million dollar a minute national trade 
deficit due to our oil addiction, and world oil production is now 
peaking causing fuel prices to soar. Thus business as usual is going to 
come to a grinding halt in the next few years, no matter how 
desperately TxDOT tries to keep build toll roads with borrowed money.

Texas roadway politics is hopelessly corrupt with Perry and TxDOT and 
the special interests running things:

http://www.tpj.org/Lobby_Watch/perryroads.html

You just can't expect a coherent, rational transportation policy to 
come out of a mess like this until a crisis shakes things up.  -- Roger




On Aug 17, 2004, at 8:31 PM, David Foster wrote:

> Here are a few quick thoughts on Patrick's post:
>
> --The Red Line also carries freight and will continue to do so even if 
> commuter rails passes. I can't see  the line being removed in any 
> case, so we might as well carry people along it as well. It makes 
> sense to piggy-back a paved bike trail along the corridor wherever 
> feasible for all the reasons mentioned yesterday.
> --I don't agree with the characterization of commuter rail as 
> 'crappy'. The technology Cap Metro is looking at is an electric 
> hybrid. Some of these low-polluting trains (depending in part of 
> course on how the electricity is produced) are already in operation in 
> New Jersey and Europe, and newer hybrids are in design as well.
> --There may indeed be corridors where a monorail would make sense, 
> such as the UP spur running from Vinson south of Ben White almost to 
> the new airport. West of IH 35, space is an issue (not so much east of 
> IH 35). I say this as someone who worked hard for light rail last 
> time--I am open to looking at monorail, and Patrick and others are 
> right that this commuter rail proposal is not by itself an answer to 
> our mobility needs.
> ---However, I do see commuter rail as a 'foot in the door' and we can 
> and should have serious conversations about how to expand passenger 
> rail, in whatever form, once we have made a start here.
>
> All that said, I am a solid supporter of the commuter rail proposal, 
> and believe that cyclists should work to pass it partly because it 
> does open up tremendous opportunities for Rails-with-Trails.
>
> I hope we have a spirited, well-informed debate on all these issues in 
> the weeks and months to come.