Monday, September 8, 2014

Guest Writer Says Trolley System Not A Good Idea For Spokane

A trolley system in Spokane
might look something like this.
The Eastern Washington director for Washington Policy Center calls STA's proposal for an electric trolley in downtown Spokane "electric folly" in an opinion piece in today's Spokesman-Review. Chris Cargill says the trolley plan is unrealistic for Spokane’s transit needs, especially considering there are much less expensive options.

Read the piece and let me know if you have any thoughts on the subject.

2 comments:

Charles said...

I agree with most of what Chris has to say, the overhead wires for a bus trolly system are an eyesore and a maintenance nightmare, but if the new system where they charge the bus through the pavement works that would be a good alternative, but the economic development may be a hard sell then as the bus could change routes easily leaving the development without bus service.

SRTC Staff said...

In respect to the economic development selling point, I found it an interesting point where he pointed out that many of the clientele who would ride these trolleys are the people already riding the bus routes in the same areas.


About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.