I think the light rail could be good for Oahu, but Hawaii is a strange place for guessing IMO. It's the only place I have gone to in the last 10 years and wanted to rent a car (Also rented on in SF because I was there for a wedding in Half Moon Bay). I was hiking, kayaking and surfing around Hawaii, so a vehicle was needed on Oahu and the other islands to reach those nice remote places...ita wrote: Tue Mar 15, 2022 11:07 am
For sure, increasing park and rides to cater to suburbanites is definitely a focus of Scenario C. I would very much rather see funds go to increasing frequency on existing routes and increasing bus service where bus service can be efficient and effective, ie. urban Omaha.
Oahu is (still) building the light rail. I think it might open (partially) this year or next, but the route is 20 miles, Ewa Beach to Waikiki. I don't think it does squat for traffic, but at least there is a level of density (much more intense than Omaha, check out the area around one of my high schools, Moanalua High) that could justify the project. It has just been so expensive, mismanaged, and late, that it's been a black eye for rail projects. I know your a proponent for light rail in Omaha into the burbs, but from Osberg and folks from MAPA, they've looked into it and we just do not have the density in West Omaha to justify the possible cost of light rail.
And yes, I'm a huge proponent of rail. What I think a lot of people miss is you don't need that density first. Take the way Japan does it: Put rail where you want density and let the infill come. It can work. More importantly, it can slow or prevent sprawl.
Do I think it's right for Omaha today? Only in the core. Ideally to me, I'd scrap the street car and replace it with grade separated light rail. Run it from Epply to Florence, to Downtown, to MTC, UNMC and Aksarben.
Run a streetcar in Lincoln.
Give it 5 - 10 years, and then start looking at expanding the LR and running a commuter line between the two cities.
Other fun places to look at: Matsuyama and Kanazawa Japan. Both are close to Omaha's size. And that's city, not MSA. Matsuyama has a lower average density, and runs trams (One line).
Kanazawa just has busses, and a lower density. Sadly, both are currently shrinking (Like most cities in Japan), but it's a good example of two cities that are relatively isolated geographically that I think places like Omaha should be trying to emulate. Specifically Matsuyama. One great thing too, is that even though the suburbs have trains to Matsuyama, most people in the region still have cars (unlike Tokyo, Osaka) and will commute via train, but drive to Matsuyama for bigger shopping items. Which to me was the perfect world as a suburbanite. I could walk / bike from a house in say Toon (I still don't like how this is romanized) to the train, and take a train to Matsuyama, and the tram to whatever destination.
And I've been in similar small cities in Europe with sort of the same story.
In short, I think we give "Omaha isn't dense enough" or "Omaha isn't big enough" far too much credit as a reason to not do it.
