ya but compare those pictures to these:
These trains are part of the urban streetscape. they are of a human friendly scale. they are inegrated into their neighbourhoods not hovering above them. i see no attractive development along the rail lines in those L shots... there is no incentive for businesses to locate facing the street unless the train is ON the street...
street level rail does not have to be slow, the way old school streetcars are. think of it more like a subway line that runs on the street... with dedicated transit signals and its own lane instead of a tunnel. the closest street level approximation in toronto is spadina... and spadina streetcars run much faster than say queen west where they mingle with traffic and continually get cut off by cabbies.