vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #162 / Opinion / Reading article...

Earlier today when I first surfed into your front page, I read the headline regarding the desire to remove the trams altogether, and the first word that leapt to my mind was NO!

I've never been to Vladivostok, so I have no first-hand knowledge of how bad the situation is, but I do know a few things about mass transit. Yes, the problems with trams is that they're on rails, and can't move out of the way, unless pullouts are provided. I live in San Antonio, Texas, a city of about 1.25 million. We have a tram system in the downtown area, which frankly caters mostly to the tourists (we're fortunate enough to have millions of them every year). We also have a fairly extensive bus system, which is the source of constant controversy, because every year it loses money, which must be subsidized by the city. On the other hand, it provides affordable transportation for a great many people in San Antonio who cannot afford an automobile. In addition, the buses (all of which are diesel-powered) are far less polluting than automobiles. We have a major highway that runs from San Antonio to Austin, the state capital, which is about 90 km north of us. That highway, like most of the highways in San Antonio, is under constant construction (presently to expand it from three lanes each way to four), altogether at a cost of over $100 million dollars a year, and the PRESENT plans won't all be completed for ten years! At that time, traffic experts estimate the average driving speed between here and Austin will be approximately 50 to 60 km per hour. Four years ago, the population of both cities was markedly less, the highway (I-35) was two lanes in each direction, and the average speed was above 100 km/hr.

My point is this – in the long term, I cannot believe that automobiles are the way to move people around during the work-week. Public transit is the only feasible way to move large masses of people who are going in the same general direction at the same general time. At long last, the "movers and shakers" of our two cities (and those in between) have begun to look at light rail systems, with the thought of installing one here. True, the challenges are great, and this is true even in an economy that has more money available that the Primorye is liable to see for possibly decades.

The fact remains, I can't think of a case where spending large sums of public money on a short-term solution to a long-term problem has saved a dollar or a ruble. The other thing, which you wisely pointed out in your editorial, is the smog. Seven years ago, San Antonio had never had a smog alert or an air-quality alert. Five years ago, I believe we had two such days. Last year we had eight. So far this year, we have already had two; even though it's been an extremely warm winter, we've not yet had a day where the temperature reached 29 degrees Centigrade. During the past seven or eight years, nearly every smog-producing factory in town has either been closed or replaced. The difference obviously is cars.

I don't think I'm a bit naive when I say that had at least some of the road and highway money over the past twenty years been spent on mass transit, these problems would not exist. Over my lifetime, I've lived in eighteen cities and three countries, and this has been one of the things I've watched with great interest since my mid-teens. Junk the trams? Maybe so. Get rid of mass transit altogether? Only if you're willing to bankrupt your city a few years from now.

http://vn.vladnews.ru/issue161/Special_reports/Mayor_derails_trams_future
http://vn.vladnews.ru/issue161/Opinion/Vladivostok_should_think_twice_before_ripping_out_tram_tracks