What a place for a streetcar! A strip of towns a half a mile wide and 10 miles long... What more could you ask?
That streetcars and mass transit actually be supported.
PUBLIC SUPPORT: Streetcar is a case of 'build it and they will come,' to use a tired and oft attacked phrase. The difference with Streetcar is we have the numbers to back it up, in virtually every case the new lines have exceeded ridership projections. A streetcar system is a proved, 150 year old, American invention that now spans the globe. Unlike the "60,000 passengers a day," Skyway that JTA pushed on the city, or the impending, 'this will ultimately cost more then streetcar BRT project,' they are determined to implement today.
Buses have a bad image, even the industry admits this and having worked as a supervisor for Trailway's, I agree. Buses have a much lower passenger capacity and cannot run entrain, meaning they have higher O&M cost. Lastly, busways or bus lanes as well as the buses themselves have a much shorter life then streetcars. Several cities have streetcars running that are 100 years old and even the FTA admits that railroad track is good for something between 50 and 100 years. Eventually the cost of patching potholes and rebuilding or ordering new buses will surpass the cost of building rail in the first place. While JTA claims they'll build this to 'increase demand' then, and I quote: "We'll just slide rails under it and we'll have light-rail." Sorry boys there is not a single case of that happening ANYWHERE, but I can show you 'world BRT showcase cities,' that are now building completely new rail system's because BRT hasn't produced.
POLITICALLY: Yeah, Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Ponte Vedra/Sawgrass, or the City of Jacksonville doesn't have a single politician pushing sensible fixed rail mass transit. If we did, he'd be out on the Inter-coastal Waterway walking on water.
