Quote:
Originally Posted by llamaorama
In Charlotte's case, maybe the more ambitious subway plan is actually the best because it actually penetrates the region's greatest concentration of jobs and residential density with intelligently located stations in areas which are actually walkable. Maybe if the trains were very fast and frequent because they zoomed through tunnels, unlike some light rail that has to crawl at 10 mph through road intersections while dinging its fakey electronic bell, it would be a joy to use as opposed to driving and parking in congested areas.
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Charlotte's existing Blue Line is interesting because it is a surface line but is about 50% grade separated through downtown. A freight line occupied the position of one of the streets in the downtown grid, and that freight line was grade-separated with underpasses before the downtown got built up. The Blue Line gets the double benefit of A) getting to fly over several busy cross streets and B) running in an exclusive right-of-way downtown.
Other systems like Portland, Denver, Dallas, San Diego, etc all have to mix with traffic to a great extent downtown. Several systems ended up pedestrianizing the street they run on, or like Houston, at least carving out dedicated space.
The sheer cost of a subway makes me a little hesitant to recommend one for Charlotte, despite the obvious advantages. Charlotte is a big city in the American sense, but in terms of the extent of urban, walkable neighborhoods, it's not all that big... and comparable European cities usually don't have subways either.
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