Re: San Jose's Light Rail after 25 years----inefficient etc
Author: Carol L. Voss
Date: 12-27-2012 - 15:18
Gene Wrote:
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> Carol.
> Were one to look at the map, then decide that one
> wanted to board at the station on Cottle Road at
> 85 and go to the Eastridge Mall (doesn't quite go
> there yet but what else is new), you would see
> that you would have to go all the way through down
> town way out First Street, do a 180 and double
> back for the same distance. Round trip you would
> quadrupple the mileage. It is totally inefficient
> and takes you an hour to get there. You are better
> off taking a bus which is more direct and faster.
> If you live downtown, it might be a good deal but
> if you are on the fringes, you are better off in a
> car which is what the dang light rail was supposed
> to eliminate in the first place. Not the way this
> town is laid out at anyway. The original concept
> was to incourage the population to move to down
> town but that didn't work for people to commute
> from home to work. Allot of people commute to jobs
> in San Jose from other communities because they
> can't afford to buy a house or rent here. Rail
> transit systems work best in localities (Like New
> York City) where they were laid out before the
> automobile. In California, urban sprawl pretty
> much renders them usless to a large part of the
> population. In my neighborhood they don't even
> have bus access. Inter urban, Caltrain and Bart
> work pretty well. I can't wait for Drew's
> comments. "Incoming!"
> Gene
Those of us natives who watched this unfold, saw it as the trolley from nowhere to nowhere wending it's way painfully slowly through the nowhere of what used to be a bustling downtown. We lived in Evergreen above Eastridge and I worked at Santa Teresa medical center. If I were to take the VTA it would take me 1 hour and 45 minutes to make all the connections and etc. In my car, on a reverse commute, I made the trip in 13-17 minutes depending on how I hit the stop lights on Capitol Expwy and Cottle road. Light rail still doesn't go to Eastridge OR the airport. Incredibly poor planning and execution.
C.