Monorail!
Wednesday, December 21, 2005, 16:16 —by Joe Crawford
This item was posted in General category and has 7 Comments so far.
See: SDMonorail.com:
A VISION for SAN DIEGO of how monorail commuting can provide the best solution to many of San Diego’s traffic problems and a PLAN of how it could be implemented in a step by step fashion are presented here. A click of the mouse will introduce you to twenty first century transportation and a place for it in San Diego. Join us over the next months as the website will be filled in and expanded with concept designs, pictures and added information. Add your voice toward moving San Diego into twenty-first century commuting .
On a fun note: Lyrics to “Monorail”, and on a serious note: Monorail wikipedia entry
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Sassy said on Thursday, December 22, 2005, 8:15
Why is it that everyone thinks a monorail is some great thing? Everywhere I’ve been that has one they are relegated to tourist attractions and no one commutes on them? Why not just build a commuter rail like every other city?
Joe Crawford said on Thursday, December 22, 2005, 8:27
If you look at the site, it sure takes itself seriously. I find that self-importance sort of humourous, because I don’t think a monorail *is* a great thing for San Diego, compared with expanding the Trolley and putting in place smarter solutions to get people to existing mass transit.
MAS said on Thursday, December 22, 2005, 8:57
In Miami they ended up calling their MetroRail - MetroFail.
San Diego County is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined. It’s almost the size of Conn. Much too large of an area to be servicied by rail.
However, the zipper lane coming to the I-15 will be nice. A short video showing it in action can be found here.
Jenn said on Thursday, December 22, 2005, 11:46
This makes me think of the floating airport idea that is, um, floating around San Diego…
http://www.floatingairport.org
Sassy said on Thursday, December 22, 2005, 14:57
“San Diego County is larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined. It’s almost the size of Conn. Much too large of an area to be servicied by rail.”
Yes but the vast majority of San Diego county is a wasteland of desert and mountains.
The urban core and business centers could easily support a true commuter rail - the coastal corridor already has the Coaster. The main problem in San Diego is that once commuters arrive at their destination - i.e. Sorrento Valley - there is no real option to get to their workplace since these areas are not walkable.
That said the I-15 corridor could easily support a standard-guage commuter rail from Escondido to San Diego, with stops in Mira Mesa.
San Diego is unwilling to invest in infrastructure, and it’s citizens want free municipal services without paying for it via taxes. My co-worker was incensed at the idea of paying for trash pickup (which is free in SD). This is why the city has a 1-runway airport, piss-poor public schools and traffic to rival LA.
For all the LA-bashing in SD, LA managed to has managed build not only a Subway but a number of infrastructure improvements over the last 10 years. Take a look at what’s going on in Downtown LA for proof.
Michael Allen Smith said on Friday, December 23, 2005, 14:19
The problem with rail is very few people live or work near the freeway by which it would be making its stops. True metro areas with dense popluations like DC or NY don’t have that issue. The east coast can dig, we can’t cause of the earthquake posiibility.
I am encouraged by the freeways widening projects (see my map post from yesterday).
Engineer said on Tuesday, September 26, 2006, 10:50
I look down on the Front St.trolley crossing and see long traffic backups because the gates are down while a trolley is loading at the First Ave. trolley stop. On popular Padre game nights, added trolley service makes complementary auto traffic blockage an unintended consequence. Take a look at the trolley line along Mission Valey to see the massive concrete structures it takes to elevate light rail so that it does not become a vehicle and pedestrian block.
The only way to get public transportation convenient to neighborhoods is with bus transport or monorail. Bus rideing can take commute time doubling private auto. That makes it primarily a service for those without an auto or handicapped who cnnot drive.
Monorail can provide convenient high speed transit without blocking streets, filling in wetlands and can provide flexible scheduling without delays from traffic accidents or special events,
The Regents Road bridge will become a massive concrete visual blight spewing exhaust contaminates and noise. A monorail bridge would be arguably one tenth the cost and visual obstruction with none of the atmospheric contaminates. The monorail guiderails are roughly no larger than the two hand rails on a vehicle bridge.
Seattle has had a privately operated monorail since its World Fair. Monorail systems are numerous along the Pacific Rim countries providing transit for millions of passengers.