Charlotte does light rail right

[M II A II R II K]

Charlotte does light rail right


25 Jun 2010

By Mary Newsom

Read More: http://www.grist.org/article/2010-06-25-charlotte-does-light-rail-right

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Charlotte is car-loving NASCAR country, a vast suburbia of cul-de-sacs and strip malls. Yet its new light rail line is a national model for success, outstripping ridership projections and inspiring millions of dollars in high-density development. How did sensible transportation planning come to sprawlburbia? Not by appealing for "sustainability," that's for sure. In the end, the winning pitch that sold voters on light rail was none other than Charlotte's love of growth. The development it lured -- several thousand condos and apartments, dozens of new restaurants and stores, and roughly half a billion dollars in private investment -- showed skeptics that light rail is more than just transportation. The city created transit-oriented zoning districts and station area plans, allowing for increased density along the rail line.

Other players in this success story included a mayor who took leadership, a restored vintage streetcar, and plain old lucky timing: A decade-long real estate bubble fed the transit-related development, not bursting until after the Lynx light rail debuted in November 2007, followed quickly by 2008's record-breaking high gas prices. Today, with the North Carolina textile industry long dead and Charlotte's famed banks weakened, the city's leaders look to position it as an emerging "green" metropolis. Its transit triumph makes for compelling evidence.

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Residential units under construction near the Lynx Blue Line in Charlotte Photo: Willamor Media via Flickr

 

[leopetr]

Are those ridership number per month? I wish them much growth.

 

[doady]

Those are avg weekday ridership for each month, not total ridership.

Not great obviously. Still less ridership per weekday than 19 Hurontario, like most LRT lines in the US.

But the most important thing is ridership growth, which is kind of hard to judge with the ongoing recession and impending depression and all...

 

[jwill]

Just for the sake of comparison, those boarding numbers are about the same as Lansdowne, Ossington, Islington, Viva Blue, Dundas (MT), Georgetown GO. (according to slightly old data).

The Charlotte system has 15km and 15 stations, which is about the length of the Yonge Subway (Union to Finch) though with fewer stations.

 

[junctionist]

The success stories seem to typically be from smaller American cities and the ridership numbers of the success stories suggest that if our city was in the U.S., we'd be building multiple subway lines.

 

[leopetr]

The success stories seem to typically be from smaller American cities and the ridership numbers of the success stories suggest that if our city was in the U.S., we'd be building multiple subway lines.

If your city were in US, our subway would run once every 20 minutes at rush hour, once an hour on Sundays, and not at all after 9pm.