Phoenix’s Brand New Light Rail Has 60% More Users than Expected

[marmar]

from TreeHugger.com:



Video: Phoenix’s Brand New Light Rail Has 60% More Users than Expected
by Michael Graham Richard, Ottawa, Canada on 06.18.09

Shows a Big Pent Up Demand for Quality Public Transportation
The sprawling city of Phoenix, of all places, is showing us how light rail should be done. They just opened a 20 mile line with 28 stops last December, and ridership statistics are beating all forecasts (evidence that the same might be true in other cities where they are afraid to invest because their forecasts are too low) with 40,000 daily riders instead of the 25,000 expected. As you can see in the video below, the trains also have bike racks, which is a must to encourage multi-modal transportation. Read on for more details, and make sure to check out the video below.

Our friends at StreetFilms made this great video (short & to the point): http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/phoenix-light-rail-metro-tempe-mesa-map-video.php


The current light rail line is the dark purple line, the dotted purple line is the North-West extension that is scheduled to open in 2012, and the blue lines potential future extensions that are being studied right now.

As you can see from the map, the current light rail line actually goes through 3 cities: Phoenix, Mesa, and Tempe. One of the future extensions might go to Glendale.


http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/06/phoenix-light-rail-metro-tempe-mesa-map-video.php

[nxylas]

1. Up yours, Wendell Cox

Don't know if Cox and his flying monkeys were despatched to try and kill this project, but I just like saying that.