| > Why not just extend a light rail system to suburbs? The question we should be asking is more like "why did we tear them all up"? Lots of US metro areas did have this until demographics changed in the mid-20th-century and anti-growth/anti-housing/anti-mobility mindsets took over. You see it in eastern cities, like the Cincinatti Subway that was canceled forever in 1928: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cincinnati_Subway Why their change in attitude? "[Cincinnati's] strategic location also provided a prime destination for migrants, who did not desire to go too far north and wanted to maintain some proximity to their southern home. Additionally, Cincinnati was not as large as some other northern cities, and thus it offered cheaper housing prices for migrants. By 1930, 34264 of Cincinnati’s African American residents were Southern-born, constituting 71.4% of the city’s Black population."
https://jackdelisiohist415.wordpress.com/the-great-migration... The Bay Area is a similar story and had several electric(!!) interurban rail systems: - Until 1934: the Valley connected to San Jose and to the Southern Pacific main line at Mayfield (Palo Alto): https://rodsinks.com/images/1915map.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peninsular_Railway_(California... - Until 1941: most of Marin County connected to San Francisco via ferry from Sausalito: https://i.imgur.com/GR4Trvv.jpg https://www.mendorailhistory.org/1_railroads/nwp/interurban.... - Until 1948: Contra Costa cities connected to San Francisco via ferry and eventually the Bay Bridge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_System https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Key_System_and_March... - Until 1941: San Francisco connected to Oakland, Berkeley, Walnut Creek, Pittsburgh etc, then rail ferry over Suisun Bay, then on to Sacramento, Woodland, Yuba City, Oroville, and as far north as Chico! https://www.american-rails.com/images/4320087869038472230602... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento_Northern_Railway Meanwhile back in 2021 are just now electrifying the Caltrain corridor, and the same areas that shut down their original electric rail systems also successfully fought off BART in the '60s: - This was the planned first phase of BART: https://i.imgur.com/hVT6fya.jpg - And this was the way it was imagined to expand: https://i.imgur.com/TQ3PNL0.jpg What changed around 1940 and made Bay Area voters hate transit and housing? Same old, same old :( https://belonging.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/blacks_ch... |
