| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 5/30/2008 7:44:16 PM | Will someone remind me why the majority of arizona decided that a light rail was a much better choice than a subway/train system?
I'm going to be honest with you. I live in Ahwatukee but frequent downtown and Tempe a lot! Unfortunately traffic sucks, there are streets torn to shreds as construction ruins small businesses and then there's that god aweful lookin over priced disney monorail station on Mill Ave. I wouldn't be feeling so dang bad if it was something that would travel all over the valley but its going to go in one straight line not touching the surrounding areas.
soooo.. what do you think?
LIGHT RAIL! AWESOME OR GREUSOME?!
  | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 5/31/2008 12:37:53 AM | | i think its gonna be awesome, once construction finishes, businesses will pick up again, thanks to the light rail we wont have to pay for gas, cuz everyone will ride it, well almost everyone, less traffic and more in ur pocket, we just have get through this next year or two, i cant remember when they said it was gonna be finished, 2009? and the gas companies are gonna try to get as much as they can out of us | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 5/31/2008 5:25:36 PM | This is a very touchy subject.
Who exactly is the light rail going to help? For the next few years, ONLY those traveling from Tempe into downtown and near Camelback corridor...or so it seems. Hmm..last time I looked, most of the city is moving to the suburbs so their kids have space to grow up, and the parents are "commuting" INTO the city.
Explain how this "Disneyland" monorail system is going to help me get from my home in Peoria to my job in Scottsdale? How is it going to help those people who bought luxery homes in new areas like Verrado and Vistancia get to their jobs making those big bucks in the downtown or Scottsdale financial corridor? The 101 doesn't even have a CARPOOL lane for cryin' out loud!
The lightrail system should have been built FIRST to cut down on the gridlock that the Freeway systems have (try sitting on I-17, I-10 or the 60 in morning or afternoon rush-hour traffic) by all the people commuting from areas where public transportation is next to impossible to locate.
When did Phoenix go into competition with New York City? (scratching head)  It seems that the city is trying to cater to the "Yuppie" crowd by building million-dollar loft/condos downtown, accessable via the wonderful light-rail. But what about the thousands of OTHER citizens who will NOT be living in the 10-square miles serviced by this multi-million dollar project? Oh yea...but WE get to help PAY for it with tax dollars. Lovely isn't it? Maybe someday I can take a ride on the light rail that my tax dollars spent...all the way out to the "New" Cardinal Stadium...something ELSE my tax dollars paid for that I can't afford to enjoy.   | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 5/31/2008 10:04:01 PM | unless you live within that 10 square mile traintrack... you are pretty much screwed. its a freakin tourist attraction and that really really bothers me.
and we aren't competing with new york. we're competing with disneyland. its looks and thats all.
what about us part time students who live in mesa, ahwatukee, scottsdale, the west side@!!! it was advertised as a way to help student travel but its sooo not even there. :( | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/1/2008 4:54:03 AM | ^^Hey, after working in downtown for a few years, I've taken the "Dash" (free bus) to get around the downtown courts area and I'm telling you...MOST of the people riding the Dash are the homeless and winos who are looking to sit under the air conditioning on the bus. Eeeuuwwww!! If that's who's going to be taking advantage of the "free" or nearly-free light rail......I'll pass. | |
|
| |
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/1/2008 11:07:22 AM | Light rail exists to take all the money away from the bus system, which really needs it, and to line the pockets of everyone involved in the construction and real estate, who also happen to be the same people running the state and city governments who approved it.
These are the same guys that sabotaged the Mesa stadium location at the north intersection of 101 and 202, in an effort to have it located in downtown Phoenix, by claiming that it was in Sky Harbor's flight path and its height would interfere with landing planes, even though there are buildings and mountains in that path that are taller than the stadium would have been. (But then Glendale got it, ha ha)
The fat cats are just trying to funnel college kids into the downtown area to make some money, except that downtown is small and ghetto, and Tempe has everything the kids could ever want within walking distance.
Boondoggle. | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/1/2008 11:09:27 AM | | its so crazy because most college kids have no money whatsoever and when they do... they prefer mill. the light rail and how the local government is handling it really makes me wanna move. | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/1/2008 6:03:41 PM | and while we are griping, when the heck will the 202 ever be started and completed going around south mountain so I have a way to get to the West side without having to go thru the down town area?
As for the light rail, I thought it would have plans to be expanded eventually beyond the one directional route. | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/1/2008 9:41:15 PM | tattooedsean777
yeah i live in ahwatukee and now.. we stare and the stopped construction. its kinda creepy.
As for the light rail, I thought it would have plans to be expanded eventually beyond the one directional route.
nothing like that has been introduced in the plans. | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/2/2008 10:18:42 AM | You guys forgot that if you don't live within walking distance of the light rail... then you still have to drive to the station areas!
I think they just congested the area more by taking more of the limited space there is downtown. The years it is going to take to finish it (We know they are not the fastest in road construction), they are killing the businesses downtown. No one wants to even touch that area with all the construction going on. | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/2/2008 11:34:55 AM | | Have you driven down the Mesa leg of the light rail construction? Businesses along that corridor are going out of business right and left. Granted, it isn't the greatest area anyway, but the construction pushed all these places right over the edge. | |
|
| |
| |
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/7/2008 12:59:53 AM | Yeah, it's money wasted... and I'm sure the cities it goes through get a nice tax-break every year for being more environmentally friendly.
If they really wanted to do something, they'd build a rapid-transit system all along the freeways; like BART in the Bay Area of California. It would be so friggin easy it's stupid. Light rail isn't helping me get from Chandler to Paradise Valley, but if there was such a rapid transit system... I'd bike to the station, ride the train to Scottsdale, and bike to Paradise Valley. I wouldn't have to spend the money on gas, wouldn't sit in traffic, wouldn't encounter STUPID people on the road, and would be in much better shape because of the bike riding.
Other than helping druggies along Main Street in Mesa to expand their market-area, and helping Mormons easily commute from Phoenix to the Temple in Mesa... I don't see anyone who will benefit from light rail. Maybe it'll help take a few illegal aliens (or others who drive without drivers licenses and insurance) off the road if they live and work close enough to it, but I doubt it. Really, the light rail doesn't help anyone.
If this State was serious about helping commuters, they'd build a rapid-transit system like BART in CA. But these ***holes in the public works divisions of our local governments are idiots. I mean, they hire companies to do road-work and they put up hundreds of traffic cones... and then don't do ANY WORK for months. What kind of ***hole hires a company that's overbooked??? If they are not overbooked, I'd like to have a word with the "oversight" committee and tell THOSE ***holes to do their jobs.
If this State was serious about helping commuters... they wouldn't let companies put up road-blocks and wouldn't let them cone off entire lanes of traffic for miles and miles and miles... if they were not doing any work.
This State doesn't know a damned thing about how to help those of us who actually use the roads; they're too out of touch with reality.
--Brandon | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/7/2008 10:57:07 AM | very true. I came from southern california where they have the metro system set up. Omni an such. When the train system was built in Cali for public transit, it aleviated alot of the mass amounts of traffic in LA and the surrounding areas. Every few years, they expand it to include a little more of the state hoping to one day link the entire state in a mass transit system to eventually remove the necessity of so many cars. I loved it! i rode it from home, to school from school to work and so on! it went everywhere.
and when you bought a ticket... it was a day pass which included the bus system.
Did you know that this state had a choice between that type of mass transit system and the light rail?
| |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/7/2008 4:53:18 PM | Are you kidding me... and they chose light-rail??? wow
If this State really wants to be serious... serious enough to tout the public transit as a reason to move here to AZ... really wants to entice people to get off the roads and use public-transit... and if this State really wants a mass-transit system that will make a difference... then they need someone serious in office to ensure the future needs of this State are met. It seems to me that the current person is just there to reap a salary on some partisan party-agenda while not providing new ideas, or oversight, is not making a difference, and has no vision for the future. That's gotta end because nobody is benefiting from it, quite the opposite actually.
Very soon, people are either going to squeeze by purchasing EXPENSIVE gas and thereby run their cars into the ground by being unable to afford repairs... which will cause them to be forced to use public transit (if busses are still running with gas that high) when their cars are inoperable... or a lot of people are simply going to be unable to afford gas and will use public transit until busses can't afford to fill up without raising prices exponentially (like airlines are) and the price for a bus-ticket climbs to a crazy-ass price too. Either way, the future of costly commutes due to unaffordable gas is coming fast and our public transit systems are NOT ready for it; which means someone is sitting on their ass.
Why is this State so friggin far behind other States who's major cities already have successful mass-transit systems??? Do they not realize how bad off we're going to be when this fuel-crisis makes commuting impossible for the VAST majority of the people who live here??? When we lose our jobs because we can't commute and we're all fighting for jobs closer to home, income taxes will fall sharply, sales-taxes will fall sharply, properties will be forclosed FAR above the current pace, and the unemployment rate will be SO BAD that the illegals will go back to Mexico in search of jobs. What the hell are we going to do then??? Gas prices very well might drive this country into a depression and Arizona will be a ghost-town and Statewide dust-bowl of old dreams and lost hopes. You think people will want to live here with no jobs, high gas, high energy costs, and high heat??? Yeah right.
This State needs help... badly, because the future is dim without an affordable option to a costly commute coupled with poor public transit options.
--Brandon | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/7/2008 8:23:05 PM | Its not just the state thats corrupted and suffering. its down to local government. the reps we have are not clean and make no decision thinking past anything but the bottom dollar. the problem with this is exactly as you say. no one will want to not only take our state seriously, but live here in general.
I myself being from California, moved here for the lower cost of living and what I found was ignorance on my part. I'd thought that by moving here i'd be able to afford life better but what I hadn't realized is the economy alone is worse here than many other major more expensive cities. Take for instance, i could be easily making over $32,000 yearly for my lil job in california. Here... you don't want to know what I make but its vastly less and now that we've caught up to the horribly expensive living rates of other states, my pay has not gone up. We are an AT WILL (right to work aka right to fire for no reason) state. therefore they have no reason to pay my way.
I've lost my car a few years ago and know the mass transit system well here and I know for a fact that the bus passes have already risen and will do so again. Whats even worse, is commuters have no other alternative. That is how this state has screwed itself.
I've been offered a job in california making a hell of alot more money. After doing the numbers.. its almost looking like its worth moving back. | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 7/29/2008 1:34:05 AM | it really depresses me to come back here after spending the last 3 weeks over in Europe. I have been back there the last 3 years after living there in the late 80's/early 90's.
I love how you can get everywhere by train, subway, or above ground rail. I never have to worry about renting a car over there. | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 7/29/2008 1:35:18 AM | | I don't actually mind driving a short distance to get to it if it was convenient to get all the way over to the West side of town but I thought it was supposed to move at a relatively slow speed. | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 7/29/2008 2:32:37 PM | couldnt resist running down central ave last weekend (4am) with the top down -(dunlap to mcdowell). central is nearly put back together (with the exception of rails and metal sailboat sails sticking up in the street -wtf is that?), all the large trees and memories gone forever.
wish they would have carved up 7th ave or 7th st. instead of central. | |
|
azatc
|
Joined: 7/19/2008
Msg: 22 | |
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 8/2/2008 10:30:59 PM | Has any one thought of good promotional names for this boondoogle. I have. PHoenix Area Rapid Transit. That way we can be eco-conscious and PHART to work. Or we can help reduce the brown cloud hovering the city and PHART.
Lets just combine the bus system and be PHoenix Urban Bus And Rail. That way when we advertise are "great" transit system we can say it's PHUBAR. Tax payer money, going to nowwhere, and cost over runs...It's PHUBAR. | |
|
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 8/18/2008 7:54:02 AM | Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
My one stoplight town is looking purty swell after reading all of this. | |
|
| |
| What's the Light Rail For Again!?
Posted: 6/22/2009 7:41:28 PM | It gets some folks around. But , I'll let you in on a great date secret. Do the wine & snack date/tour.
There are a number of spiffy wine bistros in short walking distance from most stops. Maize's at Camelback, Switch at Vernon, Chevuront's at jsut past Mc Dowell, Boa Cafe at Mill & a few more I haven't discovered yet.
Your date will think you are the most creative person on the planet and as you get somewhat tipsy, you don't have to worry much about DUI (at least until you get back to your car at which point the Rail ride back should give you time to sober up). Plenty of time for conversation but, one caveat, if the date is going down in flames you have to wait until the next stop to scoot on back. So try not to be a dips**t. | |
|
Home
login 
